What. A. Week. Phew! Jamie and Melvin were working together to prepare the Montessori school for painting all week and last. It evolved into me painting the trim and doors in both classrooms, so each night this week we were both at school from 6pm until after midnight. I would return to work at 7 or 8 in the morning and stay until 3:30pm with no break. (I was in kid-mode due to staff and director vacations.) Tomorrow I'll work straight from 8am-5pm at a fair for the school doing spin art with the kiddos. I am so looking forward to Sunday.
I'm not complaining about being busy though. It feels good to make a change to the school and even more importantly, to renew our desire to be productive around the house. It's easy to get lazy about certain chores here, like cleaning up the busted bag of coal in the barn...or building more roosting bars... or putting new bedding in the coop... or stringing up the leaning tomatoes... I could go on and on. The point is, I'm looking forward to getting things done next week. After a day of rest.
Anyway, the biggest part of the whirlwind is that on Monday we'll be welcoming two new sheep into our lives. Today while painting I reflected a lot on our journey into caring for sheep. Neither of us set out to become "shepherds." We literally saw the alpacas on craislist and thought, "SWEET! Long-haired-magical-dinosaur-unicorns for $100 each? OK." And shortly after, "a mini sheep that grows no taller than 24" tall? YES PLEASE." We actually renamed Bill Murray when we got him. Part of the excitement was walking home at night in the snow from work and dreaming about what to name our new Babydoll lamb. We talked for hours about it. His name used to be Boots, but Bill is more fitting now because we pushed our personalities on him. Isn't that funny how naming an animal suddenly changes how you perceive it?
We won't rename the new sheep that are coming to us on Monday though. Their names are Hannah and Snap Pea. First of all, I love those names, but more importantly, I understand how special it is to name a lamb and how much work and loving-attention go into getting that baby to respond to you by recognizing a name. I guess before I had sheep I sort of assumed that they weren't as intelligent as dogs and cats, but that is so far from the truth, especially for Babydoll sheep. Bill absolutely knows his name, comes to us when we call, and loves us each in a different way. He likes to bite at my pants or my coat until I turn around and give him headscratches. He'll paw at us when we're not doing it hard enough. He'll squish his head up against us and pant hot and humid breaths until we get grossed out and finally give in and pet him. I'm certain that there are aspects of his personality that I project onto him, but I'm also sure that he's his own being. He has his own spirit and character.
I'm so excited to get to know these new sheep. And I'm also excited that Bill will have a registered Babydoll girlfriend and be able to make more babies with her. I changed my desktop image to my favorite picture of Butter in anticipation.
ps. I wrote this on Friday night but now I'm hitting publish at almost 1am Saturday. Hence the time-line of things.
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Wow!! So exciting! Good luck with your new animals. I would be totally helpless against that face. :)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your description of how you found them on craigslist! SO FUNNY.
ReplyDeleteWhat a cutie patootie! Can I ask how you manage sheep-wrangling while having an off-farm job? We'd like to start with a small number of sheep or goats in the next year or two, but both of us work full-time. I don't know if that's possible or not.
ReplyDeleteHaha Julie, I know! I totally geeked out looking at it just now. And thank you. :)
ReplyDeleteLayne Julia, thanks! I could have rambled on and on about names and such, but I see you re-posted the idea on your own blog. I'm excited to see what kind of conversation it strikes.
Chandelle, a big sigh needs to be conveyed right now. It's not easy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Besides, what we're ultimately working up to is not having to work jobs off-farm. That might never happen, but if it does it won't be for years anyway. So right now we just need to work our asses off and try as hard as we can to stay organized. Jamie and I each usually work part time, though when we first got animals we worked full time at a grocery store and walked two miles back and forth every day to get there. I feel like baby steps are the way to go so you keep your cool. And also, I think sheep are so much easier to manage than goats. We had goats once, but only for about a week. They were impossible to keep fenced in because of our set up. One day I'd like to get one or two milking goats, but our fence is just not up to par for those creatures. Right now the fence we use for the sheep to graze on pasture is wonderful. It's the solar electric netting from Kencove. They don't try to escape, even when it's not hot. The fence we use for the barnyard is regular large-square cattle fencing, but we'd like to upgrade eventually to wooden posts and taller 3x4" high gauge fencing so we can keep goats too. The electric would hold them in I think, but definitely not the cattle fencing. Anywho, I'm rambling, but I'd say go for it but have your fencing covered first. Otherwise you're gonna be way more stressed and angry all the time because of escapees. Sheep are smart and will squeeze or jump under/over a fence if it's not just so... Jamie and I have been so much happier with the switch to electric and no more calls from the neighboring horse farm to "come get your sheep... again." Also, if I had done one thing differently, I would have started coating my sheep as soon as I got them. They get so dirty in the barnyard over winter, and so far the coats are working wonders. It's an investment, but if you start with a small flock I think it's well worth the investment if you're planning to use their wool. :)
Oh yay! And darn you, I will now succumb to drooling over the Craigslist farm&garden section. ;)
ReplyDelete-Jaime