Sheep and snow

The sheep have been huddled up in the back lot of the 'hundred farm for the past two months. Since I wake up at unspeakable hours and with nothing to fill my time other than planning things that can't be planned, or waiting 20 minutes for the engine block of the truck to warm up; I take this time to walk down towards the farm and check on the animals, and make sure that all of them have water sources that aren't completely iced over. I've come to enjoy the way that the sheep are terrified of a human in their pen. I realize that that statement sounds a bit sadistic, but for my part the enjoyment comes from the psychology of it.

There is definitely an alpha ewe that all of the herd takes their cue from, including the ram. I'll hop over the fence in the horse lot and just wait. At first they all scatter back into the barn and wait. After ten or so minutes this ewe will pop her head out of the barn to see if I'm still there. She sees that I'm sitting in a snow bank just waiting for them to continue munching on the hay, or over by the water tank paling out some fresh water...either way I don't pose a threat to the flock. She'll come out and eye me up and down, saunter around the hay bale that is still frozen from the first cold snap, and stop three feet from me. At this point I give a call of "sheep", which the flock from the '5o farm understand and recognize, and come up to me expecting corn. I scratch some noses, hold out my hand that has some corn in it and watch the alpha ewe. She still hasn't warmed up to me, and I've been doing this routine since prior to Thanksgiving.

This morning though was different. We had another storm come through and the sheep were all in the barn to start the morning. I hopped the fence and landed on my rear in a snow drift, which wasn't very graceful. I got up cussing the snow, the cold, and the ice, and looked up to see the ram staring me in the eye balls. That was a bit unnerving let me tell you what. I "sh-ed" at him trying to back him up and he just blew steam through his nose. More unnerving. Finally after a couple of minutes I stamped my foot at him and scared him back a couple of feet, enough room to hop on the fence-line if I needed to. He snorted again and went over to the hay bale to munch on the frozen goodies.

I walked over to the barn to check on the rest of the flock and saw all the ewes and the weather in the stall. This is a bit unusual for this flock, and very much out of character. I took a quick head count and made sure they were all there, then walked into the stall. At that point all but one freaked out and made a bee-line for the door which I apparently was in the way of. If you ever get the chance to get run over by nine sheep...don't. They stink, they're heavier than they look, and their little hooves hurt. Also, they like to defecate when they're scared. Not fun. I went over to the one ewe - the alpha- that didn't get up to make sure that everything was ok. She was shaking and snorting with her eyes rolling this way and that. Now, I'm not trained in any vet practices, and while I knew that my boss, and the 'hundred supervisor were both awake, I didn't want to call them at pre-sunrise asking for advice. I figured, by the symptoms - not moving, shaking, wild eyes, dry nose - that something was wrong and I assumed that it was cold related. So I opened up the house, got some blankets - not the pretty ones, blankets that the Dom. Sup. has in the upstairs - and a warm bowl of water. Brought that out to the ewe, went to the crib and got some cracked corn for her to munch on.

I ended up waiting with her for 3 hours before the 'hundred Ag. Sup. came out to do chores in the morning. By that time she had stopped with the wild eyes, and was back up on her feet. But she still didn't want to go out of the barn to the rest of the flock. T came in and asked me what was going on, I summed up the situation as there was too much to explain - nor did I want to relate my embarrassing entrance. He told me I should have called him, as his wife was taking the day off since the girls didn't have school/daycare because of closings. While we were talking that ewe was following us through the sheep lot like a puppy dog. She was never more than two feet from my right leg while T and I were talking.

Moral of the story is: when it is negative degrees, don't go outside if you don't have too. Also, body heat saves lives.

Buck