Hello again! It’s Nanoo Nanoo here with the ovine perspective. I have been off the grid for a good bit of time. I have not been able to make an internet connection for so long! The only time we could make our wifi connection was in the evening when we were in the barn. We did not dare try that because the old bearded shepherd guy might have discovered us using his computer. For a long time the old grump had us spending our daylight hours in the place they call the Pasture #4 (we know it as “the Rock Garden”). That is where he feeds us those huge bales of hay when our pastures stop growing in a drought. It is also in a low hollow and it is a wifi dead zone. When it finally started to rain in August our pastures began to grow again. So where does the old guy send us? Way out in the big hay field. It is also in a low spot. Even if it was not in a hollow, Queso and I figure that it is so far from the barn that we would never get our secret wifi connection to work. Only now have we gotten close enough to the other barn where the shepherd guy and the nice lady live that we could get online without him knowing!

The field to which he sent us is where he harvests the hay we get to eat during the winter months. We usually get to graze there only one time each year, usually in late summer when he does not need to cut it for baled hay. It is really kind of exciting to be there. The Sandhill Cranes often visit us there in the early morning. Occasionally a coyote will pass by (we just try to keep quiet when that happens). Just yesterday a Canada Goose dropped in and spent the entire day with us. That was really cool! She showed us how to stay out of the way if the bearded guy drives by on his tractor. She just took off and flew over us and the electric fence. We ran along to watch but had to stop at the fence. We hoped that she would be there today to teach us how to fly. It would be so much easier to get to the pasture in the morning for breakfast. In the evening we could just sail back to the barn and forget about all those dumb raceways the old guy builds for us. Unfortunately our goosie friend was gone this more so I guess the lessons will have to wait.

Actually, we figure that where we were is really pretty close to the end of the earth (at least in that direction). Just beyond the edge of the field is a thick line of trees that you cannot see past. None of us have ever been that far, so we are pretty sure that no one can go much farther.

The edge of the world is just over to the left, just a bit.

My grand daughter Wascal and her buddy Wallflower left the flock while we were out there on the extreme edge of the hay field. The nice lady told us they went to a new home in a place called Eagle and that they were going to be very happy there.  We figure that Eagle must be in a different direction, probably off beyond the swamp where the Cardinal flowers grow.

All this talk of going to the edge of the earth reminds me that it is an anniversary this month. The cat called Pussa arrived on the farm four years ago this month. In the flock we do not usually have much use for cats. The ones that usually show up around here are always so high strung and spooky. They always end up scaring the sheep buttons out of us. Pussa is different; she understands that we do not like flighty, fidgety animals in our barn. So even though she is not ovine we let her stay. In fact, her first winter here she spent with us. We let her snuggle up to our warm fleeces in exchange for removing a mouse or two every night.

Pussa has never really said where she came from. The old bearded shepherd guy says that someone just dumped her here, like they seem to do every fall. He may be right, but we have a different theory. The shepherd guy rarely leaves us, but four years ago he returned to Denmark for a couple weeks after many years absence. It was shortly after his return that the cat showed up here. Since she has a common Danish cat name we, with our superior ovine intellect, have deduced that she must have stowed away in the shepherd’s luggage. Of course we are not too sure where exactly Denmark is located. Our best guess is that it is in the opposite direction from the big hay field we were just in. In all likelihood it is just beyond the woods across the road from us. That is where the cranes always seem to fly to, so it must be at the opposite end of the earth. We try talking to Pussa about all this, but when we do she just clams up or starts talking in some strange tongue. (We figure it must be Danish!) We do not try to press her too much about this. She is a good friend, but she is definitely not sheep-like. She now has finagled her way into the place they call “the house”. That is why she rarely spend the nights with us any longer, but we do not hold it against her. At least this way we can learn a bit more about what goes on up there, since none of us (except for Hope) has ever been there. Regardless of where you came from Pussa, we are glad that you have decided to stay here all this time.