The Joy of Playing

Spring is on a roll! Our shiitakes are working overtime, our oyster mushrooms are fruiting, and “in the wild” dryad’s saddle is starting to come in. Patches of ramps are emerging - and I’m sure it’s about time to start looking for morels.

The swampy areas near our pastures have enough skunk cabbage now to keep the bears happy – happy enough, I hope, to refrain from eating our sheep! Our lambs, oblivious to the threats that lurk just beyond the fence, are doing great. Some of the older lambs are starting to play with each other, which is a contagiously happy thing to watch. It means they clearly have energy to spare- and that’s always good news. It takes a lot of energy to run and jump and chase their friends, and if they weren’t getting enough calories from their mom’s milk, they wouldn’t play.

For a shepherd, lambing is equal parts joy and stress. People come to Hill-Stead to watch our lambs, and I can hear them laughing at the antics of the ones that are playing, but for Anne and me, our focus is always on the ones that aren’t. I’ll lift each one up, and if they feel warm and dense, I know their bellies are full, but if they feel light, I offer them a bottle of warm goat milk. Over the years, we’ve noticed that the bottle-fed lambs do much better with fresh goat milk, than with the dehydrated formula available commercially. (I’d also rather support our local goat farmer than a factory somewhere.)

Usually that’s all it takes, a little bit of extra fuel for a few days and our stragglers are racing around with the rest of the gang, and that is a truly joyous sight!