Happy New Year....with all the bells and whistles!
Do you know what ever became of bopeep? After the sheep came home wagging their tails, did she send them to market....or take up knitting? Did bopeep grow up and get a job...leaving her younger sister to take up losing sheep?
I personally am waiting for the story to play out.
This bopeep has a few grey hairs and is still sporting a cold....but the remaining sheep have not gotten lost lately. I will admit that every morning as I walk the inside dog around the yard....security lights or not.....I always wonder if there is a big kitty standing out there in the dark beyond the bushes. What would I do if one leaped out to grab me in the dark? I know big kitty cats are supposed to be afraid of people....but these kittys saunter in front of cars, and growl at shepherds chasing their sheep. So there is always a question in the back of my mind...."what would I do?"
On a more serious note, I have gotten a couple of notes from real shepherds. They are thinking about their lamb crop in the spring.....and wondering what the outcome will be of a particular breeding group.
Have you ever thought about your ram? Do you have a new untested ram you just used? Do you know that much of your lamby success lies in your judgement in assessing that ram's genotype?
How much time have you spent charting out your new ram's genetics and the genetics of the ewes you used with him?
Thinking back on past breedings that I have done....I can't seem to remember using a black-black ram for breeding. All the rams I can remember were either brown based...or black carrying brown. And until the last year or two....I didn't breed with grey or ag based rams either. Now, I have to agree....the nicest fleeces seem to be either ag or white based fine fleeces....but remember, my lamb crop was supposed to be spotted. The grey based lambs came from favorite grey based ewes.....some of whom are still here.
Think about it...won't it be fun to see what that new ram can produce?
To keep this aging shepherd out of trouble....my hubby and I have a house in Arkansas sporting a big red ribbon on the door. Try topping that next Christmas. Yes, we did after much delay, close on the deralict Victorian. Go figure.
Let this be a lesson to you would-be flippers out there. Never, never LIKE a house you want to fix. But just try it yourself....walk into an old forgotten and ill-used house....let it tell you how grand it once was....can you imagine how lovely it could still be with "just a little help"?
I was beside myself with house fixing plans.....my hubby was beside himeself with early on-set buyers-remorse. The banker didn't want that house at all! The insurance company could still back out. The young woman once raised inside is raising her small children next door.
The whole situation...considering the economy is impossible. But in Arkansas, there is a big old shell of a victorian with a big red bow tied to a spoke in the fancy old screen door. No screen, just a bow.
Now, bopeep has tried fixing houses before. There was the "little house" near lake Pepin in Wisconsin....come to think of it, we always liked that house. It's remote for Wisconsin. Not enought room for sheep, otherwise, I would have tried retiring there. It is now, a "family heirloom"....so says my hubby. There was the river house....I spend most days driving there in the fall. If ever a house needed saving...it was the river house. We might have moved in to retire....but there was no room for the sheep. It was however a pretty good flipper. So as fall rolled around this year, bopeep thought about the extra time on her hands with so few sheep, and started rummaging through old deralict houses. There was a really nice high ceilinged house...cheap....where the follow had removed the chimney but left the square hole in the roof, and the walll, as I remember. There was the bank-owned wonder with a barn like unfinished structure attached between the house and the garage. It looked like either a two story deck or...from-the-water an unfinisehed pool.
There was the house by the creek....where the realtor said "oh no.... the water didn't come very high up"....but the far room had caved into something like a trampeline...only it didn't bounce back.
So now bopeep has a REAL fixer on her hands. As soon as I sweep up all the broken glass...I'll start on all the down plaster. OK there is no room for sheep there either, but the thought crosses bopeep's mind, that she could walk the dog down a sidewalk...and not think about big kitties.
Tell bopeep your dreams for a fixer. Did you always want to take down a wall....but people said to leave your house alone...it was good-enough? Was it Robert Frost in the woods going down the other path? Do you always wonder what would happen if?
Hey! It's a new year.....we all have the right to dream!
