Timber Trail Center :  Ongarue : Those damn sheep

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Besides me, there are three other species of mammal living here.

A trio of Alpacas who keep to themselves and stand about looking serene.
Three young cows are friendly with an air of goofy adolescence.
There are also a pair of sheep who are diabolical masters of escapology.

Council reps arrived yesterday to chat about the sheep. These woolly troublemakers don't like being penned up so they regularly escape the property boundary. Though they never roam far, and generally sit about or chomp on green stuff, it seems that the locals have had enough.

Fortunately I had just wrangled the precocious little buggers into their field, after receiving a text from Martyn (the owner) warning me that they had got out of an electric fenced off area he had built to hold them on a nearby property.


The council troubleshooters were really relaxed. Following up local complaints, with a minimum of antagonism was 'what they do'.

I invited them onto the property to have a look around, and we walked the perimeter. They couldn't see any obvious exit points, and were pleased that there was plenty of grass available to the animals. God knows what they were thinking. Possibly that the sheep were being mistreated, but these sheep are spoilt rotten.

He was an older world wary guy who was happy to chat about his holidays to Australia. She was young, enthusiastic chick, who wanted to 'properly investigate the problem'. She tells me that electric fences don't work on sheep that have a 'full fleece'.
I slide a sheet of iron in there to block it off

They also mentioned that people have complained about our wandering Peacocks. As we exited the front gate, the birds happened to be out on the street and appeared to be laying siege to their van.

We all chuckled wryly. Something will have to be done about the birds too.

Once the visitors had departed, I spent some time looking for where the sheep were getting out. Martyn reckons they are getting out over a section of fence next to the church.


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