Monday, October 16, 2006

Temporary Shepherdess

While Chris is out of town for a few days, I'm feeding and watering her flock. There are six white sheep, who set up a great "baa-ing" as soon as they hear the car pull up....



a brown sheep and a llama...



and the goat.



The goat seems to have the most intelligent expression.

When I arrived in the morning yesterday, they all had frost on their backs, and I had to break up 1/2 inch of ice from their water trough, but today was milder. Even though they are pastured only about a quarter mile out of town it feels like real country; on a section of gravel road with open fields on one side that are backed by a wooded ridge, and trees on the other side for a short distance then marsh and beyond that the river. It feels peacefully miles and miles from anywhere.

2 comments:

CatBookMom said...

Thanks for the pix! I suppose there's a barn sort of thing for them when it gets really cold?? The sheep farm I stayed on on Salt Spring Island, BC, had a guard llama; does the llama serve as guard for the sheep there at your friends'?

Cindy G said...

There is a shelter for them, though Chris says they are more bothered by heat than cold. They were in it when I stopped by this afternoon, not because it was so cold, but because it was raining.
I wondered, too, whether the llama does guard duty. Actually, the llama came first, and the sheep later, and he hasn't really taken a very protective attitude. Like a certain cat I could mention (Baxter) he mostly gets by on his good looks.