Dog Tired?

 
Have you ever heard this expression?

It always strikes me as funny, because around here, no one sleeps as well - or as often - as the cat. This is Ty. He is named for Ty Pennington of Extreme Home Makeover, one of our favorite shows. (We don't have TV. Our neighbor tapes it for us!)

The real Ty speaks openly about being a "spaz" - referring to his ADHD. Our Ty, the cat, has a great deal of energy as well, and could also be called a "spaz".
And the energy he has, he spends completely. Then he sleeps. Hard.

I like that about him. There are no energy reserves. No "spare tank." What he has, he gives. And then he's done. It is honest. Whatever an "honest day's work" means - I'd like to think it is that - putting every bit of your energy into the day at hand, holding nothing back. Then you're done.

It's been like that around here lately. When the days get long, and the rains stop for a while...the kids are out of school, then work begins in earnest. It is time to fence, move fences, repair fences, cross-fence, paint fences...and when the fencing is done (is it ever done?) it's time to spruce up the buildings...weed the garden...water...wash the wool...wash the clothes...clean the house...you don't have to look far to find something to do.

You can easily fill a day from sun up to sun down. And when the sun finally goes down, you are tired. Happily, pleasantly, completely spent. Like the cat. And then you sleep. As hard as you worked. And sleep has never felt better. Because you earned it.

What happened?

Monica's twin Minnie delivered twins on Saturday, her first lambing as well, at her new farm.

One lamb was more vigorous, which is not unusual, and the smaller was soon recovered by bottlefeeding in the shepherdess' care as Minnie seemed overwhelmed by motherhood, and more so the task of raising twins. By evening, the first was found dead, so the second was returned to the lambless mother, and it too suffered an apparent trampling, like the first. Why?

I question what I might have done differently as the parent farm. The shepherdess did all that I would have done, and having grown up on farms, and experienced birth and bonding in whelping litters of puppies, is as experienced and capable as they come. Why was Minnie unsuccessful? The shepherdess started her flock with two bred yearling ewes. It seemed like a good start, and many choose to begin flocks this way. But now I question, even though "everybody is doing it," is it the wisest start? As a parent farm, judging from this tragic outcome, and heartbreak as an introduction to sheep, what can I do to ensure future success of our daughter flocks? What can I learn from this?

Yes, Soay sheep are wild sheep, and prized for their ease of lambing, and lack of assistance required from a shepherd...they are natural mothers, and bummer lambs are few. I do not want to detract from this quality, but can I manage them differently to ensure this success?

To begin, as my ewe lambs are growing, I think it might be helpful if I handle their udders, so the sensation of nursing doesn't come as such a shock...

In placing bred ewes perhaps a yearling would be more successful if she were with an older ewe who has lambed, to learn from observation. Monica had this advantage. She watched her mother lamb, and her aunt, and was able to see her aunt care for twins through the jug rails. She saw them nursing, and heard the "mama speak" that Stellar used to call, calm and admonish the lambs while waiting for her own to be delivered. To ease the shock of motherhood, she had the reassurance of the experienced mothers, and is growing comfortable in her role, as did the yearlings that lambed here last year...Minnie didn't have this. Is this the critical difference?

Perhaps I will also delay the breeding of the young ewes a month, so that the older ewes lamb first, and the first-time mothers-to-be have a good chance to observe and grow accustomed to all that motherhood entails...

Will the other yearling succeed after having witnessed the demise of the other's lambs? Will her instinct carry her and her lamb, or is modelling from other members of a flock critical? In my opinion, from this point, it is preferred...

Good Morning to Ewe!

Stellar's twins arrived early (5:30 am) yesterday morning, and Praise God! I was there. It is in the 20's overnight still, quite a shock for a little wet lamb, and a brutal wake up to the world outside a warm mama, even when born in the barn. I helped towel them dry and rub them warm as Stellar nuzzled them and encouraged them to take breakfast. I was too guarded yesterday to write, as there is always a weaker twin, but as you can see from the family portrait (taken this morning, 24 hours later) I woke up to a happy, cozy little sheep family in their jug in the barn while outside, it is snowing again. The snow that fell in back in December still covers the ground...will we ever see signs of Spring outside the barn?

True to form, Stellar and Garcia have produced a little ram lamb, Promised Land Eli, and a little ewe lamb, Promised Land Elsie. Elsie is in the foreground, and Eli is atop mama.

I missed Bible Study to keep vigil over the lambs, should one start to decline. I had a moment of guilt, thinking that I wasn't where I was supposed to be. What a strange thought, because God is with me wherever I am, and he has given me stewardship over these animals, trusted them to my care. I love my Bible Study group, and the women are so dear to me. It is truly the highlight of my week. But I have learned more about my relationship with Jesus and His character through caring for my sheep.

There are so many references to sheep in the Bible, and to Jesus as our Good Shepherd. Caring for my sheep makes these passages so real - they are no longer words on a page. Each day I check the sheep several times, each one. To them it must seem that I am just scanning the horizon, but in reality, I am looking at eyes, ears, noses, coats, alertness, girth, fetal movement, signs of labor, hooves, condition, is the temperature comfortable, what is the condition of the pasture, have they enough water, are the fences secure, is foul weather impending, is there adequate shade, are my older ewes still thriving - does anyone need special care? As they approach lambing, I will check even hourly, or find work to do in the barn, so I can hear any sign of distress...each one is counted, and each one is precious. God does the same for us, each one of us, all of the time.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is the 23rd Psalm, familiar to many as the one read at death. It is so much more! It is about life, not death. Recently I found a book written by Phillip Keller, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. You will never look at a reference to sheep or The Shepherd in the same way...

First Lamb of 2008

Our 2008 lambing season is rife with

trepidation and anticipation...

Typically we would be pasture lambing this time of year, but winter gave us record snowfall, and little melting. Our pastures are still covered in deep snow and ice, and where we plowed to give the sheep access to the outdoors a couple of months ago is now mud and standing water. I brought in wooden pallets to construct a sheep bridge to the snowbanks so they could traverse the moat. On a sunny day, rather than a bucolic scene reminiscent of Currier & Ives, the sheep laying on the snow look like walruses sunning on ice floes at the North Pole. In a typical year, they would be dispersed throughout the pastures, nibbling new shoots of grass, the fields dotted with frisky little lambs! Not this year. We have been setting up lambing jugs in the barn, and stocking up bedding to keep everybody clean and warm. Rather than being thrilled at the prospect of lambs, we are uneasy, knowing that a break in the weather is not coming, in fact it is supposed to continue to snow all week...Having brought in a new flock of Icelandics in January with uncertain lambing dates adds to the concern...

joy and sorrow...

Last night, when I went out to feed, I was surprised to discover Eclipse, our first lamb of 2008! What joy! She was born to Aurora, one of our senior Soay ewes, who had not shown any sign of an impending delivery at midday. Not surprising with the experienced ones, who do well on their own. But only one? Aurora always twins with this breeding...we searched and sadly found the first twin, another ewe, had died of exposure during Aurora's efforts to care for the second. Eclipse must have come quickly, because Aurora hadn't had time to dry the first. We have never lost a lamb at birth before. We knew a day would come...and sadly it is here.
We joyfully welcome Promised Land Eclipse, and sorrowfully part with her twin, Promised Land Eternity, knowing that despite the loss, we are blessed.

Resignation

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There is no flock, however watched and tended,

But one dead lamb is there!

There is no fireside, howsoe`er defended,

But has one vacant chair!

The air is full of farewells to the dying,

And mournings for the dead;

The heart of Rachel, for her children crying,

Will not be comforted!

Let us be patient! These severe afflictions

Not from the ground arise,

But oftentimes celestial benedictions

Assume this dark disguise.

We see but dimly through the mists and vapors;

Amid these earthly damps

What seem to us but sad, funereal tapers

May be heaven`s distant lamps.

There is no Death! What seems so is transition;

This life of mortal breath

Is but a suburb of the life elysian,

Whose portal we call Death.

She is not dead, - the child of our affection, -

But gone unto that school

Where she no longer needs our poor protection,

And Christ himself doth rule.

In that great cloister`s stillness and seclusion,

By guardian angels led,

Safe from temptation, safe from sin`s pollution,

She lives whom we call dead.

Day after day we think what she is doing

In those bright realms of air;

Year after year, her tender steps pursuing,

Behold her grown more fair.

Thus do we walk with her, and keep unbroken,

The bond which nature gives,

Thinking that our remembrance, though unspoken,

May reach her where she lives.

Not as a child shall we again behold her;

For when with raptures wild

In our embraces we again enfold her,

She will not be a child;

But a fair maiden, in her Father`s mansion,

Clothed with celestial grace;

And beautiful with all the soul`s expansion

Shall we behold her face.

And though at times impetuous with emotion

And anguish long suppressed,

The swelling heart heaves moaning like the ocean,

That cannot be at rest, -

We will be patient, and assuage the feeling

We may not wholly stay;

By silence sanctifying, not concealing,

The grief that must have way.