The Race for Summer Pasture

The first major milestone had been accomplished with the completion of one pen fully fenced and the arrival of the sheep. This worked well until the snow started to melt and I could see the girls ogling the green grass on the other side, nibbling what they could get their teeth around through the page wire.

I decided I would start with a smaller pasture first, deciding that electric wire was the best choice in fencing as it was cost effective and fast to put up. After buying insulators, wire, and screws, I stood out in the pasture realizing I don’t know what the heck i’m doing, and pulled up a YouTube video. Shortly, I was away to the races. Within 1 week I had my first pasture fully fenced and the girls were out and happy.

I then began on the larger pasture. At first this seemed very overwhelming but after the completion of the smaller pasture, I knew what I was doing and it was far less daunting. I was able to work faster as I gained confidence, and before too long, I had the entire 10 acres fully fenced.

This lesson has stuck with me, I figured that if I broke the project into smaller goals and worked consistently, it would be fine. Not only was it fine, but it went fast! When things felt hard or overwhelming, I would (out loud) tell myself “ this is as hard as it will ever be, if you can do this now, you will be fine”.

The season progressed, and when the next spring rolled around, I didn’t have any fencing, Indeed, it got easier.

This grass had not been grazed in many years. It’s so tall I almost couldn’t see the sheep in it.

I was so happy to see them preferring to eat the weeds and brush first. This is one of the benefits to sheep as they “clean” weedy pastures or areas where brush is encroaching in a natural, chemical free manner.