An Addition to the Morning Routine

As I go about filling water buckets and scooping chicken feed, the old ewe eyes me and walks to the gate.

She makes her presence known with an insistent bleat.

I call her the Good Mom, a moniker she earned with her attention and care of her lambs. I took her out of the breeding flock a few years ago, but didn't have the heart to cull her. The last remaining ewe of our foundation flock, she could spend her retirement as part of the flock I used for training sheepdogs.

But a romp with the ram lambs slated for market last fall changed that. This spring, she had triplets.

While the other ewes and lambs stay well-fed on pasture, the Good Mom needs the extra calories that grain provides.

So, when she asks, I fill a feed bin with grain, open the gate and let her into the aisle way. Usually her triplets and the llama follow.

When finished, I open the gate and let her return to her flock.