Sleep or lack thereof

Joe's acute realization when discussing our 3am sheep checks: Most people count sheep to fall asleep. We however wake up to count sheep.

A walk with Nellie

This is long overdue. One of my first weeks here I decided to take a walk around the farm to get my bearings. It all seems so long ago now but unfortunately you know how it goes with having to take time to upload pictures...

Anyway, Nellie, one of the farm dogs, decided to tag along and be my guide:

First while walking up the driveway we marveled at the fields bursting with rain:
Second on our trip we stopped to look at the sheep and the one guard llama that takes care of the flock:

Turning back around, Nellie finally took me down to the river where we played a nice game of fetch:

What a lovely walk!

Poppy

Having just been born Saturday night, Poppy successfully remained a name-less lump of wool until today. Up until now everyone simply called her “the little black lamb” or “my little furry friend”, but that was getting tiresome. Unhappy with her nameless state we spent all day yesterday and today trying to find a name that fit. The first suggestion was to call her Beatrice but after spending enough time with her I didn’t think it fit quite right so I kept searching. Joe wanted something bold and courageous like Braveheart or something but that didn’t seem to stick either. It wasn’t until today that I was weighing 577 bags of spinach leaves in the shop with the women that we found something a bit more promising. When I asked them for name suggestions they laughed and shrugged it off but after I pried a bit harder, Panchi finally suggested calling her “Amapola” which means poppy in Spanish. Even though Panchi had never even met the little lamb, I knew right away that it fit her well. If nothing else, she was a perfect representation of a poppy seed, small and black.

For the last part of the day I’ve started calling her Poppy and Amapola interchangeably, which is a working example of my naming dilemma. I had initially wanted to name her something that could be translated to both English and Spanish. But after hearing Panchi say “Amapola”, I couldn’t think of a better name so I decided we would just have to deal with the language barriers. The current problem was pointed out by Rawley today which is that when you say Poppy in a Spanish accent it sounds a bit like you’re saying Papi, which is a completely different thing. Due to these complications the name is not set in stone yet but I’m thinking she’s just going to have to be spunky lamb with a spunky name.

Lamby Pen

These days time to write is dwindling. But with my new friend Poppy currently napping in a pile of straw I finally get a short break from the hours of dedication. This morning I spent a big chunk of time lamb-proofing my whole trailer to make sure Poppy could live with me. Mostly what this means is I went around cleaning all the spills she had made last night and mopped the floors a bit to make them less sticky. After all, it had only been a day of being with her and already I was getting fed up with jumping off the bed and stepping in a fresh pile of soggy wetness with my bare feet. With this in mind, I also decided to create a tiny pen to contain her spills. By taking two boards of wood I managed to section off an entire corner of my trailer which I then lined and filled with straw. (So far I don’t hear any bleats so I think it must be up to her standards!)

New roommate

How sweet the feeling of the warm spot a dog leaves behind when it’s been sleeping there all afternoon. I was able to recall this comforting sensation when my dog came for a visit to the farm yesterday. Today however, the black blob that I remember so clearly lying on my bed just a few hours ago has been replaced by a much smaller black blob. A tiny black lamb that is at this very moment wandering around my trailer, investigating the few square feet that make up my floor space and nudging inanimate objects in search of milk. Abandoned by her mother at birth, I have somewhat inadvertently accepted the responsibility for her well-being.

Today has been a momentous day; first I experienced what it’s like to be literally boxed in when I constructed 277 CSA boxes for Joaquina in the shop. Then, Rawley and I spent the entire day making chicken feed, carefully measuring out portions to keep a somewhat balanced 4:1 starch to protein ratio. But none of these new experiences came even close to the life that I have now been put in charge of. Every four hours my new wobbly-legged friend needs to be fed and I have already had to clean up quite a few “leaks”. Nonetheless I can already tell this will be more than worth it.

But I can already tell it will all be more than worth it.