Wednesday, August 11, 2010

'tis a mystery

My LSH headed out early this morning for his run... and was back in the door within a minute, asking for my help. One of our ram lambs was hanging out, just passing the time, in my LSH's patient parking lot.

That was not where he was supposed to be.

I am including a helpful diagram at this point so you can fully understand why this was such a puzzle:



See the white electronet fenced area to the right of the picture, helpfully marked with a blue arrow? Thanks to the terrible drought, we are pretty much out of pasture. We moved the ram lambs to that area a few days ago to let them graze down what is left out there, and give their pasture a little break. The electronet is easily moved by relocating the posts (white vertical lines) so we can shift them to fresh pasture every day.

The ram in question -- coincidentally, the one looking at me taking his picture -- was supposed to be safely contained in this fence. The fence was on and charged, meaning that anything that touched a horizontal strand would get a good jolt. (Ask me -- or any one of us in this family -- how we know.) The fence had not fallen or been trampled down. It was still up, and three ram lambs were in it, and one was out. The place he was found is marked in red.

To deepen the mystery, look carefully to the left of the picture. See where the yellow arrow is pointing? That is the water bucket that was also in the fenced-in area when I went to bed last night. Let me give you a close-up of how it looked this morning:



The lambs had tipped over the bucket late last evening, and I figured I would just fill it in the morning. (Presumably a parallel activity to teenage boys and cow tipping, the ram lambs have decided that bucket tipping is great entertainment. They tip it, we come out and fill it. Goes on all day.) Best we can figure, that particular lamb got his head stuck in the bucket, panicked, and pushed his way under and through the fence. He didn't feel the jolt because he had a bucket on his head, the only sensitive place on his body thanks to all that wool. He kept going until he bumped into something solid -- the access ramp of my husband's office -- where he was finally able to get the bucket off.

Or perhaps you can come up with an even better explanation?

5 comments:

  1. Wow - you could give Miss Marple a run for the money! I think you are spot on with your theory!

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  2. hah ha ha ha...that is a genius observation. I am sure thats what happened.

    This heat is going to take me out of sheep 'business'. Can you believe this?

    btw, do you have extra ram lambs? I would be interested. Just preparing ahead of time since last year was chaotic finding rams in Nov

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  3. Those buggery ram lambs! I have had similar issues in the past. Our pastures aren't looking very green either, sorry to say!

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  4. Kris that is weird about the bucket!
    I found some new shoes for you, http://www.zappos.com/birkis-woodby-sheep-red

    I'll call you soon!

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  5. OK, I think that the animals are partying hard and that somehow they got real crazy--maybe a bit zooted from the new grass and all. They figure out how to use the jolt from the fence to make them jump sky high and since they were partying, the ram must have had the bucket on his head---not unlike people that use lamp shades...you know...so, the little guy was out there just sleeping it all off I am sure. 0_0

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