Why I Hate To Leave The Farm

I love living with all our sheep, horses, cats, dogs...  I really feel like it's a privilege and I'm thankful for every one of them.  Almost all the time ;-).  However, being responsible for their care can be stressful.  Stressful to the point that I seldom even leave the farm.  

I've started taking Hickory over to a nearby farm to ride and take some lessons a couple evenings a week.  Before I leave I make one last check on all the paddocks to make sure everything looks okay. I told everyone that Hank was in charge while I was gone.  The boys were napping in their temporary stall and all seemed well.

I came home to this.

"Whatchu mean my nose is all red?"

Holy cow!  What happened?!?  Is that blood???

"Whoa, that DOES look bad!"

At this point I am frantically looking all over trying to figure out what's gone horribly wrong.  It doesn't really look like blood, but what else could it be?!?  Paint?  We have a couple old red gates and sometimes I see pink spots on top of some sheep's heads where they've been rubbing on them, but there is nothing in the field this color!

Or is there...

I'd set the watermelon rind out for the chickens.  None of our other sheep have ever acted in the least bit interested.  Bitey Whitey and Daniel Not-Boone are officially addicts.

And now I'm afraid to leave the farm because I might miss something really cute or funny.