It has been roughly 3 months since our last post about life here on the farm, and in that time much has happened. We have had our ups and downs, our struggles and our victories. However, we have also had new blood here on the farm, both figuratively and literally.
Let us go back to the start of the year. Recently someone purchased the land next to us where there is a LOT Of overgrown vegetation. We have been given permission to take all the weeds that we want from up there to feed our sheep with the promise that once it is gated off from the surrounding area we can then let our sheep roam up there all the day long and eat to their hearts content. So we are allowing all of our females up there(11 currently) to go up and clean the lot for the new owner. This is a tremendous blessing, as it has reduced our feed bill huge amounts and lets our sheep really travel and burn off all that um… *gulp* “delicious” grass stuff calories. To facilitate this better we have taken the ewes out of their pens with the respective mates, and brought them out to the area where we have many of our fruit trees and vines. They promptly went to work and ate all the vegetation on the ground and cleared that area along with some of the bark from out trees. We have since fixed this problem but some of the damage was already done. Have I mentioned before that we are learning on the go?
Meet Ender:
he is lively, super happy to see just about anyone, mail lady excluded, and overall a great dog. He is normally our front yard dog, but we will on occasion take him out to the back lot to help round up the chickens which he does faster than I can even begin to start getting one herded to where they belong. However, recently we had a visitor come over and they did not close the gate behind them, so Ender thinking he had free reign of the land went out the gate, but there were not any chickens to herd, no, only the females we have been letting roam around. So he chased them all around freaking out our sheep, and even biting one of them in an attempt to control them I guess. We got him back in the yard, and everything was fine up until about 2 weeks ago when he got out again, same method of the gate being left open, this time he actually got a hold of one of the Ewe’s legs and tore a good portion of skin off of it, we have been keeping it bandaged and cleaning it, she is no longer limping on it and is able to get around and eat again, but we were very concerned for her for a while as she is one of our pregnant ewes.
As of last Monday we got a set of clipping shears so that I can shear our sheep. I have used these a little bit already to clear the back ends of some of our expecting ewe’s. Problem is that I am not even an amateur at this, I am a complete cotton headed ninny muggins. One of our sheep is showing pretty much one cheek, while another looks like she has coat tails. I figure with time I can get better at this, and save myself some money and turn it into a great homeschooling lesson for the kids. I will be taking pictures of the sheep once sheared for my records or just a good story.
Now for the good news, we just had our first set of Spring lambs(pictured below). They look more like their father Frank, and follow in suit as they are twin males. Minnie, their mother, is already taking to their needs and treating them with all the love a lamb can get. I love observing little lambs and thinking about how our Lord Christ is compared to a Lamb.
Personally before I owned any sheep, I mistakenly thought of the expression more as Jesus is a sheep, gentle and all, but not really lamb like. Let me explain, a sheep, while being a prey animal is still capable of mauling more than just grass, in particular a full grown ram is rather powerful and not very docile. However, in looking at a lamb, they are gentle because they are not capable of being anything else, they cannot attack, they cannot play viciously, they are gentle, they are fragile, and they are rather loving. Do not get me wrong I am not trying to carry the analogy to its furthest and compare Christ to all these things, He is far from helpless, but the expression of a lamb is used to describe what I believe would be considered by those hearing among the most gentle of animals. Christ as our King is a lamb to those who are His, but He is also compared to a Lion, not only majestic but powerful and terrifying, as our Lord would be to His enemies.