I had checked the fence line, made sure there were no down lines or anything touching the net to disrupt the circuit, let the sheep out for the day and had returned to the house to prepare breakfast. Delilah was outside the electronets playing with Max, the Boy was slowly waking up, the morning sky was shining brightly over the tall grass, it was going to be a wonderful day.
Then I heard the dogs barking. Not unusual. More so at night as wildlife doesn't come around much during the day. So when the barking continued I glanced out my window. I could still see sheep in the electronet, but Delilah was bouncing wildly through the line of trees that separated the wheat field and the abandoned pasture overgrown in brush. I went outside to investigate and the first thing I noticed was the goats all outside of the electronet in the line of trees browsing. And further down a huge group of sheep also outside of the electronet in the abandoned pasture grazing happily in the brushes. The fence wasn't down, just leaning over, so they had literally just walked right over it. I ran back to unplug the net so that I could get them back in and discovered it was already unplugged. I either forgot to plug in the net which seemed highly unlikely or a more probable scenario, Delilah and Max had accidentally unplugged it while they were running about.
It was only me and the Boy home but we managed to wrangle all of them back into the holding pen. Except for a handful that I locked in the chicken coop as it was closer. It only took us all morning, but no sheep left the property and we got our exercise for the day. I moved the electronet to the wheat field directly behind the house so I could keep an eye on them which took me close to 3:00 before I was done that job. (I have to mow a path in the tall pasture in order for the electronet to be effective which takes up most of my time.)
Just as I was about to go into the house to begin supper, two of the sheep in the chicken coop escaped. My kids were expected home so I was waiting to move the sheep from the coop to the holding pen with a little bit more help than the Boy. However, those two sheep had different ideas. To make matters worse, the skies opened up and it started raining. While I chased two more sheep and their lambs down, the Boy stood guard in the pouring rain over the chicken coop door making sure no others escaped.
When at last I recaptured the two mammas and their babies, the kids arrived just in time to help herd the remaining sheep from the coop into the electronet where it was set up and ready to receive sheep.
Though the electronet can be a wonderful helping tool, I must never forget or take for granted that power that keeps them safely contained.
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