Last Night's Adventure

Because we just don't have enough going on in our life, we volunteered to provide a home for the sheep for our food co-op group. So we will be housing 6 sheep until it is time to slaughter them for food. Yes, some folks will find that sad but we must be realistic about where our food is coming from and if you want the better quality, better treated organic meat, you can either pay crazy grocery store prices, better farmer direct prices (like we do for our beef and pork), or you can raise it yourself.  This year we will tackle the sheep, then next year we will likely be able to handle meat birds.  (I'm honestly not quite ready to have two batches of chicks going at once. I'm rather afraid we would accidentally butcher our eggs layers instead.)

before adding the smelly animals

Last night Alan went to pick up the animals.  He was expecting young animals but we were not told that they had not been weaned yet and had not been outside yet.  This was just a small snag.  We had been planning on keeping the animals in an outside pen.  We did not have a pen ready for them for inside.  We also had been planning on them eating grass. We did not have the necessary food for them. We also did not have any nails left to build an inside pen.  And it was raining. And it was after 7:30 by the time the animals had been loaded into the van.  I was in charge of the Boy Scout run so I was wandering around Target waiting for the meeting to be over when Alan calls me to inform me of the latest snags.  So I wander the aisles in search of nails so that Alan can avoid taking a van loaded with sheep and children to the hardware store. Not really successful. So we decide that the animals can stay in the dog kennels overnight. Maybe.

after adding the poor smelly animals

I make a run to Home Depot with the 3 older boys after their meeting. Arrive home after 9:00 to discover that the other families have come over to help fix the situation since none of us were expecting animals quite this young.  So the pen is built. The sheep are happy.  Except the one who escaped. And ran all over creation. Almost up the neighbor's porch (the nice neighbor, thankfully, but then again our grumpy neighbor raised draft horses and chickens and assorted animals so he at least would understand).  The animal was enjoying it's freedom until it decided to cross the creek. In the deepest part (have I mentioned the rain).  Alan said the look on the animal's face was something along the lines of "Oh crud. What on earth have I done now." The poor animal has had a rough day.  And now does not know what to do. Alan jumps in the creek after it. Water up to his waist. Alan and the animal go under water and wrestle a bit. Animal is caught and brought out of the water and carried back across two yards and returned to the pen in the barn.  As if the rain were not enough, let's just say Alan is soaked and not happy.  But such is life.

The van now smells like a petting zoo. Not my favorite smell.  Hopefully we'll fix that situation soon.  Hopefully.  Because the air conditioning in the van is broken so heat plus smells are just not a good mix if you don't want folks getting sick. Which I don't.  So we now venture into this large animal thing.  And we just might have volunteered to provide a home for a friend's sheep dog because she is moving and can't take it with her. Fun times, I tell you.  Fun times.