SHEEP

The Sun is out! There are a few clouds, but it promises to be a beautiful day. I am writing early today, we are having a new ram delivered sometime after 10AM.

This Spring we bought five hair sheep [adult ewes]. If you don't know about them, they are sheep that have hair instead of wool, otherwise they are the same as wool sheep. We did get some ram lambs, but they were half woolies. It became clear that the woolies were genetically dominate. The ram lambs, we got, are pretty fuzzy, and I am sure, will require shearing.

We have been raising sheep, off and on, for over forty years. We originally hoped to raise sheep that produced wool for handspinners. That kind of wool, usually long and colored, does not have a special value on the regular market. In order to make it work, we would have had to create a market. That is not our cup of tea. Still the shearer would come out, shear our sheep for free and hand us a nice check. They would come out, even if we only had three or four sheep. About twenty years ago, the price of wool dropped dramatically, and we had to pay the shearer to shear the sheep and got nothing for the wool.

We have four sheep that need shearing and Jamie likes the wool for various projects. We wanted to get more sheep but didn't want to burden ourselves with the shearing. I was hesitant to use one of these crossbred rams for breeding. It may have worked out okay, or I may have ended up with more sheep that needed shearing. The opportunity came up to get a 100% hair sheep ram. One of our neighbors got one and decided they didn't need it. 

If everything works out, we will have lambs sometime in April; perfect timing for this climate.

I took a break, did some chores; it is now overcast, but still a marvelous day. It is amazing how things work out. I couldn't find a hair sheep ram within easy driving distance. I didn't want to drive 150 miles in my little truck. I resigned myself, to using one of the crossbreed rams, for a sire. However, I kept procrastinating from getting him, from one pasture to another. It would require going out after dark and hope the sheep were in the barn and lock them up. They go in the barn at various times, but they don't do it, at ones convenience. I had November 1st as the deadline for this to occur. And what to you know, my neighbor e-mails me yesterday, and wants to know if we wanted to buy a hair sheep ram. The universe orchestrates things perfectly.

There are so many things to be grateful for, at a personal level, being aware of our gratefulness, can make an ordinary day into a great day. Expressing our thankfulness to a loving universe, everyday, brings much light into our lives. As we learn to express our thankfulness, we see more to be thankful for. As we increase the light, in our own consciousness, we increase the light in the consciousness of human kind. We are waking up from a long sleep. We are in for some surprises. It is likely that most of what we believe to be true, is not.

I need to go. My sheep lady arrived.

Love and Peace,  Gregg