The moment life gets busier than usual keeping up with this blog always takes a back seat. And once a thing lands in the back seat I tend to go a long time before remembering that I stowed something there awhile back.
We are finally seeing the first signs of Spring. My last blog post was back in the February, right in the midst of winter. Several weeks later and the landscape is still under full cover of snow.
Shearing of the sheep took place a couple days ago and since then we’ve been turning the ewes out to feed in the day but bringing them in overnight on account of freezing temperatures. We had a beautiful turnout of people to help out on shearing day even with shearing taking place on Easter weekend. Shearing is our one big work-bee event and I am always amazed and grateful that people come out and help. Our shearing day is much shorter than it used to be on account of fewer sheep, but it is still a pretty hefty day of work and many hands certainly make it a lighter day.
On account of a long winter, April marks the six month of feeding hay to the sheep. I have to wonder about the sensibility of keeping livestock on the northern prairie. Surely winters like this give merit to the idea of community managed livestock herds migrating south for winter, following the grass, and coming back north as it warms up.
I continue to draw, or maybe it’s that drawing continues to compel me to show up for it. Either way is good. Light colored sheep, white dogs, black and white magpies, they are all tough subjects to draw but when facing an empty white page with a stick of black charcoal in my hand, drawing the white guardian dog feels close to impossible every time. I know these dogs well, I live and breathe with them and part of the difficulty is the fear of not being able to do these dogs justice through drawing them.
When a drawing does pan out it feels a bit like the arrival of a season you’ve been long waiting for.