Mustering after the big snow

Looking at the big snow through the hut window
Looking at the big snow through the hut window

We have recently had one of the biggest dumps of snow that I can remember. Around the hut the snow was two feet deep, it took me a couple of days and four attempts to get up to where I feed the pigs. The snow up at this height was one meter deep so to get further up the hill was going to take a real mission so when the weather cleared I got my wife Janice and my oldest son Sloan to come and give me a hand to make a track in the snow so that we could get the sheep down and give them a feed.

Sloan with his young dog Mack
Sloan with his young dog Mack

It took us a couple of hours to get up to the sheep which I thought was the hard part over as we got to the sheep. They were on a part of the track where they had squashed the snow down on a short section of the track. As we tried to push them along it did not take long to see how tired and hungry they were. One of the sheep was an old pet of ours, Mary and she just had very little energy left and Sloan and I had to carry her part way off the hill. She would not have lasted another night on the hill.

Walking the sheep off the hill
Walking the sheep off the hill

As we got down to where I feed the pigs Mr Pig decided to come out and give the sheep a wind up. He had them running in all directions but we managed to settle them down which was not easy when we had Four dogs with us at one point both Lightning and Mack bit Mr Pig on the nuts so I had to get in real quick to stop them before Mr Pig hurt them. Imagine walking through three feet of snow behind 48 sheep and being followed by four pig dogs and one mature wild boar and keeping everything under control.

The sheep enjoying a long awaited feed
The sheep enjoying a long awaited feed

The sheep were happy to tuck into some hay and get a drink out of the creek.