....have gone astray

So the fields are in winter mode now. We had frost earlier in the month, and nothing but rain recently. But we did manage to clear another area, creating a new paddock that grass seed will be scattered on in the Spring. 

Not much to look at yet

It's nothing much to look at now, just a patch of earth, but we're hoping it will open up more space for trees and sheep.Getting it done was straightforward, since we know someone who's good at this kind of thing (Richard, by contrast, is still struggling with getting a rain butt installed to take water off the roof of the sheep shed).




What could have been a problem is that we needed to keep the sheep away, because machinery for grubbing up the brambles was being driven through. And we did, honest. Sarah got them behind a shut gate the previous night, only to find in the morning that they had got out and were in their usual place for feeding, which happened to be just where the mini-digger was going to drive through.

A troupe of limbo dancers

The gate was still shut, so we think they must have got underneath it. These animals are clearly much more agile than most sheep. It occurred to both of us, while singing Messiah,  and especially All We Like Sheep, that going astray must have been much more common with older breeds, because they're much more inclined to go mountaineering, and less likely to get stuck if they're on their backs.


We don't know if there's any such discipline as biblical agriculture, but the kind of flocks being watched over by night must have been more like Soays than modern wool-producers. Would have made shepherding a 24-hour job. Angels must have been light relief.

And oh yes, the digger went through anyway.