farmin' follies

Or OPPS the creek's up.........
Well, was I bragging about the lush pasture on the other side of our creek?
Never never do that.
The water was down to about 4 or 5 feet wide and just inches deep. That was this morning.
At noon a sudden thunderstorm came in. I was out in the barn feeding bottle baby, and started with my best SHEEEEE....EEEEP! Usually when it starts raining the moms will come in with their lambs. So I held my ground in the barn thru some of the rain, then made a mad dash for the house jumping with every thunder-boom.
Last I saw, the ewes had settled down in the barn with their lambs to wait out the heavy stuff. When I went out to check after most of the thunder had passed, some of the lambs were lounging in the barn while their hard eating moms had gone back to the garden of eden for lunch.
I walked down to the creek. The upper creek had water just starting to run. It went down the west side of the fencing and into the main creek bed. But it didn't seem bad. There was a gravel bar inbetween the two branches of creek which come together there. Why would they put a road thru the very spot where two creeks come together. Well, that is just where it is.
So I checked the time....two thirty....I wanted to leave the moms out on good pasture for a couple of hours. So I came back in. At three I began to hear a lot of baaing I ran out the door to see if there was a problem. There was. The creek had gone up to cover part of the gravel bed, and the water the girls had to jump thru was now over a foot deep. Well....lambs are good jumpers, but some are not much more than a foot high.
I grabbed the good old grain bucket full of grain and went to throw grain on the ground at the gates across the creek. SHHHHHHeeeeep!
Some of the girls came with their lambs. But they had never seen that much water before. They were afraid to cross it. Just imagine a crowd of lambs and ewes on each side of the creek all yelling at once. My husband came wearing his boots. Unfortunately, the lambs are a little afraid of him, and the creek was still going up. So, generous and thoughtful husband that he is....he gave me his boots right there on the creek bank. I lent him my clogs....which he couldn't walk in....he stood his ground on the rocks. He let wet sheep into the home pasture....while I ran out in the water waving my magic bucket of grain under the sheeps' noses....Most of the moms ran out in the water, if they had lambs near by....the lambs made it too.
But I got to the end of the large baaing mass on the wrong side of the creek, and it was about twenty lambs and two moms. The moms didn't want to go into the water for grain. They wanted it where they were dry. The lambs didn't want any.... thank you....they wanted their mommys....and NOW!!!! I caught a few lambs and carried them across to safety, but I have no catch pen on the other side of the creek. I'll need one.... So I resorted to canine action....I got behind the little wet buggers and chased them across, a half dozen at a time. Git, git..GO! yahoo....! Splashing and baaing, they seemed to get over. I emptied the rocks out of the boots, and checked the pond for floating wool. Nope....no one fell in. I don't know why I think the lambs will fall into the pond....but I do.
Then I finally went back over the creek, and took off my husband's boots. One by one I emptied the water out where it had been over the tops of the boots, and gave them to my long-suffering mate. Who was really glad to see something to walk with....and really surprised at how wet they had gotten. Well, so much for running sheep fencing into wet weather creek beds. Guess I'll have to watch for downpours from now on.
I will admit it is never dull around here.
We laughed all the way to the house, saying we needed a full time photographer to record our antics. Don't you just love sheep?