Why I Farm, Revisited
I spent last week on vacation, and so am reprinting an article I posted in April 13, 2012. It's as relevant now as it was then, and I hope you enjoy it if you haven't seen it. Here it is:Last Saturday my teenage ewe, Butterfinger, had her first lamb. I found her in the barn pen, licking off a slippery package of skin-covered bones covered with tiny whorls of wool and placental slime. Even though she was a first-time mom, she was a good one. She attended to her lamb just as she should, licking off the sack and clearing her head and nose first, nickering to her repeatedly, and standing patiently during the lamb’s first wobbly attempts to find the faucet. After I had seen that things Read More
On vacation. Sending flowers.
I'm officially on vacation as of today, Monday August 5th.In lieu of a real post, I'm sending flowers. I am lost in the lilies.Not to mention this ridiculously as-big-as-your-head hibiscus.Maggie and I are working hard getting ready for the Midwest Championship Sheepdog Competition. Here's a lovely view I enjoy while driving back from practicing on a friend's huge field. (Thank you JH!)Maggie needs to be comfortable running out over 350-400 yards to find the sheep (and I need to be comfortable sending her that far). I don't have a field even close to that big, so we work on other things at home. Here we are coming back from a session on the farm on a hot Read More
Dogs and Happiness
I miss Willie. Last week I sat by his grave and cried so hard I couldn't breathe. There are a lot of reasons that I miss him, but the biggest one is that he was one of the happiest dogs I've ever known. Here's what I wrote about dogs and happiness in For the Love of a Dog, Chapter 7, page 217:It’d been a hard day. Too many difficult cases with heart-broken owners and dangerous dogs. Too many computer glitches and pens that ran out of ink. We all have our own versions of it, but everyone knows what it feels like to have a tough day. I remember walking into the farmhouse exhausted and depressed, burdened by the day behind me, tired from thinking about the chores that lay ahead. There were Read More