Lambs in my mudroom

February 26, 2008

The new year found life and death. My father made it through the bleak experience of a medical crisis over the holidays in a nation that cherishes its holidays. He went on to recover at home, with a couple of unwelcome surprises, and is truly on the road to the next chapter of his life. Our ram lamb was not so lucky, eventually succumbing to the mysterious ailment that wracked him in the first week of January.

Our family just got back from a long-overdue week of visiting my father, a journey reserved last fall and in question until it was determined my dad could handle it. It was a good trip – ripe with angst and a few epiphanies on my part, but otherwise full of good fun and quality time across three generations. Whatever my baggage with my distant father, Dylan deserves to know and remember him, having been robbed of Mark’s parents completely.


March 26, 2008

Well, there’s a 1-day old lamb wandering around my kitchen baa-ing up a storm on occasion. I never thought I’d do this, but I think we’re about to raise a pet ruminant. Welcome to Stop Sign Farm!

He was Blackberry’s weaker twin and for some reason she just wasn’t having him. She’d given birth when I got down there yesterday morning, this little one standing there by her side and the other tangled up in the defunct electric fence. I cut the white one out and carried them both up to the shed. Blackberry followed but never once showed any interest in this little guy.

It’s been a tough few days – typical for lambing, I guess, but I’m not sure we’ve internalized that we’re shepherds yet. That, coupled with Dylan’s continuing bronchitis and antibiotic reaction plus my apparent weird stress attack yesterday, has meant that today we did virtually nothing – hung out in our jammies and played with our special herbivore. It’s nice to remember that we live a very special life. It’s all too easy to feel overwhelmed and exhausted.

I’ve been so worried about Dylan. I cannot believe how long he’s been sick. He’ll be hitting his 3rd Monday. Wow. He seems fine in some ways, but so weak in others. I’ve never gone thru anything like this.


March 27, 2008

Wow. What a day. What a wonderful day. Friends from the city, lambs in our mudroom, it’s all good! It’s times like this I feel like maybe I earn my Shepherdess stripes…