Our son-by-love, Chip, a lamb, not sure which one, and me...........................Today is Friday and it's Show and Tell Time over at Kelli's.............
Today, I want to tell you about my 'stock'...........my flock of pet sheep......they are a memory now but they were such a blessing while I had them.......
Once upon a time, many years ago, it was my dream to have sheep....I am an avid reader and my favorite books are those which have pastoral scenes with sheep grazing on the country side. The rock fences, I believe are called hahas, meandering through the hill side. I 've always thought they are such peaceful animals. They are mentioned so many times in the Bible and in parables. Our daughter, Amy, was dating a boy she met in college who lived in another state and had neighbors who raised sheep. Through him, I was able to purchase a bred ewe...... One of her lambs had won the Oklahoma State Lamb Show so we were told. We got her at Christmas. Several friends gave me a 'sheep shower'. Some of my gifts were a bale of hay, a baby book........
I read everything I could find about lambs being born...I wanted to a good shepherdess...I read about swinging them around by holding on to their legs if they weren't breathing when they were born to force air into their lungs, how to dock their tails, etc. Lambs are born with long tails resembling rope.
I was so excited awaiting the birth....I wanted to help her when the time came. I had company one rainy, cold day and we were in the kitchen having coffee. I looked out the kitchen window and thought I saw something small and gray. I ran to the sheep pen and do you know Baabaa had had that lamb right by herself without my help!.........It was a ram and we name him Rambo....He grew into a very big ram.....Once when I turned my back to him, he butted me to the ground. That was a mistake that I didn't make again. I have a picture of Rambo's first birthday cake with him wearing a party hat somewhere.....his round cake was oats held together with syrup. I carried the first lambs to the vet to have their tails docked. He let me hold them down for the procedure. Later, we docked them.
When I was carrying one to the vet, I always went by the nursing home. Most of the residents had never seen a newborn lamb. They have hard, knotted wool.
My husband with some of the sheep. We had several sets of twins......I have pictures of the sheep out in the tall, green grass that is so pretty, but I couldn't find them. I'll post them another time........
I'm holding one of the lambs and swinging with my daughter Mindy.........
Baabaa, my first sheep....this was her first Christmas picture with us...complete with Christmas wreath.....I have a big picture like this framed........Amy said unless you were a sheep or had gotten married (her sister had recently married) you didn't have a big picture hanging in our home.
One of our lambs....when our lambs were born, they were always given a name..one year they all had Bible names, another year they had herb names, one year I named them after ladies at church.......
Sheep are such interesting animals and creatures of habit...... we had an electric fence around a grazing area, when it was moved they would not go past where it had been. Once we had gone to see sheep being sheared and were told one could be sheared in ten minutes..when we sheared out first one, it was about 2 hours and she looked pitiful with tags of wool hanging here and there. Sheep shearers have the softest hands due to the lanolin in the wool.
When we moved away for seven years, I had to sell my sweet flock....it broke my heart....but we were going to shepherd one of God's flocks.........now that we are back on the farm, maybe one day there will be sheep in the sheep pen once again............
