I first shared photos and a sheep story in the November 9 blog post. The sheep were brought in to graze the alfalfa Across the Road November 4 and were there until December 14. Now I have another story to tell about this flock and the grazing operation, but I should at least finish the part of the story that was right across the road two months ago.

I often walk Across the Road with Ginny, but during this month I didn’t walk there very much. That was mainly because I didn’t want to cause any trouble with the guardian dogs that were on duty, but maybe also because that was the month it was so miserably foggy and dreary. It’s not foggy in this photo but it is a good example of how thoroughly the sheep grazed each paddock before they were moved to the next.

One morning I was checking the fence in our pasture when I saw the sheep being moved away from the main road back to where they had been farther back in the alfalfa. I assumed they had gotten out during the night and wandered out on the road and now they were being herded back. The next day I realized that I interpreted that scene wrong.

That morning, about two weeks after the sheep had first arrived I saw this scene from the southeast corner of our property. This wasn’t the same flock, but another being trailed up the road.

They had been grazing another property and were being moved to the one near us, as had the sheep the day before.

They turned the corner onto the road along the canal and were herded to a paddock further to the east.

This is the fencing that the herder moved to set up new paddocks when it was time for the sheep to move.

The three flocks were kept separate. I counted from about 180 to 220 ewes in the groups. That’s not counting the lambs.

That was from a distance with binoculars, but I later confirmed with the owner that was about right.

Eventually they moved to the alfalfa right across the road from us.

If I went to the mailbox the guardian dog came alert.

One of the flocks moved to south of the canal.

The other two were north.

My flock grazed just across the road. It’s a very different scale of management.