A long, messy afternoon!

A couple of days ago we decided it was time to bring all of the sheep in, drench them all (lambs included) and draft off the sale ewes. This we did.

However, we needed to move the sheep and lambs through two paddocks before pushing them into the paddock with the yards in it. We had to leave one ewe behind as she had lambed only a couple of days beforehand and I didn't want her to go into the yards and risk her lamb getting injured in the squash up!

So, with the help of my husband on the quad bike, and Jock, we proceeded to try and bring them up. Jock hadn't had much work due to all the ewes lambing recently and the fact that most of our property is without grass and under water and soggy. We don't tend to do much with the sheep during these times, and as it is starting to get really cold, I don't want the dog chasing the sheep around and running any fat off them.

Well, Jock had his ears painted on. I must say that I lost my temper with him a couple of times, and had to yell quite a bit. In the end, he settled down, burnt off his excess energy and enthusiasm, and started working solidly. He brought all of the ewes up quietly and with some help from the kids, we pushed the sheep into the yards.

After drafting off the sellers, I used Jock to take them to the other side of the property into the sale paddock (this has good grass and is usually kept for fattening). He worked quite well but was still a bit disobedient. When this was done, we went back to the yards to take the second group back to their paddock. We had to retrieve the ewe and lamb we had left behind and push her back into the mob, but Jock had trouble seeing her due to it getting dark quite quickly.

In the end, with all of us tired and a lot muddier than we started out, we got the job done and got to rest for the night.

Jock did the job, and although it was a help, he certainly wouldn't have won any awards for his efforts!