Time to linger

Okay, so no accumulation is expected. If there is, I'm ready. As a matter of fact just for the record if there is four feet of snow I'm ready. Hows that for letting your anxiety to work for you?

Actually, its true I ticked the last thing off my list under GET READY FOR WINTER. Yes, yesterday I actually enclosed the back porch in greenhouse plastic. So the cats and the two great Pyrenees who guard us rather than the sheep can have a dry place to come into. Got a heater in the well house and have located the tank heaters. I am lookin' good by god!

So what do you do when everything is dandy? No fires to put out? No lives to save? We'll me, I linger at a project a little longer or hold on to a page in my mind of a book I'm reading , hang out and enjoy the animals more! I forget sometimes how much joy they give me. Yesterday I moved the sheep in another rotation. I reloaded the loose minerals and had a little left in the tub I had so I sat down in the dried grass with it in my lap and each ewe came up and got a little nibble. Sunshine, an ewe from my original flock of 5 years ago just stayed by my side nudging me every time I would quit rubbing her neck. Oh it felt so good to feel the warmth of the sheep surrounding me on such a chilly day. I was in heaven. Getting this close allows me to connect but also it allows me to observe who is standing off, who is too skinny. They come to me which is the way I think we all prefer it. All looked fabulous. I think we'll have a great lambing season this year. I am looking so forward to it! So far I think I've won over all but one ewe. She doesn't trust me so she stays way back from the others cautiously watching. I wonder if I can charm her to come a little closer?

Most days I spend outside and yesterday was no exception. The fresh air, the sheep, the goats and even the chickens reminded me of how incredibly spectacular my life is. I got hungry about 2 pm, I my typical lunch of lentils, and hot goat milk with honey and nutmeg and a slab of goat milk Camembert cheese I was testing the age on. Again the profound acknowledgement of my incredible life. I want for nothing. I have never been so happy.