A lesson in Sheep

Photos: Taken by Cowboy

1. Me and the sheep stuck in the grid. Incredibly funny

2. One of Cowboy's pics of the sheepish creatures

Living in Sydney for eight years I was aware that my counterparts back home in the Country were experiencing a drought. To me, this was just a boring, ongoing news item and I had better things to worry about. Flash to day one ‘truck driving’ and first hand I was witnessing land that had been victim to the drought. Something I never thought would play any part in my life.

The land on the property is hard, flat and dry. Saltbush, flies interspersed with the odd skull of a deceased Ram were the sights I was taking in. The occasional gang of Emus did a mad dash past us in the truck, and evidence of snakes was rampant. The snakes obviously had not applied their SPS 30+ as their sometimes 5 ft long skins were seen amongst the tin and rubble on the property.

The views of the sky on the property are dramatic. On flat country you can see where the sky almost curves into the shape of the world. The clouds look like fluffy pillows, or perhaps like fluffy sheep – staying close to each other. The clouds flock together mirroring the sheep below.

In the distance I could see a sandy mound which reminded me of the Grand Canyon, but what was actually a dried up dam in the middle of the paddock.

This was the hangout for the heram of ewes all vying for the attention of daddy Ram. Chilling out by the dried out dam the sheep were happiest in company of each other. Sheep really have awoken me to the importance of being in company of likeminded souls. Their fear of being separated is something I had not witnessed before. “All for one and one for all,” is their motto.

Perhaps their wooly coat worked as reverse cycle air-conditioning. I hoped so. I could not help for feel for the wooly creatures in the arid dry land all day. The heat to me was unbearable. I hope that they are cool.

After asking Cowboy a heap of questions relating to Sheep including “Do you ever warm to one of them and want to keep them as a pet?” “ Do you feel sorry for them when you have to stick them on a truck,” and other animal activists type questions I was a little put back when he explained to me that sympathy was difficult for the creatures as they have no minds of their own and are frustratingly stupid.

Even so, I thought, isn’t that kind of cute?

My introduction to the lack of commonsense the sheep has was one I found quite humorous.

In between the paddocks on the farm there were grids. As we ventured towards a flock of sheep that required shifting into a different paddock I was in stitches to witness a sheep gridlock.

At least five sheep had attempted crossing paddocks themselves and had fallen down the grid.

Imprisoned in the grid the sheep helplessly, and cluelessly stood trapped in the grid.

Not learning from their trapped mates other sheep followed them to a similar destiny more and more falling into the trap.