Finally, a rainy day!

After what seemed like forever, its finally raining.  Granted its probably only been 2-3 weeks but for the past several years, we've been blessed with fairly consistent moisture.  There were times "blessed" wouldn't have been my choice of words however.  But with winter coming on, the grass has completely stopped growing and I think we could have gotten a bit more growth if it had rained some.  It might be too late now, we'll see. 

This was actually the first rain since our bargin 3 sided shelter arrived so I was anxious to see if anyone was using it.  When I got home, it was just lightly drizzling and everyone was still out grazing in the pasture.  So I rush in as usually and change out of my work clothes...into my, well, WORK clothes and throw on my trusty water proof wool hat (it really is water proof!) and rain coat and out I go (oooh!  there was a bit of rolling thunder just now!!).

First stop was to feed Willie, he's guarding the main breeding group in the "pond pasture".  I had just finished creating an alleyway into the unused garage that we decided to turn into a sheep shelter so I wanted to see if anyone was using it.  However, when I walked thru the gate, everyone was outside still grazing.  Then it started to rain more heavily and Amy (who I sheared in late summer because her fleece was showing the wear of raising twins) was the first to race into the garage, everyone else on her heels.  Yeah! I thought.  It really is rewarding when you do something for their comfort and they actually USE it.  So here they are all huddled in their new digs.

Willie was reluctant to go in to the alley, he seemed to think there was a catch.  "Oh no", he said (really, he did), "I'm not falling for that one!"  Then he watched as the girls and Teddy went racing in and he had that silly look on his face like, "yeah, I knew it was ok, I was just foolin with ya".  He can be one of the funniest dogs sometimes.

Whatchu lookin at??

Next stop was feeding Bella and Ollie who are currently guarding the non breeders in the east pasture where the new 3 sided shelter is.  I could see Bella looking longingly into the red barn, looking for a hole big enough to crawl thru (there should be plenty of those) so I knew she hadn't been to the shelter, she was drenched.  I fed Kit in the barn and then went out to feed the dogs.  Bella was there but I didn't see Ollie.  I called and called but he didn't show.  Dangit I thought, he must've gotten out somewhere.  So I start walking down to the shelter because I had intended to start feeding the dogs there in hopes they'd start using it and then maybe the sheep would follow suit.  So I'm just about over the crest of the hill, Bella is following reluctantly but I do have the food and bowls so she sticks with me.  I'm still calling for Ollie and then I see him.  He was in the shelter!!  Yeah!  I tell him what a good boy he was because there are also some sheep in it as well.  I put their food down and Bella just isn't sure about this thing.  She still refuses to go in so I put her food  just inside and she continues to eat in the rain.  You can lead an LGD to shelter but you can't make them go in :).

Wow, it is really throwing it down right now!  With the new metal roof on the house, you can hear the rain much better.  I like that, its soothing.  Hail might be a different story...