Sunday Muse

As a child, my father helped me dig
a square of dense red clay, mark off rows
where zinnias would grow,
and radishes and tender spinach leaves.
He’d stand with me each night
as daylight drained away
to talk about our crops leaning on his hoe
as I would practice leaning so on mine.
Years later now in my big garden plot,
the soggy remnant stems of plants
flopped over several months ago,
the ground is cold, the berries gone,
the stakes like hungry sentries
stand guarding empty graves. And still
I hear his voice asking what I think
would best be planted once the weather warms.

“Lonely Harvest” from Family Constellation by Margaret S. Mullins

three :: mosey + plod

Come walk in the knoll pasture.  We might as well check the fenceline as we walk the perimeter.  This is a really hilly pasture, so I hope you’re wearing comfortable boots.

Bella has spotted us and comes running.  She is very excited to join us.

More excitement, as Bella has spotted a long, lost old bone

Looking up from the bottom of the hill, we can see that there’s plenty of shelter in this pasture – a small box shelter and plenty of trees that are the most popular spot in the pasture.

Walking a little farther, we discover a ground hog hole… actually we find four of them.  We’ll have to get them filled in before late spring.  They’re a danger to the sheep, and a real danger to the tractor drivers when we brush hog the pasture.

Now we have reached one of my favorite spots on the farm.  When you stand down here, it’s as if you are in the bottom of a bowl.  The steep sides of the pasture curve around.  You feel sheltered and protected.  It’s magical.

Our daydreaming is quickly interrupted because here come the girls over in the adjoining pasture.  They’re looking for breakfast.
Bella says we better head up the hill and get to the barn before the girls stage a break-out.  We pick up the pace and move on toward the top of the hill and morning chores.

mosey + plod :: two

 

It’s time for week two of mosey + plod.  Let’s meander though the back pasture… look there’s Daisy waiting by the gate to welcome us.  We are all enjoying a break in the wintry weather with sunshine and temperatures near sixty.
 
Looking back over our shoulder, Moe is standing guard at the fence, stamping his feet, making sure that Raven is not going to somehow sneak inside the pasture. 
 

Walking down the hill toward Madison, we come to the little wooden bridge we built across the gully.  For some reason it always reminds me of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and as usual I start mimicking The Troll “Who’s that trip-trapping across my bridge?” in my scariest, deepest troll-like voice.  Luckily, there is no troll waiting for us today, and we make it safely across with just a little slipping and sliding on the mossy boards.
 


 

Making the turn up the hill we find evidence of the wild turkeys, squirrels and chipmunks feasting under the hickory and walnut trees.  There still seems to be plenty of mast on the ground so hopefully the wildlife will have a good winter.
After following us for awhile and checking our pockets for carrots, Liam and the rest of the sheep have lost interest in us and have gone back up to the top of the pasture to graze.  They are intent on finding what ever green bits they can while there is no snow cover.

 

Walking on through the pasture to one of the bottom gates, if we look through the trees, we can see Poseidon and his girls over on the knoll pasture. 
Maybe, we will mosey over there next week.

(I am so excited to be a part of this amazing group of walkers put together by urban.prairie.forest to honor her Grandma Jean.  Thank you for this wonderful project!)

Winter Feeding

The sheep and the rest of the animals have worn icy paths between feeding areas and shelter.  They traveled back and forth, back and forth to eat and then to find shelter from the snow and wind.  We’ve been feeding the two groups farthest away from the barn via sled, as the snow got too deep for the ranger. 
We should have changed the rams’ marking crayons during this most recent storm, but decided not to. Four of the ewes were marked the second breeding cycle.  We decided to take the chance that they were caught the second time around or that they will be bred by the clean-up ram.  As soon as there is enough snow melt, we’ll break up the breeding groups and move all the ewes to the barnyard.  While the snow has been beautiful, we are really looking forward to a few days of milder weather.