This post was originally going to just be about falling trees, but last week I had a frightening reminder of the fact that rams can be very dangerous, especially in breeding season. Things have been really busy on the farm but it was time to take the ram out of the ewe's pasture. I had a free half hour Friday morning, and luckily was able to smoothly separate the ram (and his whether buddy, Pepper) from the ewes, while also putting the ewe lambs back in with the flock. I put the ram & Pepper in an adjacent pasture because that was the easiest thing to do, even though I KNEW it wasn't the best idea. Sure enough, I went up the next morning to find the ram, having broken through a panel, back in with the ewes. I was desperate to get him out before he bred one of the lambs, so I climbed the gate and ran around the outside of the paddock to the small gate, yelling down to the house for my daughter to come help me. With her help, we were able to eventually get all of the ewes through the gate, keeping the ram on the other side. He then went berserk and starting ramming the fence. I yelled to my daughter to jump back over the fence into the yard for safety, while I ran down & opened the big gate to the outer pasture for the flock to go through & then shut those gates behind them. The ewes would hopefully go on across the creek as usual, where they would be out of sight and smell of the ram. This whole time I was fearful the ram was going to break down the fence to where I was. However, we were able to get Pepper back in with the ram who then calmed down somewhat, and after a bit more work, we were able to move them into our usual ram pasture - well away from the ewes. We used up a bit of adrenaline that morning!
Here's the bit about trees; this seems to be the year of large trees falling. I heard what sounded like an explosion last August that seemed to go on for minutes. When I went out in the pasture to look, I found this huge old oak, hollow in the middle, that had cracked and fell on what was a sunny, windless day. Luckily for us it didn't require an immediate fence repair as it stayed balanced on the trunk.
This very large beech fell across our 50' creek last spring; all the floods undermined the roots until it came down, taking a couple of smaller trees across the creek down with it.
This big tree also came down on a sunny, still day for no apparent reason. It, however, took the fence down with it so a bit of repair work was needed. Life on the farm - it goes on & is rarely dull.
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