goals

This was a discussion I saw on the new shetland list. If you haven't been invited to that list yet...you can contact me. I don't have the time to indulge, but I would be happy to hook anyone up that does.
I'm not talking about new years goals....I'm talking about life goals.
My new years goal list has lose-weight on it again....I had one new years that didn't include that.....that was fun to not worry about my weight. he he.....I have gained over 40 pounds since I moved south. Now here is an interesting thought. Why? I am mainly a binge eater....emotional eater....sweets fancier. I shouldn't have gained weight from a move.....??? Or should I.
Well.....to all those folks trying to take off a few pounds and get healthier....let me know when you find the answer.
What are your life goals?
How are you doing at reaching them?
If you are a younger person....you may just be trying to hold onto a house or job long enough to raise your kids. Life goals would be family centered. Raising sheep, where the home is in the country is a really good way to keep the children involved in your life.
If you are a middle aged person....you may be trying to balance caring for parents along with your growing family. My parents would have enjoyed sheep raising....my dad loved to build things and play with our cats when we lived in the city. My mother loved the cats too.....but didn't want to live on a farm. Too much like her own life, I guess. If you are a care-giver for older parents, get help. You won't be able to do it all yourself. Some parents have a way of out-living their children.
If you were as old as I am today....you would be balancing life goals realized, with life goals not experienced. What have I done in my life that I did well.....did badly....didn't like...loved? For years....I said that if I was given a terminal time for my life....I would go out and join an archaeology site. The pleasure of being outside, with team members....finding some lovely rock or bone...or bit of silver.....was so exciting to me that it colored all my life goals there-after.
You have to understand the city life. Cars, busses, shops, people, jobs, wages, fancy houses, achievement. Being in the newspapers, on tv, at parties, holding parties, dancing, newyears eve parties, getting raises, promoted, being boss.
I have recreated myself several times. I'm not complaining about what I have done....but I've done it already. For the last ten years I have been living in the country instead of the city. That is a joy right there. When I was standing at country auctions, I was so jealous. The country side is so much more relaxing than the city. I'm finally there. Whooppee!
So now what? Well, I did bring some bills with me. And some sheep, cats, a goose, and now I have dogs too. I had already mentioned that my sheep were a substitute for my care-giving job. But I developed goals along the way.
What were my goals for raising sheep? First, I wanted them to have lambs. Don't laugh....my first year everything happened to keep me from that goal. Once I got them to reproduce, I wanted spots. No....really!
New shepherds may not understand now that spots were rare when I started. There were a few breeders who had occasional spots, from certain lines.....but few breeders who actually WANTED them. I wanted them, and bought as many sheep as I could find and afford, that might have spotted lambs. It's been a few years now, spotted lambs are everywhere. If you don't have any go down the street and get a few. So why am I still breeding spotted sheep?
Well, there has been a recent emphasis on patterned sheep...on A-I sheep....on crosses of those lines....even with spotted sheep. I'm not involved in those breedings. I like rams....most of them....and I don't like poking holes in my girls. I have been doing a little breeding with colors, just for my own fun. I even bred with a grey ram this year to see what that would do to my fleeces.
But,
sorry....
my life's goal is not to provide you with a show sheep.
I have no interest in building a better sheep.
What I like having are the cutest lambs in the world. I want to breed little fluffy lambs with spots that are cute, different, and permanent. I want to sell the type of lamb that is so cute you want to pick it up and hug it. I would not be happy if all my spotted sheep looked the same. For that reason I collected several different rams with different types of spotting. I figure I did fine. I do have cute lambs. I've even sold lovely lambs who were friendly.
I want one more big bunch of spotted lambs. Lambs who race by in a blurr of spotted colors as they round the fence in their lamb races. I think that will make me happy. Then I want to find homes for them all. If the lambs born this year all lived out their life at my place....it would take me until 2020 to find time for some of my other life goals.
No, I don't want to wait that long.
I kept three spotted ewe lambs that were black and white last year, and one that was grey. Of the other three ewe lambs who are now yearlings...only one is registered. I would like to breed those four spotted ewe lambs next fall, and see what they produce. The three are Minwawe Pan's last girls. So it appears that my life goals of breeding sheep are winding down. I have a few friends, and cousins in this world that I would enjoy visiting. It would be fun to go away from home WITH my husband, instead of separately. We could call our kids and say..."WE are coming to visit" instead of just one of us.
I NEED time to walk on the beach. That has become my new life goal.
What a funny goal for a midwest girl raised near a lake. Our family didn't take many vacations when I was a kid. We went fishing often. I remember one winter when my dad and my brother made a wood fishing boat in the basement. It had four seats, and as smallest, I got to sit on the little one in the front. My dad was really good at fishing. He had a little phrase, when he got there. "Let me show you how to do that." He used that a lot as he showed me how to fish. I remember riding in his work truck out on the lake in the dark of winter. Windows open, hands on the door....ready to jump out if it went thru the ice. The ice that cracked and goaned in the cold darkness. One year we had a warm spell that threatened his ice-fishing house. Dad and I doned ice-skates and sloshed thru the water every afternoon to move the house out of the water and let it dry as the ice refroze. We skated fast along the shore as big chunks of ice cracked under our weight and tilted on the surface.
By the way....they had to break a hole in the basement wall to get that boat out in the spring.
I wonder if lack of planning has anything to do with the way I have lived my life? Who cares.
It's been good.
So what I have to say this January as we wait for those wet bouncing lambs....is take out your life's goals. Unpack them, and see how you are doing. Maybe a little planning will get your boat out of the basement.