It's winter now. The frosts and wind have sent the vines to sleep. Leaves all gone. Time for pruning and maintenance and mulching. Over the next few weeks I'll post some reports on these tasks. Why and how we do them.
Once the leaves have all fallen, one of the easier tasks is to put my merino wether sheep into the vineyard. Wethers are quieter, less likely to roam or cause trouble. The eat the grass and do a much better and cleaner job than I could with a slasher or mower.
That is not to say that working with sheep is easy. Their herd instinct and perverse sense of "safety" can lead to terrible frustration when trying to get them to do something or go somewhere new. Proverbially sheep are followers ("follow like sheep") but that means one of them has to lead. That's the hard part. Sheep don't outsmart you. They "out-dumb" you. Just when you think there is not othr option for the sheep to do, but go through that open gate; they mill around, push other sheep to the front, all figt to get to the middle of the mob. Then one will make a break for the safety of the known. Back into the paddock. Through a fence. Through your arms! You've been out dumbed!
But for eating grass and spreading manure around the vines, you can't beat them.