How Old Is Hank?

I had a question about how old Hank is. Hmmm, I don't remember stuff like that very well, which makes the blog a nice farm record.  So, when I want to look up something like "when did Hank get here?", I go to the right hand side, click his "label" and start scrolling back.  There are 139 posts about Hank!  That's a lot of scrolling back.

It was fun though, watching him get younger and younger, seeing that we were covered up in red bud blooms in March last year, that Graham Lamb used to not be such a blubber butt... ;-)

Look at young Hank.  He came here in July of 2009.   

He's been letting Miss Maisie hang out with him during the day.  If I'm out there with her she'll mingle with the other sheep, but when I'm not out there she mostly stays with Hank.  They nap together and if she goes out to graze, he gets up and goes with her.  He loves his lambs :-).  

Interesting (at least to me) story.  Earlier this week it was brutally hot for April and I had just "done give up" and made Saint Tim take me out to dinner.  I'd done most of the evening chores before we left but needed to go put Maisie to bed and check on everyone when we got home.  I sat down behind the barn for a few minutes listening to the night sounds, watching the sheep settle in.  

Hank was laying not far away, in the alleyway heading to the back fields.  Maisie was still out tootling around and she walked over to him and he gently snapped at her.  I thought that was a little odd, but about the time I was thinking that he jumped up and ran out towards the back of the arena where all within a couple seconds I heard something in a scuffle.  

Hank had known something was getting ready to go down and Maisie was either distracting him or he was afraid she'd run with him when it was time to make his move.  Maybe he wanted her to go to the safety of the barn with the rest of the sheep. She was not at all bothered by his bossiness and as the sun came up the next morning they were back side by side.

Such a good dog.