Sheep? Yep, We Now Have Sheep!

Jiggs' first day on sheep! He was hooked!

So I got Jiggs at weaning time from my friend Kat who has a good sized cow/calf operation and raises some fine Border Collies too. Her dogs have all been used on her ranch, and she uses the same techniques that I learned from Tom Blasdell. My Man also thought I should get a back up dog as Rastus is middle aged now...and Kat said she would help me get him started on livestock. OK...here we go!!

A few weeks ago, I went out to Kat's ranch to help her gather, sort and turn out the bulls We also worked a couple of her dogs as well as Rastus and Jiggs on her sheep. And...I came home with three additional passengers in the trailer! Three lil' sheep!

We fixed them a temporary spot in the horse barn with a run. It was good...Whiskey and Boone are now sheep broke!!! LOL! In the meantime, My Man has been "sheep proofing" the cow corrals and setting up a working pen for me...what a sweet man!!!

Today was sheep day...we snagged the sheep one at a time and put them in the horse trailer and took them to what we now call "the sheep barn." Once upon a time it was the Mustang Barn...then the Cow Barn...and now it's the Sheep Barn!

Checking out their new digs.

But, they've already got their heads through the rails!
I hope they stay in the pen!

The working pen took some decision making. We took about 1/3rd of my arena and opted to line it with "no-climb" fencing along the rails.

Then across the center we used t-posts and hog fencing.

We were two hog panels short, so we are giving it a shot with field fencing around this one corner. All the corners are rounded, so I'm hoping that it will help keep the pressure off the corner fences.

Red Dog is running inspections!

The last gate...lined with field fencing.

When you've build everything for cows and horses...it's not easy to convert it to contain sheep!!!

But, Jiggs is ready!!!!! He's been staring at them all day...he knows what they're for!

Tomorrow the sheep will be castrated...yea, we should have done that when they first arrived...and I leave to help Kat again for a few days (along with Rastus and Jiggs). So, when we get back, let the fun begin!