31 CommentsShare: |
Subscribe
Sheep are great mowers.
They even trim. In the foreground, you can see the most recent section of pasture the sheep have been mowing. Beyond is the first section, beginning to grow back. This week, fencing was finished on the third pasture, which had gotten quite high. They can now be rotated through three pastures, giving each field plenty of rest time to grow back. You gotta love the free food of spring and summer and fall. (We made the rookie mistake of being unprepared this past winter with adequate hay and had to scramble. We’ll do better this year. We’ve already lined up our sources of free and low-cost hay for the animals for this winter.)
The sheep have been salivating to get into this new pasture, into the tall, tall grass.
They’ve got a lot of mowing and trimming to do over there.
They got to work right away. (They’re just taking a break here. This yard work gig is exhausting.)
Every homeowner in every suburban neighborhood needs a sheep or two. Then they could get rid of their lawnmowers and weed-eaters.
Wait–
That’s not a sheep.
Oh, yeah. YOU DON’T KNOW JACK.
Naming a male donkey Jack is like naming a dog Dog, but Jack came with that name and we kinda like it. We like Jack, too. Jack was free to a good home, and we are that home.
A lot of our animals have been free. If you let people know you’re interested in acquiring animals, next thing you know, it might be raining donkeys. There are plenty of reasons people sometimes need to find new homes for their animals, including simply not being in a good position to be able to take care of them anymore. Jack’s owners heard about us through Faye at the little store in town. We got a call and they came to check out our farm then we went to meet Jack. You should have seen him being loaded up. He demonstrated the definition of stubborn with two steps forward and one step backward. It took a lot of convincing and bit of shoving to get him on the truck.
Jack is 12 years old. (Miniature donkeys can live to be 20 or 30 years old.) He’s not gelded. He’s very sweet and tame and he loves treats. I love Jack. Maybe someday, when Pocahontas is old enough, she can love him, too, and they can make miniature donkey babies together. In the meantime, Jack has a job.
He’s guarding the sheep in the bottom pastures.
That’s right. Jack’s in charge of the sheep.
Good luck with that, Jack.
