Ashley and Acorn (or, in Phil's words, Sheep 1 and Sheep 2)

In my spare time (usually when feeding the baby, or when I wake in the night and can’t fall back to sleep), I’ve been reading a bit about herbalists. It intrigues me a great deal, figuring out how to use the plants around me to soothe emotions or heal a wound. One interesting experiment I read about was to blindfold a person, then have another person lead them to a tree. The blindfolded individual touches, smells, feels the tree, and then is led back to the starting place. When the blindfold is removed, apparently the person invariably selects the tree he or she touched. Interesting, huh? (I haven’t tried this yet.)

After several days of more “intensive parenting” (which may or may not include corporal punishment), the boys got up happy and playful. And played happily with each other all day. What a wonderful thing to witness. Psalm 133 in action: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Ahh.

I tried to think of good names for the sheep. The taller one, the full-blooded Dorset, I think is named Ashley. She is much more brave than her fellow ewe. I was thrilled today, because I brought some hay into their paddock and sat on my haunches. I threw a bit in front of Ashley, who ate it. Then she gradually came near enough to eat some out of my hand. Then I showed her my other hand and was able to pet her face and behind her ears. It wasn’t a long contact, but it was a good start, I think. Good for her!

Her fellow ewe is much more plump. Since her sole distinguishing mark is her girth, I didn’t think it would be nice to name her with a person name. But she is round, and should have a better fleece, so I named her Acorn. I don’t expect to be able to get a hand on Acorn for some time.

We are talking about fencing options. I had hoped not to do a boundary fence, but all I’m hearing and reading says that I MUST do a boundary fence. The debate now is whether to do woven wire (less expensive, but hard to install, and probably not really suited to our hilly, forested terrain) or cattle panels (much more expensive, about $1 per linear foot, but easy to install, easy to move, and, if a tree limb falls on one, you replace that one 8’ section, and don’t have to restring the entire length of woven wire).

Maybe you can tell, but I’m more for the cattle panels, more expensive though they may be.

Sadly, neither of those options will be enough for the orchard: we’ll need something even greater there for deer deterrent.

There is also the debate about how much land to do: just the clearing? The entire acreage on our side of Hog Creek? I think the clearing would be enough for now. We’ll see.