Due to the drought of the past few years, and subsequent selling of animals the flock is one third the size it normally is and thus chores and all that feel pretty light this winter. Allen is also home a bit more regularly right now and the extra pair of hands makes chore time a breeze and provide added assurance during the very cold weather we’re experiencing. With the deep cold and new snowfall the ewes have ceased traveling anywhere to graze and we’re feeding them daily. Dog houses have been moved out for the guardian dogs and walks with the Kelpies are brief.
The smaller size of this flock equals a change to my day to day and also to my future time and income. Whenever I sit on the prairie and ask the question of what to do next ‘do more social media’ does not come to mind. So early in the month I made the decision to leave social media for stretch, a choice that spilled over to being on the computer at all (I did manage to get the December issue of Crooked Fences out the door). I unplugged for a spell and by gosh it felt good. You know the saying, “it’s all in your head” – you realize its truth when you step away from social media. I’m tempted to say the decision to put social media to the side for a spell has something to do with hibernation but that isn’t what this break from social is about. This is almost the opposite.
Hunkering down for the winter is the usual way of it for me and being guilt-free creative is icing on the cake. My sideline hustle is being an artist / photographer, the subjects of these pursuits being the sheep and the dogs. The operative word here though is sideline, so with a bit of extra time in my lap this winter I want to use it wisely, to refocus on being a creative person, to dive in and let the extra time be the gift of drought. I feel certain some good will come of it. A new year is also near and while I am not one to make resolutions I do like to enter a new year doing at least one of the things that I wish to make more prevalent in my life – artwork, photography (and writing) are a few such things.