New additions to the farm....

A couple of years ago, a good friend of mine named Dick Russell, asked me to be the executor of his farm animals when he passed on; he had been battling cancer for some time by then. I agreed to do so. He had done so much for our family and for our dogs. You see, he's a dog trainer in the area and is quite well known, but I'll save that for another post.

At the time he had sheep and chickens, as did I. He was setting out to get some pigs (which I had recently raised) and he wanted to get a few cattle. I had given him a milking goat, as he wanted to start milking, and I was getting out of it for the time being.

A few weeks before Christmas he called me and asked if I was ready to come and get the sheep. He had already placed the cows and chickens (the pigs had already been processed) and he told me that he was not going to be able to continue over the winter with the sheep. He was getting too weak. We discussed taking care of it the next weekend.

Steve, JP, the kids, and I headed over there with the trailer in tow. We took it down to the pasture and Dick headed down with Anne, his border collie, to work the sheep one last time. It wore him out, but he enjoyed it. There is beauty in watching a dog with such drive, doing what is was born to do, and Dick working her as they put the sheep where they needed to go. We got them caught, loaded, and headed back to the house.

The sheep are settling in very well. Our other four sheep have been integrated into Dick's flock, making our count at 18. This count will be much more come spring and the lambs start arriving. His have learned from my four that the human lady often has good things in her hands and pockets. Many of them have started to come up and paw at me or nibble at my pockets. They sniff at my hands looking for a little something. Some of them are still very flighty though and will probably remain so.