Moving the Sheep

Hello everyone, it is that time of year when we start moving our sheep into a neighbouring pasture.  For several  years we have taken advantage of our neighbour's fields to provide our sheep with some additional pastures for grazing.  This helps to protect our pastures and also saves our neighbours the work of mowing their fields.  This is a relatively easy task as the entry to the field is directly across from our farm lane.  For our adult sheep this is always exciting in part because they know that when they cross into that pasture their will be grain waiting for them.  For our lambs though it is a little stressful as they have not yet figured out that when the gate is open they are supposed to follow their mommies!

So for the first few days we end up with our ewes and many lambs on in a pasture on one side of the road and some other lambs left behind at our farm.

The lambs that stay behind congregate at the fence and start bawling.

And bawling.

They are quite vocal.

And I must say surprisingly loud.  It only takes a few days for the lambs to learn that if they stay with the flock they will all end up together.   We only leave the sheep across the road for a few hours each day before bringing them back home again.

 While the lambs were embarrassing themselves I was busy in the garden with my assistant Chantalaria.  She is quite a grumpy cat but if the dogs are not out she likes to follow me.  Last weekend she followed me all the way to Lake Ophelia and we had to carry her back.  

I dont know what this it but it is blooming in various parts of the garden and lawn.

This unfortunately I know far too well.  Aegopodium is a dreadfully invasive plant that I received from the neighbouring farm many years ago.  Although I was warned that it was not well mannered I foolishly thought that it would be a great plant for the shady area under our large maples and for the first couple of years it seems that the transplants barely survived.  Now however it has spread aggressively and our attempts to eradicate it have failed.  This year I will be carefully forking it out and then covering the entire area with heavy black plastic to try to smother it.  Unfortunately it seems that there is no easy to way to get rid of it and once it takes hold the best one can hope for is to keep it to a minimum.  Dear fellow gardeners if you havent already had this experience please avoid the awful plant at all cost!

~Enjoy your week and thank you for visiting!~