Good Food is Everybody's Business
It did not take us long after bringing Charlie home, to discover “Charlie” was a female, and we rather suspected she was probably pregnant… Which, of course, would explain why the dairy was so happy to give her to us. That was okay, we were glad to add her to our menagerie!
Late one evening at the beginning of January, a big storm with strong winds and freezing rain was moving in. I suddenly realized Cricket was not around. At last, in a brief lull in the velocity of the wind, I heard a faint tiny meow coming from the big cottonwood tree just above the house.
Little did I suspect, at that early date, that not too many years hence, I would be pasturing nearly 300 sheep. However, there would be lots of changes in store before that could happen!
In May we had our sheep sheared, not a real big deal, as we only had 3 sheep to shear – Mama, Sure to Go, and Hercules. Since we had so few sheep, it was not worth hiring a professional shearer, instead we hired a neighbor who had a small flock and sheared his own sheep. He was not an expert by any means, and it was quite an ordeal, not only for the sheep, but also the shearer, and the onlookers.
Now, with 7 sheep… Missy, the dog… Cricket, the cat… Mickey, the canary… and the now pregnant Matushka… our menagerie was about to expand by leaps and bounds!
Spring 1966, we have 7 sheep: Mama and Sure to Go, their 4 lambs, and the old ram, Hercules. We need another fence, or possibly two, built. And thanks to the “fencing fund,” we can do it!
The morning after Mama’s lambs were born we arose early and went to check on our sheep. We found we were not so lucky after all. Mama had decided that she only had one lamb, and had totally rejected the little male. When he came near her, she bunted him away. He, of course, kept trying to nurse each time his sister nursed, but Mama would whirl and butt him with her head.
Now, I was going to have to learn to do tail docking, and possibly castrating. I had made a prior decision not to use some of the cruder methods of removing these appendages.
