Starlight Hill Farm

Annie teaches me the virtue of patience. She has certainly tried mine a time or two when I didn't understand her ways or what took her so cotton pickin' long to perform a chore. She doesn't understand rushing. It's hard to believe she's Tucker's daughter.

In the evenings when I send her for the sheep I stand at the pen gate and wait. Sometimes it seems I wait a good while before I see them rounding the bend and heading for home. Once in a while there is no Annie with them and I get a little exasperated and wonder what she's up to and stomp off to find her. Then I'll spot her gently bringing up a small bunch of lambs that were probably sleeping under a tree someplace. Or maybe I don't see her at all and start calling her. Then I'll hear a faint high pitched yip and have to follow the sound to find her with a lamb that is trapped or has collapsed and won't get up. "Good girl, Annie, you take as long as you need because I know the job will be done right."

Her best sheep buddy is the BFL ram. They're a goofy pair. She pens the sheep and puts them in the shed and he stands beside her like he's helping her keep them in there. He loves her to lick his eyes and ears and she loves to accomodate him.

Our Indiana dog; we're so pleased with what we see in him. He's a quick study, very biddable, responsive and shadowy, always right at hand. Looks right into your face and tries to read your mind.  More reserved with strangers than Tucker or Annie. Good stock instincts and somewhere between Annie and Tucker in strength and speed. That cock-eyed ear has a mind of its own and used to drive me nuts to think he'd always look a little off balance. Now I've come to love those ears.

There's more about Shane on the "Farm Pup in Training". The Indiana English Shepherds have their own page and is a work in progress.

The pup

The pup grew up

Returning a lamb that split the wrong way

           Turning the rams

Tucker believes in speed. He says, "Listen up, sheep, we're going home now and we're getting there fast. Don't you see Diane up there waiting at the gate?" We've spent a lot of time teaching Tucker to just slow down.

He is undyingly patient with young, fragile or small animals. He never hurries a lamb or kid goat. His favorite tactic with a group of lambs or kids is to circle around them, bark in their face and then head toward the barn. For whatever reason they follow right along behind him and he leads them right into their stall.

Tucker, one year, had charge of a small group of bottle kids that I bought from a dairy. He went out with me for each feeding and got to know them well. When the weather warmed they spent their days in the backyard with Tucker. They'd all be snoozing together in the sun on the back deck. Then a trespassing squirrel would get Tucker's attention and he'd charge off the deck with 7 baby goats following him. It was Sheriff Tucker and his Posse.