Just got back from bringing the sheep, goats and Rose up to the Christmas Tree farm for a trial run. It went just as I expected. The goats all but ran me over to walk with me (or is it more like on top of me) and the sheep, knowing the way, did their thing, except, Gel was a jerk and ended up pushing them into the thick brush. Then he stood there looking at them until I got on him to move them. Dummy, he knows what he’s supposed to do. The sheep were tangled in the brush and not moving well, but still …
Gel is a reflection of me. If I’m off, he’s off. I’m off … I think I might be getting better, yesterday was a good example of that, but I’m still off. I think instead of getting frustrated with him and thinking he’s “broke” due to my inadequate training abilities (which is just what I’m thinking) (oh, that and he’s going deaf), that I’m just going to put him on the shelf as far as stock work goes. I don’t need him to move the sheep or goats back and forth. If I have to do it in two trips, I can take the goats and Rose up in one trip on my own, then come back and use Fern to take the sheep up. I don’t want the goats mowing Fern down, she’s too young for that sort of pressure and I really don’t need a dog to move them: hence the need for two trips.
When we went up this AM, I brought Esme with me. She’s becoming quite the trooper. Two of my cats came along too, one of the young kittens, Confetti and one of the adults, Ted. Poor Confetti figured out quite quickly that this wasn’t a good place for her. I caught her and carried her back down the hill, pointing her in the right direction and off she went. Ted caught up with us on the way down. He knows better than to go up there into the other cats’ territory, but he’ll follow and remain invisible until I had back home. Esme had fun racing Ted and Confetti down the hill. She did more tumbling and rolling than running, but she had fun.
Meanwhile, the goats are having a fit that I left them in a strange place. Hopefully they’ll settle. I tried to leave Rose with the sheep, but she escaped so I caught her and put her in with the goats. She’s more bonded to the goats than she is to the sheep. That’s a bit of a problem, but at night, when I need her to work, the sheep are in with the goats so it’s okay. When it comes time to graze them in ElectroNet, she has the utmost respect for ElectroNet and will stay in with them. I honestly don’t know if the goats will stay in ElectroNet or not. We’ll find out in the spring.