I spent another beautiful volunteer weekend with my family and habitatwork.org. This weekend we got to remove barbed wire fence from a spring and we built a wildlife watering hole. On Sunday we were offered a tour of the wildlife preserve we were on and took in the amazing wildflower display. Nearby sheep herders were shearing their sheep and I got to watch :woohoo: I spoke for a while to the sheep owners and learned a lot about the business. The guys we talked to were 4th generation sheep herders in the area. Their family came out here from the Basque region in 1895!!!
Here’s some pics from the weekend I wanted to share with you all. We just couldn’t ask for more beautiful weather!!! :woot:
Here we are removing barbed wire from an absolutely beautiful pond created by a natural spring. The barbed wire really was an eyesore and we were so happy to see it go.
Here’s my DBF removing the last fence post from that ugly barbed wire fence
Here I am mixing up cement for the base of a new wildlife watering hole that we built
The next day we took in some beautiful wildflowers - including our state flower, the California Poppy
And we got to see some sheep and some working dogs. The family that owns the sheep says they herd sheep just like they did thousands of years ago. They have sheep camps in the mountains and the shepherds go out with 2 border collies and a grand pyrenees (to guard against predators) and they move the sheep every 2 days. They lease some of the land on the wildlife preserve so that they can have some more grazing area.
This dog’s name is Lee - He was very friendly, but sure was intent on his job watching those sheep.
And here’s some yarn balls on hoof 
)