A humbling moment (featuring 28 sheep and one bucket of grain)

Hi everyone,

As you all know, I have three sheepdogs here at Lucky Dog Farm: Meg, Bess, and Gyll. I work all of them every day, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Yesterday, it was Gyll’s turn to bring our flock of 28 down from a bale-grazing paddock.

Hoo boy.

In hindsight, it may have been a bit ambitious for this early in the season, given her experience. The sheep, for their part, are fully intoxicated by the sight—and smell—of fresh grass. They’re behaving like a pack of eight-year-olds at an Easter egg hunt, racing from clump to clump and largely ignoring Gyll altogether.

Which, naturally, made her frantic. She responded by charging in, scattering them even more.

So I turned to the oldest trick in the book: a bucket of grain.

I called Gyll off, grabbed the bucket, and gave it a shake. That’s when I made mistake number two—I seriously overestimated how quickly I could get that grain to the feeder.

Within seconds, I was in the middle of a full-on rugby scrum, with me as the ball. Knocked down, stepped on, and thoroughly overrun by 28 sheep—all far more agile than I am—determined to get their share.

Gyll stood off to the side, watching intently, no doubt wondering what on earth I was doing and why I was suddenly on the ground.

I really, really wish someone had filmed it.

I eventually managed to throw the bucket as far as I could (which wasn’t very far, under the circumstances), but it was enough to redirect the chaos. I staggered back to my feet—nothing hurt but my pride. And honestly, even that recovered pretty quickly once I saw the humor in it.

Just another normal, glamorous day here on the Farm.

—Happy Spring, Farmer Judith