I’m trying to outrun my cluelessness, but it seems to be winning.  As fast as I’m learning new things on the farm, the leading edge of things I don’t know/wish I’d known/don’t realize I don’t know is receding even faster.  I’ve been getting a lesson in ram relations over the last few days, hopefully averting disaster, but the unknown unknowns check in with me most nights at 3am.

My ram, a border cheviot lamb, arrived at the farm very skittish, and the first couple of times I needed to move him or change the color in his marking harness were really a struggle as he was very hard to approach.  I’ve been housing him in the barn with the lambing ewes (to keep him from breeding the older ewe lambs before they’re big enough), so he and I have had more opportunities to interact at close range.  His skittishness persisted at first, but he’s becoming much more comfortable in my presence.  He started soliciting nose-scritches from me, and I congratulated myself on the progress I was making with him.

But when I mentioned my sheep taming skills to some more experienced shepherd friends, they were universally alarmed.  Excessive familiarity in a ram, they warned, is the precursor to aggression; and whatever you do, they said, don’t touch him on top of his head — it will encourage butting behavior.  And sure enough, his gentle solicitations for affection are getting more assertive, and he tends to put the top of his head against my leg if I’m not paying him enough attention.  He hasn’t gotten a running start at me yet, but I now make sure not to turn my back on him when I’m in the barn.