So I had seen several people post the following on Facebook:
BREAKING NEWS: There will be no farms\Ranches closed due to the frigid temperatures. Each and every rancher will be out in the blustery, cold, blowing wind tending to their livestock. They will be praying for machinery to work and non-frozen water pipes. If you know a rancher, say a prayer for him or her and repost so the prayer line may grow for our ranchers to be safe.
And I must admit it has been pretty chilly. Of course this is the one who takes on the cold, cold days by going from the house to the truck...the truck to the office...and maybe a few sneaks out here and there. BUT that is not the case with the "shepherd". It takes him most of the day to get the chores done/the ice broke/babies delivered--then it's night and time to start over.
I keep hearing various temperatures. In fact at our house the shepherd compares the mercury thermometer to the digital one. I prefer the digital because it always shows warmer...I could be in "DeNile" (I think it is warmer there:) All I know is that it is way too far below zero. Of course, as with anything you can look just a little ways...and there are others having a much harder go.
I had said earlier, the "shepherd"--but he is now calving heifers out too...so can shepherds watch over calves...Is he a cowboy shepherd??? (Actually he is usually a "shepherd" to whatever needs taken care of).
Last night the lamb cam is kind of crackling a little. I say last night but it was probably like 3 in the morning or some such time. The shepherd says that sounds like one licking a lamb. To which I reply in my middle of the night voice, "WHAT??? How can you hear a ewe cleaning a lamb?" And so he says he better go check it out. It takes something to convince yourself to go out in subzero temps to see if there is a new lamb out there. Well he comes back some time later happily reporting he is having his first heifer begin calving! It seems that these animals would say, "Hey, I think I'll wait and not expose this poor little one to such conditions." But as the shepherd tells me, "They will come when they're ready!"
Last night the lamb cam is kind of crackling a little. I say last night but it was probably like 3 in the morning or some such time. The shepherd says that sounds like one licking a lamb. To which I reply in my middle of the night voice, "WHAT??? How can you hear a ewe cleaning a lamb?" And so he says he better go check it out. It takes something to convince yourself to go out in subzero temps to see if there is a new lamb out there. Well he comes back some time later happily reporting he is having his first heifer begin calving! It seems that these animals would say, "Hey, I think I'll wait and not expose this poor little one to such conditions." But as the shepherd tells me, "They will come when they're ready!"
So from my kitchen table I say stay warm. And my hat is tipped (because I ain't taking that baby off) to all of you who do not have the option of a snow day. You don't get a day off...but sometimes you get an off day!
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