Beside the Stream

Here are a few more pictures of Donny’s flock of sheep, and another of his folk-art installments.  This ewe is above the gate’s WHO,

which resolves to WHO ENTER HERE

And what you can’t see is that the left side of this gate, under snow at the moment, says ABANDON HOPE, YOU

so the gate to his front yard reads “Abandon Hope, You Who Enter Here.”  Which he’ll clarify is from Dante’s Inferno, written over the gates of hell. 

On the other side of the gate–the side that you see as you’re leaving–it says “Come Back Soon”, the existential Yin and Yang of farm life. 

In the winter, the sheep spend time in front of the house: there’s a sheep shed to the left above the house and the barn is down below.  I have no idea how he managed them between dogs.  This Rascal isn’t even a year old, but she has star quality.  These sheep are moving along two by two exactly as she asked them to. 

Ahem.

Donny has an old-style flock: nearly all of his sheep have their tails (see the big sheep tail on the left?), and the rams run with the ewes so the lambs come over a longer period of time. 

And here’s a nursing ewe checking out the scene from the barn.