Category: Voices from the Farm

Opie was a constant worry; he was determined to run over anything that moved. We wondered if he might have had a high fever when he was affected with founder, and that perhaps that could have caused changes to his brain and the change in behavior. Whatever, he was certainly a problem.

Shortly after we returned from Milwaukee the oats harvest was under way, loads of combined oats were being hauled in from the field, and blown into the grain bins in the granary. A substantial amount of grain was spilled on the ground during this process, so Opie had to be kept away from the area. We had been shutting the barnyard gate and letting him be loose in the barnyard, but now he had to be staked out again during the day. At night, some snow fence was set up around the spilled oats, and we shut the gate and turned Opie loose. Little did we suspect that as darkness fell, he was pushing his nose under the snow fence and eating oats.

All the neglected projects were getting fairly well caught up, and we were settling back into our usual routine, when I got an early morning phone call from another friend in Milwaukee, with terrible news. Our friends had gone on their camping vacation, and after the first day at the lake, had been on their way to pick up some groceries, when they had a car accident.

It was a very big week for Lisa. In addition to having her Uncle Bob, Aunt Stacia, and Debbie visit, which was exciting enough, they had brought her a very nice bicycle, she had lost her very first tooth, and the day after our friends left, her new horse was delivered! How much more could one stand?

By February 28, there was still no snow on the ground. We’d had only only a few light skiffs of snow thus far in the winter, the ground was bare almost all of the time. We had never had our driveway plowed! By this time the previous year, we had been plowed out a total of nine times! It may have been a relief not having to battle the snow all winter, but according to my journals of that year, we were quite depressed with all the monotony…

Once again, we ride out the storm, it’s a rough ride, but I stay in the saddle, the sheep stay on the farm, and all is not lost! The rams, however, are locked in the ram pen in the lower barn, pending their sale within a month or so.

Nothing strikes fear into the heart of a shepherd like having your sheep disappear! My mind immediately went into overdrive, with all sorts of questions and possibilities… “How could they get out of this pasture?” or “Maybe they’re lying down in the long grass at the end, and I can’t see them from here.” These mental gymnastics went on as I made my way to the end of the pasture, once there, I saw why they escaped!

I suddenly realized it was just a bit too quiet, and went to check the north pasture. There was not a sheep in sight. They were not there. They were gone!