Yesterday's shenanigans, for your amusement

Photos of today's characters:  Ruby; Bessie; Iris and Daisy; and Pig One and Two, who are coming towards the camera to say "hello" I couldn't stand it anymore.  Two little sheep, in a small little area, not able to get out to graze, eating dry hay instead of green grass, inside the barn instead of out in the sunshine....they had plenty of time to become friendly with us, but were still closed in an area smaller than a typical horse stall. So I re-worked the electric chicken fence (white netting on fiberglass poles) to give the sheep some grass area in the pasture when I let them out of their little enclosure in the barn. Newsflash:  They get scared VERY easily.  We tried to gently lead them.  Nope.  Shooing them towards the green grass?  No, and if there were more than 2 of them, it would have been a crazy stampede to get away from us and back into the barn.  As it was, two plump little rumps bounded quick-as-a-flash back to safety. After a few hours, they ventured out again and spotted the pigs, who were lazing in their sloppy, muddy, temporary pen (formerly known as the cow shelter).  The pigs are kept from digging under the two 8-foot gates with a strand of electric wire, which they keep forgetting about.  We've gotten to the point of shaking our heads in disbelief as they test that strand, yet again.....with their noses. Well, sheep and pigs started their lives at Dykstra Farm in two identical enclosures, right next to each other.  The pigs tried to make friends with the sheep.  The sheep watched the pigs.  Chickens, ducks, and geese all dashed to and fro past those enclosures, but only pigs and sheep were close enough to become acquainted. So, the sheep spotted the pigs in their new home and trotted over.  The pigs were immediately curious, and scrambled towards the sheep to eagerly say "hi".  And touched the electric wire with curious noses, AGAIN, and ran squealing away from the sheep.....who promptly turned tail and dashed back into the safety of the barn. Sheep (Iris and Daisy) came out again after calming down, and Daisy (the lamb born in April) decides to try to play with the chickens and ducks.  Chickens go squawking everywhere, while Daisy's goat-bell is jangling merrily as she frolics behind them and thinks this is great fun.  Iris is trying hard to be matronly, but she joins in the dashing around for just a little while. Later in the afternoon, the cows came out of their barn area, where they'd been taking shelter from the flies.  Grazing in the pasture, they spotted me.  Like usual, they trotted over.  Except that THIS time, there were two grayish white fuzzy creatures that the cows had not met before.  Bessie, ever-vigilant mother that she is, turned her big brown eyes away from me and focused on the two sheep who were finally grazing tentatively.  She picked up speed.  She knows enough not to challenge the electric netting, but the sheep didn't know she was going to stop.  Once again, a mini-stampede right back into the barn (past the pig pen, where the little piggies were turning excited circles at the sight of their buddies rushing past.) Now it was time for me to re-fill the livestock water tanks.  First the pigs' tank, where they positioned themselves just underneath the eventual overflow of water, with mouths wide open to catch whatever water might chance to flow right into their gullets. Then, the cows' larger water tank, which brought the cows trotting over.  Bessie was already out-of-sorts, from the flies bothering her, to the sheep unexpectedly being in HER pasture, and now, as she drank the fresh water, little goldfish came up and nibbled on her whiskers, causing her to lose concentration and have to start slurping all over again. (Yes, you read that right.  Goldfish in the water tank.  I bought 10cent goldfish to put in both tanks, to eat the mosquito larvae and the algae.  Only one has died, out of 2 dozen, and they are thriving!) Bessie, distracted by goldfish nibbling her whiskers, goes to drink water at the other end of the trough, and smells the hog feed (corn) that they have spilled, just out of her reach.  Her big brown eyes focus on snuffling piggies, her ears perk forward, and she investigates, ready to reverse direction at the drop of a hat. The pigs want to be friends, and come close to (but not quite touching) the electric wire.  Bessie snuffles on the other side of their gate, and then Ruby joins in, both cows on tip-toe for a quick escape if they sense danger. Sure enough, Big Pig One sees the wire, sniffs the wire, decides that this is the time that it will NOT shock him, wants to become friends with these two huge black and white beasts, works his snout AROUND the wire, and then gets shocked.  Both pigs squeal.  Pigs take off into the deep shade of the former cow-shelter, cows take off to the other side of the silo. The sheep are no-where to be seen at this point, having chosen to avoid any more surprises in the big barnyard.  Pig One and Two are in the very back corner of their temporary quarters.  Bessie and Ruby are supposedly safe from the squealing monsters on their side of the silo.   It was a fairly traumatic day, if you were a cow, sheep, pig or chicken. Laura http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/