Everywhere That Mary Went. . .

Spread the love

blackandwhitekarina.jpbby Laura Parker Roerden

When we first brought our lambs home, our plan was to pasture them with the cows. Cows and sheep have different foraging appetites, making their co-habitation in the pasture more efficient. Cattle are also great predator protection for sheep, aggressively attacking coyote and bonding with sheep within a two week period of time. Together they are considered a “flerd” —a conflation of herd and flock that is so silly it’s irresistible. Truth is we figured they would look like a real life Far Side cartoon in our pastures, with thought balloons fueled by coffee and written on the blank canvas supplied by winter.

But our lambs are still young and we want to keep a watchful eye on them for the winter, while they adjust to their new home. So we created a winter paddock, closer to the farmhouse and enclosed on all sides for warmth and protection from deep snow.

This week a small crew of farm camp kids (Ben, Zach and Sam) added finishing touches by painting the fence for the paddock, so a chicken wire apron could be installed.

BenPaintingZachPainting

 

 

 

 

SamPainting

Our handyman/carpenter Keith built a wonderful sheep door to the paddock, just their size. Or perhaps like Alice in Wonderland, it’s the world outside that has grown.

AtDoor

Just ask Juliette, as she ventures outside here at Jo-Erl Farm for the first time.

Julliette

At first Juniper and Juliette were curious about the sheep door when I opened it. But it wasn’t until I crawled through the door myself that they followed me outside to the new paddock.

Later as I walked around the area checking for hardware in the grass with a magnet roller, they strolled beside me, at one point Juliette making two full circles around me as she scanned the perimeter and I hummed a joyful version of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” And I thought I was imagining the bleated answer to my “Good Morning” today as “MAAAAA.”

TogetherOutside

Come spring, we hope both Juniper and Juliette and their newborn lambs will  join the cows on pasture.

cows

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Published by Laura Parker Roerden

Laura Parker Roerden shares a love of what nature can teach us. Writer, public speaker and supportor of youth to boldly know and save the wilds. She is the founding director of Ocean Matters and a fourth generation farmer and thinks today’s young people are reason to be hopeful about the many environmental problems facing us. She lives on a family farm in Massachusetts with her husband, three boys, and an assortment of fruit trees and farm animals.

4 thoughts on “Everywhere That Mary Went. . .

Tell us what you think!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: