SHEEP! And finally, a pic of our shepherd!

I've been asked in my comments for a picture of our shepherd but until today I've never had the opportunity.

I was watching a DVD and suddenly - SHEEP...and LAMBS!!!!!!!! right out my window. (All of these photos were taken from inside my living room.)


I went for my camera. I love new lambs - cute overload!

There were so many of them.

I watched as the shepherd's son moved them away from the street and I wondered if they'd be setting up camp overnight.


When they visit my field, they stay a couple of days and he sets up a temporary fence.

The neighbors did not set out a straw puppet (a symbol for "no sheep please" so I hoped they'd stay.

There he is with two dogs, a lamb, and a 32 year old Icelandic horse in the background that I did not notice until just now.





They did not stay but I was able to see how they moved them, something I've always been curious about. How do they communicate "move on" to the sheep - and where, and how do they control their movements from field to field, using streets. (Again this photo was taken through my living room window. I love my new camera!)





I was rapt. His wife, a shy, sweet woman who I really like, got into their jeep with horse trailer behind and started driving down our street. The sheep immediately reacted. (Note: I always wonder what is in the horse trailer. Why do they pull it?)



They followed the jeep+horse trailer! The baby lambs stumbled along over the molehills, and the shepherd took up the rear. He had two dogs tied to his belt (he told me his in-training dogs are observers) and one or two loose, but they didn't do much except stay back with him. The sheep just knew to follow the rig to the next field.

And later when I looked at my photos I saw my neighbors, the terrier people peering through their windows of their home at the sheep below them.

My man said we should have the sheep over again but I reminded him that they already did us a favor this year of trimming and fertilizing our field in winter. They did a great job this year, we had them at just the right moment for them to take down the last of the unruly leftover hay-grass.

Looking through my photo folder, I came across this next. Here is my man's favorite drink, favorite pet, and favorite fun website.

Tomorrow Carsten comes to "schlep" our field (drag). I look foward to this so much I cannot say, I'm so sick of looking at mole hills (a protected species here, amazingly as they seem to have no predators and proliferate in every available meter of land.)

Speaking of protected species, tonight as I went out to feed Baasha, I encountered a spiny visitor. I ran back in the house, "There's a donkey in our yard!" and my man said, "A donkey?" Yes, a donkey! and he came out and said, "A hedgehog!" Oops, wrong word. Hedgehog. Odd creature, please move along. I didn't get a photo because he heard me and really did move along. Slowly and comically. I'd never seen a hedgehog until Germany.