Shepherd's Helpers

Over the holidays, I have had a neighbor helping with the sheep. Unfortunately, the flock has not been too cooperative and has given the shepherd's helpers some difficulty. I don't know if it's only my sheep who seem to get so attached or accustomed to one caretaker, but they are very skittish and unwilling to go into the barn for others. For me, the grain bucket just needs to be tapped a little bit and they all come running. Never any difficulty at all getting them in and fed at night.
However, that's not the story when others have taken care of them in my absence.
Yesterday during the blizzard, they were safe and sound, warm and cozy - all were in and doors were closed, keeping wet snow out and wooly critters dry. I am eager to see them and all of the snow we've gotten while I have been away visiting family, and as long as there are still ten little sheep when I get back to The Salty Ewe, it's all good.
Being with family has been a much needed and relaxing time, and even though I have been far from the farm, it's been clear to me that the Salty Ewe has become a state of mind for me as much as a physical location. So much to be thankful for as 2010 comes to a close, and good neighbors and friends who watch over the flock and the other beasts are a big part of that feeling. So, cheers to you all and thank you for everything that you do for all of us.

Winter's Here

Wise One of the Neighborhood

We're finally getting some decent snow today. Woke up to a fresh coating of fluffy, white stuff...sticking to the trees and making everything look so pristine and calm. Beate loved it and did some prancing and pouncing, which was wonderful to see. The sheep were in fine form, too. The black ewe lambs were jumping and wiggling all over the place, and the older ewes were even doing some dancing, too.

This photo is one that a neighbor took and mailed to me a couple of years ago. He's a resident owl and is often seen sitting down the road on this sign. I love listening to them at night, hooting to each other from across the fields. I think there are Great Horned as well as this type, which I think is a Barred Owl. The wise men of Monkeytown.

The Shortest Days

sheepish

Yesterday was a beautiful day - the kind that is somewhat rare in mid-December in Maine. Sunny, not too cold, no wind. It was a day to get some chores done outside. To spend some good time with faithful Beate and enjoy the quiet rhythm of a Saturday. Had a special visit from Lori and celebrated her birthday with lunch down at the Pier and some quality time here at the Salty Ewe. While I unloaded some hay, she got out her camera and took some beautiful pictures of everyone (including this one, which I love).

I knew something wasn't quite right when I could not open up the door. Looked in to see a small mess - they had knocked over a partition and gotten into the grain bucket. I squeezed myself into the barn and cleaned up the mess, assessing the damage and trying to determine just how much grain they had eaten.
Meanwhile, the ewes flocked together outside, looking sheepish in every sense of the word. They truly had little guilty looks on their faces - smiles that had a sneaky sheep look about them. It was pretty funny. More funny after I figured that they had not eaten enough to hurt them. Lori took some gorgeous pictures of them while I unloaded the truck - her eye is enviable, and I really enjoy looking at the images that she takes of my sheep. It's fun to see how other people see them. Beate was feeling better and enjoyed wandering around, sniffing and marking, while Lori and I talked and soaked in the sun, the view and each other's company.

These short, short days are sometimes difficult - especially when there's no sun. But, the winter solstice is just days away now, and our days will slowly get longer again. Eventually, I suspect we'll get some snow. The sheep's fleeces will continue to thicken, and Bella and Callie will start to waddle. Winter will melt away into Spring. The rhythm of the seasons. You have to have those shortest days in order to have the longest ones.

Looking Back. And Ahead.

One of my favorite pictures ever. By Lori Schafer

The Babydolls on the day they arrived

It was about this time of year, almost ten years ago now, that I got my first sheep. Faith, Hope and Charity were Jacobs and scheduled to be slaughtered unless someone took them in. The Amazing Tony Elliott of Snug Harbor Farm knew that I had been thinking about getting sheep and knew I was a softie who would definitely want to help when I heard the story behind these sheep. They taught me so much about raising and caring for sheep - not easy lessons and not easily learned, but all important and very necessary events.  I lost track of how many lambs were born on the Salty Ewe back in those days; there were many after the first tragic year. The Jacob lambs are incredibly cute with those spots, and the horns are fun to watch grow as well.

It was the horns and the sheer size of the breed that made me start thinking about downsizing to miniature sheep. When I found out about three Babydoll Southdowns who were living in someone's backyard in what I consider to be a pretty urban part of Massachusetts, I was very interested. It was a unique transaction, and I discovered quickly that the ram was quite aggressive. When I called the woman from whom I'd bought the sheep to ask if he had shown this dangerous behavior with her, she responded by writing that he had never "butted her in the head"(I'd used the term head butting) and that he was only 'really bad' when it came time to feed them. As a self-taught and relatively novice farmer, I did know that rams who were aggressive were not good to keep around. I gave it time and tried to work with him, but after he broke my knee with a swift butt to the leg, I knew that something needed to change. It was like he had a little sheep complex, and he was far more difficult to handle than any of the Jacob rams had ever been. In the end, he sired some beautiful lambs and one ram, Bill, who has stayed on and kept all of his positive characteristics. Rollie went on to a 4-H family and is quite well-behaved in his new home from what I have heard.

So, it's funny as I look back and think about how I was trying to find easier sheep to handle by sizing down and what I ended up with was a ram who was far more aggressive and two ewes who were far less social than what I had before. I missed the Jacobs for a long time and sadly think they met no happy end when the woman I sold them to changed her life's direction (she has not responded to emails inquiring about them). You try and try to plan and make changes to improve or ease your life, and in the end, it sometimes feels like it's all for naught. What will be, will be. No matter how much we plan or prepare, the outcome will still and always be what it was intended to be. No matter.

'Tis the Season

We're finally having Winter-like weather in southern Maine, and while we still haven't had any accumulating snow, the temperatures have dropped significantly and the skies are looking darker and more foreboding these days. The northern part of the state got a lot of snow on Monday, and while I am not ready to start the shoveling routine yet, I admit the the perks of copious amounts of snow do make the day job more appealing. Snow days as an adult are so much better than they ever were as a kid, and I am always as excited as the kids about predictions of big storms and possible snow days.
The sheep's fleeces are growing in quickly now that the weather's turned cold. I sunk my hand into little Obed's coat this morning and my fingers sunk in well above my knuckles - so, judging he's got a nice 4" fleece at this point. I am going to try to enter his fleece and some others into the Common Ground fleece show next September. I've never thought too seriously about coating them, since I love looking at their colors and the palette of wooly hues out there, but if I am going to get more serious about their fleeces, I will need to pay more attention to the stray hay this winter. Am going to look into some new feeders that I saw at Common Ground - canvas bags that hang from the wall, allowing the animals to pull out the hay they want. We'll see whether they work for my flock and if they help to minimize veggie matter in the wool.

Loki and Odin

It's all a big learning curve, that's for sure. One more thing that makes me happy about living at The Salty Ewe with all of these peaceful critters ... all the critters - Loki and Odin, Beate and the wooly wonders.
They are my little animal family.
Like Randall Jarrell's The Animal Family, a beautiful book that I first read many years ago, I am surrounded by fur and wool and love. And, though I am not a lonely hunter, I find great comfort and solace in their company; the substitute family that I call mine is no match for the real animals to whom I am related (all of whom live too far away for my liking (whose blood has thinned and coats have shed to suit their Southern climates) but they do the trick in a pinch. 'Tis the season to be thankful and joyous and peaceful. And, that I am.

My Beate

Jumping for Joy

Wooly Running Bella

While we don't have snow yet in Maine (this is am image from last winter), the ground has frozen and so the sheep are eating hay and grain now rather than grasses. The morning ritual has taken on a new twist, and each day for the past week I have had a lot of fun watching the sheep jump with joy as they follow me out to the spot in the field where I drop them a small pile of hay.
The younger ones actually leave the ground, wiggling and running into the air as their little heads bob up and down with excitement. They kick up their back feet and do a little shimmy as they bound across the field around me - some in front, some to the side and usually one or two behind me (Callie and Bella, the two matrons of the flock).
Bill has quieted down and seems very content in his pen, and even though he cannot get too close to the ewes, he is still able to see them most of the time. At night, he can hear and smell them. He does his own macho version of the wiggle dance when he gets his breakfast - which involves a bit of head bobbing and a quickened pace as he runs around the fenced area that he has...
The early morning light has been beautiful the past few mornings, with Venus shining bright at the tip of a waning crescent moon this morning as I did the morning chores. Yesterday, we had a gorgeous pink and red sky as the sun rose; the clouds were all lit up from underneath, and I stood there for several minutes, soaking it all in and listening to the contented sheep munching away on their hay. It is a simple and good life here at the Salty Ewe. Even on the darkest and most difficult days, these sheep make me smile and bring me back to a place of humility and thankfulness.