Are We Still In Kansas?

We’ve had suspiciously summery weather lately, which I’m sure is a contributing factor in the recent high winds and storms. Temperatures in the upper sixties in late February/early March is strange on its own, but highs in the upper sixties and lows in the thirties tends to correlate with high winds. The wind Friday evening was so strong I was a bit worried we’d wake up in Oz! And there are rather a lot of woolly munchkins out there…

“That wind was no fun, don’t schedule that kind of weather for us again ShepherdPerson!”

Everything seemed pretty normal in the morning, though. The Soays were falling over themselves racing out of the barn. Liam and the other Shetlands hung back to stay out of the crush then followed more sedately, Liam giving me one of his frequent mildly reproachful looks as he went, presumably judging me for the way I let his flock mates carry on. (The weather and the Soay dedication to Maximum Drama are two things I do not actually have any control over, despite what the sheep seem to think!)

We lost a door off of the barn to the wind, but surprisingly no large trees went down. Mira diligently collected some of the shattered wood fragments of the doorframe for her stick collection, but the door itself was too large for her to move. She was forced to abandon it, with many a longing backwards glance.

“Hmm, I don’t think I can move this…”

“But I really want it…”

On the boys’ side, Apple hung back in the barn waiting for our morning routine of him trying to lick and/or bite my fingers until I take his cute little face between my hands, waggle his head back and forth, and briefly greet him with something like “Good morning, Apple,” or “Apple Stop That, that’s biting, that’s ouch,” or “Why are you such a silly Apple?” Once satisfied that he’d been properly acknowledged, he followed his brothers out for breakfast and apparently dismissed me from his mind.

Mira, Angel, and Lady closely supervised the distribution of hay. Watcher barked at us from the yard, certain there should be a collie supervising instead. Mira, Lady, and Nova followed me to the gate to collect a toll in treats for letting me leave. All routine, as usual. Probably not in Oz, then. Hopefully that was the worst of the weather and we won’t have any more winds like that!