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So, this morning the shepherd comes out to throw hay around because the rapidly becoming spoiled ewes are lined up watching the house for any sign of life and OUR FEEDER IS EMPTY ! EMPTY !! This is neglect !!!Bob the Genius says "calm down Benny - she can't lift 80 lb bales anymore and the Big Guy is not home this week. She has to throw hay in sections for us until the weekend." Well, it may not be neglect, but it does mean that I have to scrounge for hay on the ground with the riff raff aka the lambs. Becca the Brain Trust says that since I stand over my share of the hay like Colossus of Rhodes and am about as easy to move, that there clearly isn't any problem with starvation. No one understands me. Then there is Butthead, whose feeder is still full, and who has spotted the ewes and thinks they should be with him. Thus the huge gatepost on his pasture is beginning to lean outward as he thumps his little tiny brain against it again and again. Don't tell him I said that - he has horns - big ones. Its amazing this place runs at all given the current management...Anyway, back to the icicles. Shepherd comes out this morning to change out the water for the hens which has frozen solid over night. She pries the hen house door open, which is pretty stiff in the cold, and sticks her head in to grab the frozen waterer. Backing out, she catches a 12 inch icicle or two on the back of her head, breaks it off and it slides down the inside of her barn coat. Such Language !! My delicate sensibilities are still recovering....
Whatever am I supposed to do when it gets this cold ?? The wind howls, the temperature is below zero and the shepherd is where ?? Out piling up bales of straw to protect the ewes. Ewes Schmues - I have the prize winning fleece here !Shepherd rubbed my chest last night after all the bale piling and tells me what a splendid long and dense fleece I have this year. Becca, my companion, snickers and says - that isn't all that is dense....She is real piece of work and smarter than the average sheep by a long ways. And she'll remind you of that in a heartbeat. Too bad she is such a weird combination of genetics and not a PURE BRED like someone here.....So perhaps I am in no danger of freezing, and with the freezing weather, the barn is smelling a lot better. Life is such a series of trade-offs. And the 3 acquired ewes really are looking a much healthier - so next month they go into the front pasture where Bevis and Butthead live. Bevis comes in with us to be obnoxious and stir things up. Shetlands can be such idiots. And Butthead,officially named Raven, gets a chance at producing more little black lambs. Don't even get me started on the manners of rams.....
oh, and Becca's big head is right next to mine in the main portrait of Bennyness.....
I am writing this in hopes that the shepherd will read it - YO, Woman ! The barn is dirty !
I don't know how a sheep with prize winning fleece is supposed to maintain his dignity in these conditions. The water bucket has 3 pieces of hay floating in it, the lambs pooped in the place where I sleep, and it smells like a barn in here. There are ladders hanging on the wall - what if one fell down and hurt me ??? And its cold this morning.
True, the feeder is full, the water is not frozen and I get my chest rubbed every night at treat time, but the dumb dogs sleep on the bed, in the house. Bob, the lead genius in the flock says "Benny - so be a dog next time".
Well, I didn't choose to be a dog this time - they don't have something to eat 24/7 and I would not be the dignified presence I am without a full feeder.
Then there is matter of the rehab pasture. Yes, I KNOW the 3 ewes she got were in abysmal shape, and needed worming, good food and some TLC. But if you ask me, they are looking pretty good 3 weeks after they showed up. Not anywhere as good as me, of course. Ratty fleeces full of burrs, hip bones sticking out, one so weak she had trouble running. But they have filled out and they still get fed twice a day, grain in the evening, sung to by the shepherd. When is the last time I saw grain ????? When she was using up the end of a bag that the ewes had almost finished. I am going to write the Humane Society.....
Bob, the genius says, "Benjamin - you are technically a food animal - do you know how badly you need to neglected before the Humane Society in Montana can do something ??"
What's this "food animal" stuff ?
The shepherd says that since I have such strong opinions, for a sheep at least, that I should have my own blog. All sheep have opinions, but mine are undoubtedly wiser than most. And then there is the REALLY good looking aspect of my personality. Why else would she have named her business after me ?
So, I am Benny - 200 lbs of CVM Romeldale wether (that means boy-who-isn't-a-ram) and I live with 10 other sheep of varying levels of charm and brilliance. When the shepherd has time, she will help get my picture up - the hooves just don't do the keyboard thing. But for now I am am astute observer of the passing scene, and the passing scene came up wet and white this morning. The lambs - now 7 months old - have not seen snow before and they are loving it. They are big balls of black fleece on skinny legs, frosted in white and they look silly. The lead sheep, Bob, cautions me not to spoil their fun by pulling my "sheep are supposed to be dignified" routine. The shepherd says that at my weight and size, looking dignified is all that is left to me. She should talk....
