The Bird on Your Shoulder

Musing / March 20, 2024

wool sheep with a black bird on her back

You have a notion you just can’t shake.  An idea/problem/reoccurring issue that rides around with you.  Perched there on your shoulder, you see it from the corner of your eye.

If you would turn and face it full on you would know it for what it is, realize what it is trying to tell you.  You would hear the call, see the gift.  But you don’t, you’re still too unsure of the rising up it will ask you to do, or afraid that if it notices you reaching for it, it will take flight and disappear altogether.

So you appreciate that it is there.  It is a small, ironic comfort to you.  Prompting you to think of the things you see yourself doing in your unlived life.  So you do not usher it away.  Instead you put your head down and graze, not yet committed to the new and not yet done with the old, further contemplating the ending of things and wondering about the beginning of others.

During a walk last week, I was marveling that I could use the pasture trails due to lack of snow.  I was mulling over how small the flock is, how simple the winter chores are, how few guardian dogs are here and how many Kelpies, and how far off course this winter felt.  There have been changes in my day to day work load; changes that eased themselves in over the course of a years time rather than arriving all at once.  As I walked and thought of what my day was shaping up to be I caught myself wondering … am I even in agriculture anymore?

Maybe I never was.

This is the bird on my shoulder.

Prairie Allure

Musing, Prairie / December 20, 2023

Two dogs walking in prairie grass

The sky is a blanket of gun mental grey, the wind is barely there. Tinted by frost the yellow and burnt oranges of the grasses are more grey than gold.  The trees are leafless.  No sunlight shines and no shadows are cast.

The landscape of prairie stretching outward under the flat sky is beautifully composed with an opulent silence. No sound is being made and yet every sound is being heard. The trail for one leading onward is alluring. The dogs and I walk long and deep because it is what the morning calls for. And with the walking perspectives are realigned and purposes are recharged.

Under The Radar

Dogs / September 16, 2023

With their high energy the Kelpies balance out the stoicism of the guardian dogs and the pastoral feel of the sheep.  My life of raising sheep would not be as complete without them.  These dogs are my constant companions, along for the ride, and always at my side and in my home, although you may not know it by the few photos I share of them.

In this area of the country Kelpies are still few and far between.  They are the best kept secret of the stock dog world and I hope they stay that way lest they become a different dog by way of pet popularity and competition wins, which has been the fate of many other working breeds.

In this way the the guardian dogs and the Kelpies, and me I suppose, are alike – bred for the purpose of work and still flying low under the radar.

livestock guardian dog following flock of sheep