I read posts of Facebook along the lines of "We are looking to buy a hobby farm. How often do we need to visit.? We were thinking once a fortnight..."

If you have livestock that's not really an option, I think. A lot can happen in a day. In an extended absence it could be disastrous. We had a steer who worked out that if he pulled the hose off the water trough he created a geyser of water he could play with. How cute! At 60 litres a minute it would take awhile to completely drain our large water tank, but the cows would be with out water in a short timeframe. In two weeks we would be out of water, the pump would have burnt out, and the livestock would be dead.

Yesterday I was throwing feed over the fence into the ram's paddock. We have two rams and a whether in there. Big fat boys, they get more feed than they need, but I find it easier to keep them onside with bribes. But only two came up when I started. The third was off on the other side of the paddock. He seemed to be eating, had his head down. But I watched a bit longer. Something wasn't right. I moved a bit to get a less obstructed view of him. Bizarre. His head was down, but he was moving around in a circle. If it was a dog I would assume he was pulling hard at something stuck in the ground, but odd behavior for a sheep.

Because the rams have previously smashed their way out of that paddock, the gate is a bit of a fortress. It has more than one chain securing it, and two heavy logs blocking the base so it can't be forced out. I have only just recently repaired the heavy-guage steel mesh of the gate where the ram punched through it after repeatedly butting it. So its a chore opening it up. But that's what was needed. I wasn't sure what I was going to find, but I figured it might require some manual handling, and I didn't need my dogs ramping up the pressure. Once I start wrestling a sheep they want to help. What they think is helpful, and what the sheep and I think of it, are quite different. Better to move them out of it, so we went back to the house, dropped the dogs off, and went. back.

Unlocked the fortress, opened the gate drive in, closed it behind me, then drove over to the ram.

I see.

The ram had, in his enthusiasm to demolish a small tree I had planted in his paddock, got a horn hooked on the treeguard. Once that was done he then had proceeded uproot the treeguard and take it with him, then tangle his front leg in the same treeguard. His head was pulled low and the front leg wasn't very useful, so he was hobbling round and round in a tight circle. He might have unhooked himself, but one or two days like that would have knocked the stuffing out of him. Two weeks would have been awful. Lucky I am onsite, checking regularly.

Of course, when I approached he threw everything into it, and hobbled as he was, took off at( literally) breakneck speed. He ran to the other two to herd up, and they took fright at the rattling monster chasing them and ran off. We repeated the exercise a couple of times. This wouldn't go anywhere other than in circles.

I was just formulating Plan B....I would have to go back to the house, get my kelpie, push the rams out of their paddock, though the next paddock and into the cattle yards where I could constrain them and work on the tangled ram. But suddenly...the rams moved to the back corner of the paddock, keeping a cautious 10 metres away from me. Near that corner is a long treeguard, designed to contain a hedge. There's travel room between the hedge fence and the perimeter fence, but I've noticed the rams prefer to go round rather than through the gap. I quickly moved in and cornered my quarry. He sized me up...and lunged for the gap.

He would have made it, but because he had the treeguard wrapped around his head he made contact with the fence, and hooked that into the mix.

Not good. That fence has two charged lines in it,. Wrapped in wire, hooked into an electrified fence, he would be getting shocked repeatedly. And I know from experience, untangling an animal in that situation means we both get repeatedly shocked. I gritted my teeth and reached for him, with the idea of grabbing two fistfuls of wool and physically hauling him off the fence. But at that moment, either supercharged from the fence, or in a panic as I reached for him, he bellowed and wrenched himself free...leaving his horn hanging in the wire, and blood spraying from the snapped horn.

Off he galloped.

I could hear the zapping of the shorting fence, and with a stick flicked the hooked wire loose,

The rams kept their distance as I packed up, went through the gate again, and left them to it.

No one died, (except the tree in the treeguard), but if I hadn't been there it could have been a lot worse.