From the vegetable garden you can look south to the back pasture and see the lambs grazing in the now tall, lush grass. The epitome of innocence and gentleness; you’ve heard the expressions attributing their benign traits to those perceived harmless.

They spend parts of the day dozing in the sun with just their sweet little faces peeking above the waving grass, their big dark eyes revealing nothing but meekness and congeniality. They’ll cozy together under the shade of the old apple trees during mid day’s heat like so many kittens in a basket; cuddly and soft. When one gets the notion for a drink they’ll all embrace the idea and come skipping and dancing to the trough like so many kindergartners being called in from recess for a snack.

Sheep have been part of agrarian life for centuries; along with goats, they are the oldest domesticated species. Now some of you may argue that dubious honor goes to dogs, but what really happened there is dogs domesticated us. That's a topic for separate discourse!

Sheep were an obvious choice for many reasons. One is their ability to exist in a wide range of foraging conditions. Their small size makes them easy to handle and house. Another plus is their triple purpose use of meat, milk, and hair, wool or hides. Another is their fecundity with breeding age reached in a mere six months and multiple births the norm.

Their natural inclination to group together in what we call a flock also made them easy to contain and control; they just as naturally look to a flock leader and will follow the designee almost unthinkingly. Humans learned long ago to assert themselves as this leader and thus be able to “sheep herd” with the flock’s compliance.

Aha you say; that’s where the word “shepherd” comes from! We’ve all seen portrayals of the serene shepherd sitting on a hillside with his charges grazing around him. Just like my little flock out in the pasture, the picture of peace and contentment. Watching them you’d never for a moment imagine them capable of devious plots hatching behind those tender facades.

I spent some time in the garden last evening and so had opportunity to gaze at the lambs between replanting half the Brussels sprouts, several broccoli plants, and half a row of edamame. I had to buy the first two replacements since I have already given away the extras from starting my own plants. I got lucky with the edamame, since I’d yet to thin the rows so could do so to acquire replacements for the decimated section.

The many snap pea plants with their top third nipped off, the part just setting flowers with promise of harvest to follow, left little recourse beyond muttered invectives. The trail of sheep poo pellets left behind did nothing to appease me despite their wonderful recommendation as garden fertilizer.

The layout of my barnyard and gardens is such that the buggers had to make a big swing heading north down the east fence row and then travel two more legs west then south before ending up in the garden. This once they located the small gap in the back fence just big enough for them to squeeze under.

There is endless bounty of perfect sheep munchies along this route not to mention the vacated pasture is also a sheep Paradise. But they had plenty of appetite for the salad bar of my cultivated rows once they reached that destination!

Who knows how long they’d been scheming this raid, peering through the close up fence to gauge the readiness of their intended feast. Did they know to wait for just the right night when the moon was thin, the cloud cover heavy to mask their foray? Did they then appear at the front door of the house, bellies full and countenances inscrutable to smirk behind their hooves as they trailed back to the barn with typical sheep docility?

Well, they at least know they’re stuck in the smaller back paddock until I can get the fence fixed!

Ruth Ehman has been farming her 53 acres north of Dexter for 25 years. Recently retired from a "real job," she now makes her living producing "real food," including operating a dairy, and teaching others skills conducive to a small, diverse family farm lifestyle. Contact her through firesignfamilyfarm.com or at ruthehman@live.com.