Country Roads on a misty June morning; naked grain land on the left, earth covering grassland on the right.
It matters a great deal that there be intangibles we cannot get our hands on. And it matters that we get to know these intangibles and learn to honour them because they are the internal nudges, they are the link to our own inner nature; a nature many woman have been told has no place in agriculture.
That grassland landscapes and people who steward the land with mother nature in mind are still here, matters a great deal more than we might give thought to.
It also matters that we grasp and explore the link between land and animal, sink our teeth into the natural connections and risk rearranging the pieces of our thinking about what it means to farm the land.
It matters – now more than ever.
Traveling back roads on a misty June morning. Naked grain land in foreground, grazing land at the rear.
This was the smallest lambing group for me in long time. Half the number as usual. Since the flock is comprised of older ewes and yearlings there are plenty of singles and enough twins and not a single set of trips or quads. It was the near perfect pace for lambing when doing so on one’s own.
I had two great saves this lambing season, the kind of saves that leave you feeling like you still have it in you, and there is someone on your side. Both were ewes having birthing trouble. Both ewes were caught on open pasture with a leg crook. This is the closest to what I think it might be like to rope a calf by the rear leg. The exultation I feel with making one of these catches is likely equivalent to a sports professional making a score in a playoff series. And yes, there is a wide grin and a happy dance, notwithstanding the trouble in the first place.
In the first case the lamb was very large and even though the pull was pretty simple the lamb was lost, head too swollen and birth time too long to save it. The second ewe was an experienced ewe with a lamb coming hind feet first and locked up. The lamb was successfully pulled but not breathing. A few head shakes and tickles with grass up the nose and she took her first gurgling breath. At last check mamma and babe are doing fine.
On account of the heat wave rolling across the prairie the morning rounds are early and the evening checks are late. The ewes graze very early in the day, disappear into shade during the heat and rise again late in the evening for a second graze. The guardian dogs are lying low and only sort of interested in eating. The magpies however, are ever vigilant. And the lambs,… in the cool of the evening the lambs are beginning to run and dance and crash and burn as only lambs can.
