Viewpoint

Things really are starting to fall into a routine around here.  It is hard for me to believe that we’ve been living here for less than 6 months.  It seems like a lifetime, a GOOD lifetime.  It feels like we belong here, and believe me, we aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.  It would be a gross understatement to say that things have been a bit challenging at times.  There has been a huge adjustment to all the different things about having a farm, having big chores to do and having animals that need us, every day of the year.  I was no stranger to these things before, but we are now dealing with a MUCH larger scale.

This morning, I was out milking the cow, just like I do every other day, and I realized that your attitude and viewpoint really matter in any given situation.  I was milking, and as usual, the cat was slowly sneaking up closer and closer so that he could get any of the milk that missed the milk bucket.  On any other day, I find it a bit of an annoyance, and I shoo him off.  Today, I let him sit next to me, and I really started to enjoy his company.  As I was getting used to the idea of letting the cat stick around, a stray chicken strolled into the milking parlor and decided to hang out.

I went out to milk a week or so ago, and I found that this one chicken had decided she didn’t like the living quarters in the coop and that she much preferred sleeping in the straw in the milk parlor.  In truth, from her viewpoint, we are in HER way.  After all, she made up a nice little nest and here I come with a milk bucket and a 1000 pound animal standing in HER bed.  Did it deter her, no, she just walked under the legs of the cow right up to the nest she had made by the head of the cow, and sat down to enjoy the show.

It made me get to thinking that the way I take these little things really say a lot about me as a person.  Rather than fret that the chickens have discovered how to fly over the fence and that the cat is trying to steal my milk, I could admire the variety and the idiosyncracies that come with working with animals.  They do each have their own little personality.  It’s kind of like a farm version of stopping to smell the roses.

In fact, for a brief moment, I figured I was in heaven.  What more is there to the simple farm life than sitting on an old milking stool milking the cow while the stray chicken and the anxious cat supervise?  It is these individual personalities that make this farming thing so darn much fun.

Shearing the Sheep and Goats

Sheep are essentially field decorations except for two or thee times a year when you have to shear them, lamb them or harvest them.  Other than that, they’d much rather be left alone.

This year, all the ewes are bred, and they are out on pasture.  They had been shorn at odd times last year and one or two were actually shedding.  I called the shearer out to get the fleeces of the sheep and the goats in a way that would render them useful for spinning.

I have clippers, and I knew I was capable of shearing myself, but I had to do an emergency shearing of the ram back in October when he got caught in some blackberries, and though I did get a usable fleece off him, I could have done a much better job.  I figured that I would watch and learn and hopefully build up my confidence in my ability to do yet another thing around the farm.

Boy! What an experience!  The person doing the shearing was fairly new at it, so she was having trouble doing it.  I learned quickly the general idea of how to do it, and realized that I really was capable enough to do the task.  She was able to get the blanket (the back and side wool) off everyone intact, and I am now the proud owner of some very stunning fiber!

That said, shearing 10 animals took almost 8 hours, so it was a LONG drawn out process.

Happily, I have some amazingly beautiful raw wool now available.  I’m happy with the variety we ended up with.  I’ve got 4 gorgeous Shetland fleeces.  I got 2 Pygora fleeces and3 Angora (mohair) fleeces.  This is all on top of the rabbit fiber that came off the rabbits last week!