In sickness and in convenience

It has been a rainy week. September is closing in, here in the Pacific Northwest, and bringing the first really sustained rains of the season. The duckpond is up to capacity, the rainbarrels likewise, or nearly. The farmers unfortunately fell prey to a seasonal affliction and consequently not a lot has happened over the past week.

The good news is that one half of the fenced pasture, with the bulk of the sheep (around forty) has in that week been largely cleared. Allowing for some losses, we can call it a third of an acre. This means that with roughly a hundred sheep we could clear an acre off undergrowth in roughly a week or ten days, should that be our goal.

At any rate, the scotch broom has been aggressively chewed, the blackberries heavily trimmed, and even the lower tree branches nibbled. The visibility within three feet of ground level has improved immensely - where it has been dense shrubbery it is now airy and open.

The lumpy ground enabled a few sheep to escape under the wire until we blocked that gap. There was another gap between two corner posts - ours and a neighbour's - and a lamb escaped there, but a few carefully placed bindings of baling twine block that gap now, and we have had no escapes since then.