The Lazy Gather

A need to get some sheep in and treat them for lice. They were running on an enclosed piece of hill ground alongside cattle. The cattle are fed on silage, which is laid out on the ground for them each morning. The sheep can't help themselves when a free bite is on offer and they come forward to share the fodder with the cattle.

A lazy mans approach, but it was hoped all the sheep may have congregated with the cattle, if this was the case it wouldn't be necessary to bounce around the hill ground on the quad to gather everything in.

So it was then that old Glen and I cut some corners and collected this bunch of sheep from where they were sharing a bale of silage with the cows.

Glen soon encouraged the sheep to leave the tasty silage behind and do as they were told, gather up in a bunch and move where they were required to move to.

All was going well until we had this obstacle to pass through. Just a gateway, but the brakes were engaged, sheep did not want to move forward.

Poor old Glen found himself having to do some leg work as sheep tried to break back to whence they had come. Whichever side the dog ran to saw sheep trying to break away on the other side. He had his work cut out for a while.

Eventually one kindly soul decided to head through the gate, it only takes one, the others will soon follow.

Glen still acted as back stop, ensuring no sneaky creature got a chance to turn back.

The sheep were streaming away across the next field whilst the last few were tip toeing through the gateway.

The gateway in question. The reason the sheep were reluctant to go through it. A huge puddle across the width of the gateway which had also been frozen. The bike, on the journey out to get the sheep, had broken through the ice but the sheep were more concerned about getting there feet wet than anything else, they really don't like clarty gateways.

The next gateway was drier and sheep were willing to go through it. Upon reaching the sheep pens the sheep were counted. 212 was the number I arrived at and upon enquiring how many there ought to be I was told 212 - great news! It meant the lazy gather had been succesful, there were no sheep left out on the hill ground, all were accounted for. The ploy had worked and had saved a lot of time in the process.

A couple of hours in the pens and home they headed, far more enthusiastic to go through the clarty gateway this time, in main due to the fact that this direction was taking them home.

I shot forward to open the gate onto the hill, the one which had been closed to ensure the cattle didn't wander away in, whilst Glen quietly followed on, he had no hard work to do, these sheep were heading for home, knew where they were going, didn't need steering or encouraging just needed Glen to gently wander along behind them. He was happy in his work.

Moss the sheepdog has a birthday

Yup - Happy Birthday Moss. 20th January 2006 was the day when Grip (his mother) gave birth to her litter of three pups, one of these pups being Moss, one of the others became Kales mother a few years later.

GRIP

Moss' father was Tyne, my dog, the only responsibility Tyne took in the fatherhood thing was when he shared an hour or two with Grip in the back of a Landrover, he came out smiling and that was it. Not like the human race, where the male is supposed to be supportive, Tyne had an easy life, until that is a little fluffy bundle turned up at Shep's house!

TYNE

Was due to the kindness of the out bye shepherd that Moss came about, a desire to keep my bloodlines going saw me being given the opportunity to line a bitch with Tyne. Tyne was clocking on at this stage, it was an opportunity I was extremely grateful of and a succesful one at that.

So here he is, 6 years on, middle aged, at his prime and about to go past it. Hard to believe it is six years - time doesn't half seem to fly.

Moss is very similar to his father in appearance, his leg markings are a mirror image of what Tynes were, if one ear didn't stick up he would look almost identical facially to how his father looked. As for character wise........ well, he possesses the same strong will, but is no where near the dog his Dad was. Don't get me wrong, he is a fine fella, but he isn't quite as hard as Tyne was, he is capable of turning off sheep if he feels threatened where as Tyne would never back down. Moss did unfortunately get bashed by a Swaledale ewe in his youth and I do believe this has caused his 'yellow' streak. Having said all that though Moss is still a more than capable hill dog and just like his father he is just a bit strong in fields, he needs a good outrun to knock the wind out of his sails!

Unlike Glen, Moss is beginning to show his age, grey is beginning to show on his face. A kind face it would seem, however this is not always the case.

Moss is a very fortunate dog. As a pup of 5 months of age he bit someone, not a play bite - a real bite, with needle sharp puppy teeth. Unfortunately last year, five years on since his last misdemeanor he once again bit someone, in fact the same person. It was malicious and uncalled for. He is indeed a very lucky dog.

It is of little consolation to me that Moss only seems to like to sink his teeth into one particular person. I own a dog which cannot be trusted. A dog which had it not been that he is a good working dog and provides me with my livelihood would have been put down, or at best sold on to a farm away out in the back of beyond. I am fortunate the recipient of the bites showed compassion, the dog ought to be even more grateful.

Moss adores me, which isn't probably the best should he decide to be over protective. We don't exactly live on a knife edge, he does seem to like almost everyone he meets, however this can never be taken at face value. He is a dog who cannot be trusted. Will never be able to be trusted. So, on his 6th birthday he ought to be thanking his lucky stars that he is still around to appreciate life, I know I do!

Monochrome world

Aye, that was the sight which dawned on Friday morning, very much monochrome, cold, grey and white.

There wasn't actually that much snow around, just enough to whiten things and make life difficult.

Have to say I've been feeling kinda smug, somehow I've managed to miss the colder, snowier, frostier days for heading away out bye. I don't mind working in wintry weather, it's the travelling that is often the drawback, to date I have been fortunate, the odd day of wintry weather Tarset has experienced hasn't been the odd day I have to herd the tups out bye, like I say - lucky!

Until Friday morning that is.

Now the morning dawned kinda white, not a vast amount of the white stuff it has to be said, just a covering. I had intended to set away at daylight as a necessity to be back down the valley for lunch time could see the morning being a short one, however, the whiteness made me wait a while, hoping it would clear as more traffic hit the roads.

The thought did cross my mind to take our quad, but that was a bit of a wussy idea really, I mean, there was just a whitening, bad job if car and I couldn't manage the gradients we were going to face on our journey.

We trundled off, car and I. Obviously a 'new' car and as such an unknown entity on wintry roads as to date the need to try it out had not arisen. I now know it travels as well as I do on the slippy stuff. In all fairness we trundled along at my well known slow pace and managed to almost reach our destination without too much trouble other than the odd back end slew but momentum was kept up and all was well.

It wasn't until momentum had to come to a halt that all was not well. Just a few hundred yards from our final destination there was a gate required opening. I pulled the car up and walked towards the gate, only to notice from the corner of my eye that said motor was disappearing backwards back down the road. Oh Ho!

The drawback with the road conditions that morning resulted from the weather the previous evening. Rain, frost then snow. The snow wasn't deep enough to prevent tyres cutting through onto the ice so basically the journey had been done on 'white' ice, which resulted in the mishap or not at the gateway.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, if only..... if only I'd had sense to fling the gate open before trotting off to retrieve the motor. Laurel and Hardy really didn't seem to have a look in that morning, a black and white silent movie it indeed was. Did I say silent? That's probably an oversight as knowing me there would probably be some cause for an odd swear word or two to pass my lips.

So there I was, just about to open the gate when I noticed the car was disappearing backwards with no one in the driving seat, I trotted off after it, jumped into the empty seat and went to put the handbrake on. Handbrake was already on. I yarked it harder and stepped out of the motor and watched quizzically as it continued in a backwards direction without the wheels going around and again without anyone behind the steering wheel - my car was possessed!!

Next time this ever happens I will open the gate before running after the motor - promise!

Car wouldn't go forwards so we gracefully slid backwards until the soft grass verge halted our journey. I then got out and opened the gate (that was the easiest bit of the whole manouevre!) Car and I were reunited, it still where I left it this time, only I found it seemed to quite like being where I'd left it, going forward wasn't an option and it seemed going backwards wasn't going to be either, a combination of soft verge and icy, snowy road was trying to snooker me - well I'll be damned!

It felt like the longest part of my journey had been that gateway, I had to laugh at the ludicrousness of the whole situation although there was a slight concern of the drains on either side once some sort of movement occurred. It was a slow process, not a steep gradient at all but 'new' car and I were not seeing eye to eye on this one. Eventually I won. We made it to our destination.

Animals got fed, this Galloway cow just adding to the monochrome morning

Moss enjoyed his snow bath so at least someone was happy. I felt that I just had time to do the necessaries before turning around and heading back down the valley only to find road conditions had worsened with good old car giving me one or two almost heart stopping moments. We did both arrive at our final destination in one piece however and we never offered to budge again for the rest of the day, and for that matter the car remained stationary for a number of days to follow.

Friday evening saw I and other half heading to the local Town Hall for the Amateur Dramatics Christmas play 'Excalibur', only too grateful to accept a lift off friends so no need to drive again that day. I hadn't been the only one having fun, the other half found himself leading silage over into the Rede and he too had had 'fun' - so pleased the exciting moments were shared! albeit seperately.

The play was well worth seeing, an excellent production. Far better than the roads which were deteriorating rapidly due to slush and ice, even the main routes were covered in black ice.

The following morning saw me heading away out bye with our quad, wussy or not, I really didn't care, car and I were not going to be made a fool of again! We probably arrived at our destination a lot quicker but also a lot colder!

Not quite such a monochrome day as we had had the day previous, the hard frost ensured some sunshine once the flightering on of snow ceased.

At least the clarts weren't too bad, and there were some 'pretty' moments.

The day was a cold one, time was running short and not all tasks were completed, again probably my fault for not heading out there as soon as I ought to, more a desire to wait till the frost gave a little, although I doubt very much that it did give at all. The view as I left had a 'warmth' about it which I couldn't feel but could appreciate with the eye.

There is no doubt that the ground is white and crisp and even. Crisp being the optimum description with -5 and -4 recorded at my back door these past couple of nights, that is all to change if we believe the weather forecasters, mild weather and rain is heading our way, ground will be bottomless but roads safer to travel - there's no winning!