Grazing the hillsides

In the spring and summer, the flock grazes our hillside and the vacant land up the road.   Our hillside is fenced and they eat it down to the dirt.  The road is a free range experience though, and can get dicey.  First there's getting the all the herd out of the gate, some of them keep forgetting where it is.  Then there's the mad dash to get away from Kaylee, our "sheep dog", who stays tied up for this part.  Finally they all congegate on the other side of the road and begin eating the wild oats and the brush.  They wander up the hill, taking bites on the way, till they get to our neighbor Mitch's place.  Its a cool plateau they like to hang out on. So, we chase them back to the road. Along the road is a lot of thistle and mustard.  There's also an oak tree with low enough branches for them to eat the leaves.  After a while of eating up here, we push them back down  the road, to the side canyon.  Here they can eat themselves silly on mustard, fescue, and holly cherry.  If we have left a bucket of water there, they will tank up.  Then they slowly wander back down the road to our hillside, run up to the side of their corral, and start chewing the bushes.  This circuit takes 2 to 4 hours, and they may be chewing their cud at this point.  Eventually they wander back into the corral, (but if they dont, Kaylee is more than happy to round them up), hit the water trough, get back into the pen, and take a nap.  The sheepherder of the day (Bob, Rick, or me) needs a bath at this point and most likely a nap too.  The road grazing circuit happens 3 to 4 times a week in the summer.  On the other days, they get a big trash bag size pile of mustard or tumbleweed from elsewhere in the neighborhood.   What the humans get out of this is exercise, a reduction in the fire hazard around our house, and the chance to talk to neighbors and their guests. And the hapless lost motorist who end up here, where they have to turn around on a one lane dirt road next to a steep hillside.  While the sheep, mistaken for horses, cows, or (my favorite) "DEMON DOGS!!!"  freak out the kiddies in the back seat.