Making it Real and Back to the Future

Recently a friend whose ewes were getting really close to lambing, needed to sort said ewes out of a bunch of other sheep and move them to their lambing location that is more in-by. We showed up at the right time and the dogs and I helped to sort the groups. It was nice to put their training to work - making it real - in a helpful situation. We could have gate-sorted the sheep but that is hard on the gates and on my knees. So, I sorted them using a mini-international shed for all but the last few, who got gate sorted. First Ryme helped me to sort six training sheep out of the bunch and those were put away. Then we worked quite a while to sort yearling ewes out of the rest of the ewe "bunch".  This was a lot more difficult because some of the yearlings were really attached to the big group and kept running back to the older ewes. We got this part way accomplished, and Ryme was apparently getting tired. So I broke off and got Spot and gave Ryme a rest. Spot and I finished the job and we put the bred ewes in a pen to be loaded on the trailer and put the yearling ewes out in a pasture to graze. When you have a real job to do it makes it really clear why all the training we do is so important and not just being incredibly picky about clean flanks and stops.

Of course it was raining lightly during this chore and I suppose I should be glad that it was not just absolutely pouring. We are still having a record rain/weather year. It still feels like winter and we are more than halfway through April. It is a good thing that the bred ewes went to their lambing spot, that morning, because the first one delivered healthy twins, late that afternoon, and another ewe had a single, that night!

Back in my childhood we watched the Jetsons' cartoons on TV, and we were led to believe that commuting to one's workplace would eventually be accomplished in a blink of an eye in a space ship that traveled at the speed of light. Astro the space dog was often present in the passenger seat of the space ship. :-) Now in a similar fashion, my commute has been shortened to a few steps, because I have joined the ranks of the WFH set.  Back to the future, for me. It takes some getting used to and I have not fully made the adjustment, yet. The dogs gather around my work space and sleep, most of the day. So far only one conference call has been interrupted by a loud squeaky toy being tossed around, when I mistakenly thought my (soft) phone was muted. Back to the future. It's an odd combination, an ages-old tradition such as bringing ewes closer to home for lambing, and a Jetsons-like work experience.