Escape to Greener Pastures
June 14th, 2013 · 4 Comments · Posted in farming
Born free, as free as the wind blows….
Wouldn’t you know it. I was walking out the door to re-install my newly repaired electric fence charger yesterday afternoon when I noticed my sheep where not at all where I had last left them. No, they had skipped the uncharged temporary fence and were noshing on the grass some distance away.
For more than a week, ever since lightning blew the charger, this had been my worst fear: that the sheep would get wise to my fencing dilemma and escape from their enclosure. They’ve been trained since wee tots to respect the electrified boundary. But once they discovered they could touch it without getting zapped, they just got bolder and bolder. At least three times I had rescued one ewe who kept getting her head caught in the netting as she reached for juicer foliage on the other side. Apparently, it had happened again, but this time she’d pulled two fence posts out of the ground allowing the others to escape. And how had she managed to wriggle herself free? I wondered.
Stay calm, I told myself. The sheep aren’t running away. There’s got to be a way get them fenced in again. In a moment, I turned and I trotted down to the tool shed to get the feed bucket and see just how attached to that bucket they are. Luckily, it worked. I banged on the bucket. I rattled the bucket. Pretty soon the sheep–all but one–were running to catch up to me as I crossed the open fields toward their permanent, gated paddock. Grain! they thought. They were bedazzled by the prospect of a little snack.
That one sheep kept heading in the wrong direction. though. Apparently, she was still too respectful of the temporary fencing to jump over the part that was laying almost on the ground. After locking the others in their pen, I went back for her. Tentatively, she followed me as I peeled back a portion of the temporary netting to create an opening. But she was less interested in me than in finding her campanions. She’d wander off course, bleating for them. They’d bleat back; she’d try a new direction. Eventually, I got her to pay some attention to the feed bucket and follow me until she was finally reunited with the herd.
In fact, the fence charger had come back from repairs sooner than I’d expected. Of course, I had to drive nearly 20 miles to a feed store in Bennington, VT, to get it. This morning, with everything more or less back to normal again, I was all set to install it and get our fences electrified again. But guess what? Now the outdoor electrical outlet where I plug in the charger isn’t working. Do troubles always have to happen in three’s?
Looks like I’d better stop writing and get to the hardware store.
ALL (even part-time) employees at ALL (yes, all) of our local hardware stores and TSC stores know my husband on a first-name basis. I don’t know about things happening in 3’s, but yes, it is always something! (paraphrasing Gilda Radner).
Seventeen dollars later, the cost of a 20-amp GFCI replacement outlet, we are back in business, Diana. The sheep remember what it’s like to be zapped by the temporary fencing. And I now know how to take apart the electrical components that power our fence charger. Peace is restored.
Just another day on the farm, Ed!
Most days are a lot less eventful, Diane.