Have you ever looked at something that needed done and said ‘I’ll get to that later.’? Have you ever regretted not taking care of that something when you first noticed it? I did just that this afternoon while I was doing chores.
There was a section in the ram’s fence that they had pushed the bottom out of. You know the saying ‘the grass is greener on the other side’… well, they were trying to reach that green grass. Instead of fixing it or having my husband fix it the ‘right’ way, I tucked it back and had forgotten about it. Until I headed out to do chores tonight and there was Reno schmoozing with one of the ewe lambs. Luckily, there was a fence between the two of them, but still…he wasn’t where he was supposed to be! My first thought was, how in the world did you get there? I didn’t see any holes in the fence and Wrangler was still in the pasture, so my first thought was he jumped the fence, but it didn’t seem likely. As I scanned the fence I quickly found a big hole at the bottom, right where the problem was that needed to be fixed. The really scary thing is that this hole led out to the driveway, out to the road! I am so thankful the cute little ewe lamb enticed him to turn left instead of right.
If it had been any other ram, I would have been a little concerned with getting him away from the ewe lamb and back into the correct pasture by myself, but this boy has such a nice temperament! I slowly walked up to him with my hand out stretched and he stood there and let me scratch his chin, he then let me walk him (very reluctantly) back to his pasture. I then grabbed a hog panel and fixed the fence 🙂 I will not be putting projects like that off! Thank goodness he didn’t head towards the road!
The other lesson I learned was to double triple check the gates in the barn before I head back to the house. As I walked into the barn to feed the ewes, I noticed that my wheelbarrow was knocked over – weird…I then noticed sheep poo in the aisleway – uh oh!!! Sure enough there were sheep on the hay pile…naughty girls. I was sure I locked the gate when I left last night and I was more than willing to blame the barn sprites, but I guess I could have just swung it without double checking that it locked. Luckily, the grain was all locked up and they didn’t make that big of a mess.
Infiniti says that she had NOTHING to do with it!
A bunch of pregnant girls and a bag of grain could have spelled disaster!
Hopefully my lessons learned will help you!
Stories from the Farm 
You are so right about putting off something only to find out the hard way the job should have been done right away. I am saddened by the times I have put something off only to find my animals were the victims of my neglecting needful things right away.Fortunately, most of these times ended like yours, easily remedied. Good reminder Shannon, and of course I am sure Infiniti had nothing what so ever to do with the hay escapade, she was probably busy looking for the grain you did remember to lock away.
I feel you about the gates…it usually gets me when I go in one gate and out the other…but my mares don’t seem to mind…only my Mom when she has to wrangle them up at 4:30 in the morning.