Peaceful? What next?

Good evening all you shepherds and artists and knitters and everyone!
I know, I know....I have been paralyzed myself....trying to avoid making out registrations and transfers shut all my other writing down too....now that I have done a few....I feel better.
Which brings me to a short story.
Today, with a lull in the winter weather, we went to the store. Now for a local grocery, we are 45 minutes one way. So for an almost real store like wally world....we are an hour and a quarter one way...unless there is a slow person driving the same way we are ( which there was).
Getting my "fix" of ooh and ahh looking at cool stuff at Lowes, a fistful of paint samples and food at the grocery....we left for home. Our long driveway off the highway is home to two other full timers and two weekenders. So, as we were driving the required 10 miles an hour down our bumpy gravel road my Husband and I said something at the same time.
He said....Boy, this is remote!...and I said ....Boy, this is peaceful!
Wrong attitude.
Around the bend we slid to a slow stop seeing a tractor blocking the road. It doesn't take more than one car to block the road....so we pulled over on the leaves on the side....then we noticed the road behind the tractor was blocked by a big bale of hay just laying there. After a little manuvering, our weekender neighbor drove past us with his bale of hay for the horses, and we drove towards home.... driving around the piles of hay left in the road.
Looking around at the hills....next....we saw a herd of cows standing on the hill under the high wires. Whoops....someone lost their cows.
So we went home and called the nearest cow-neighbor that answered the phone....Have you lost any cows? As we were unloading groceries, the other cow-neighbor sped by. Obviously he never heard of the 10 mile an hour speed limit. A few minutes later we followed him to announce the presence of stray cows. In the city, you could meet blocks of neighbors in 15 minutes....here it takes that long to FIND a neighbor. He was turning around to see if he knew who they belonged to....so we followed him towards home. Finally, after talking to both the cow-neighbor and the weekender neighbor....we got home to do chores....We checked the back meadow to see if we had cows....but not so far.
I really don't want cows for christmas.
So the moral is....nothing ever happens....unless you are thinking everything is peaceful!

Winter 2008 in the meadow & woods

Wow, Can you believe it?

I just am not ready for winter to be here, although we have had a very cold fall. Since thanksgiving the pond has been frozen many days. I always worry about ice on the pond, Mr Kitty, our real house cat has fallen in through the ice more than once. One time making a path thru the ice about 20 feet long before flying into the front door.

My sheep are doing well. Yes, I still have sheep. The great pyrs are sometimes sleeping in the barn, sometimes on the front porch. We put all the lights on inside the barn, and one outside too. That's besides the safety light we had installed on a light pole in the yard outside the barn. We hope between the barking dogs and the lights, that our wandering non-house-cat kitty will stay away from the ewes. It seems ridiculous in 2008 to be worried about a big kitty eating sheep....but we are remote. At least the snakes are all asleep in the cold weather. We lost two ram lambs out in the meadow this fall. At first, I thought it must be a lone coyote....but the second one was definitely our kitty. A neighbor from the same valley told about following the kitty down the road one day...."he was a big one too"....we haven't read about any more sightings in the local news tho. We moved the remaining boys up by the ewes. There are five out there now, and I have one to pick up who was breeding away from home. I was surprised that more of the girls didn't seem to be interested in our ram lambs. The only thing I can say, is that older ewes are definitely horn-snobs. The bigger the horns on the rams....the more they are interested. So unless some ewe backed up to the fence, and some ram figured out a method.....they should be unbred. Don't laugh....last year our 8 year old ewe taught a yearling ram the fence-method of breeding.

We are still waiting to hear if we are closing this month on the deralict vistorian house. Did I mention that Missouri house prices are down about half this year? And the rumored lay-offs are going to decimate this county.

But the real reason, I am writing is to say Merry Christmas to all of my friends out there....especially the ones who helped me by taking some sheep this past year. I know they are better off away from this valley, but I miss them....and if I am late on transfers, it's because reading all their names makes me sad.

This is a photo of Curly Locks, she is gone now to the big green pasture....but we will all miss her. Curly Locks, you were a good ewe...and pretty too, and your lambs will live on. Curly Locks was AgAa....and was born a twin to a perfect little sister, Ballet. Ballet was a yuglet sokket AaAa, but Ballet was paralyzed. I am going to think of Curly Locks and Ballet reunited and running together thru that big green pasture in the sky.

Here's wishing you all a worderful spring, with lots of lambs bouncing in the green pasture outside your homes.