Thank the Good Shepherd...

...for safe sheep! Yesterday morning I set my alarm so I could get up and go jogging before church. I truly dislike getting up in the dark, but when the day length is so short, it's that or often nothing. SO, I got up and got dressed, and in the process happened to glance out our bedroom window. There, in the predawn gloom, were my sheep, wandering around on the driveway near the barn! My first thought was that something had tried to get them in the night and in their panic, they had managed to get out of their nighttime quarters. But they looked okay, and when I got down to the barn, I saw that their pen gate was wide open and their evening hay was untouched. Obviously, Rick had forgotten to shut their gate after bringing them in with alfalfa pellets, and they had been free all night!

I stifled the thoughts of what COULD have happened in the night, and put the girls in their pasture with an early breakfast. They were wet from fog and heavy dew and not terribly hungry after being free to browse, but otherwise fine. I told each of them -- and the Lord -- how thankful I was that they were okay.


Did you notice my quick and dirty adaptations of Jim and Susie Sizemore's wonderful hay feeder design (see "Enjoyable visits" under Previous Posts)? I was tired of how much hay the girls waste, and don't know when we will get their new fold completed with it's copy of the Sizemores' feeder. So I rigged these up with pieces of plywood, "ball bungies," and an extra piece of fencing panel (to make the openings smaller) for the pasture feeder. I'm very happy with how they are working!

That's it for now at . . .