A Day In the Life (18 June 2024)
Today started as any other day in the week, or year for that matter. The sun rises, we rise, start our day, and start on the journey the day has in store for us. Each day I am fortunate enough to awaken on the preferred side of the daisies is a good day; each day that I am able to do such with my wife entertaining the same motif, life is really great. Of course, we awaken each day with hopes and ambitions. But, the reality is only sometimes so clean and clear on a farm. Beyond what I call the farm, managed chaos, there are always surprises the livestock, if not the weather hand to us each day.
In jest, I like to say that I prefer to awaken each day, show up to the task, and hope nothing goes wrong. I also like the idea of showing up to the task, doing my best, and being satisfied that I didn’t blunder something. And then there are always the livestock that have their own agendas of how the day is going to fare, of which they once again missed the corporate memo of letting you know beforehand. Today was one of those days.
Today, as well as the next several days, are scheduled to be warmer than usual, with temperatures above 90°F. While we have these spells a couple of times across the season, a normal part of the year, they are still a part of the farm dynamics and need to be worked around. With this in mind, the goal was to start the day as normal and then get all the livestock under shade from buildings or the orchard as best as possible. Enter the rams.
In all the years I have dealt with rams, I will admit that this crop of rams may be the best. Naturally, I now am typing one-handed as I knock on wood with my fingers crossed. This crop of rams has been gentlemen, easy to handle (for being rams), and have yet to break fencing, destroy something on the farm, test and get out of their fencing, or have us set alarm clocks to awaken nightly to serve their next adventure awaiting us.
This morning, our luck ran out. I ran the rams into an area under cover from the heat the following evening, hoping to save some hours in the morning to get the others taken care of before the heat of the day, a ram had a different plan for my morning last night getting his horn caught in the fencing for the first time in two years, and dragging it 20 feet across the paddock opening the whole line for all to have their way with the farm. There is a first time for everything, but does it need to always be inconvenient? Maybe I didn’t knock the wood hard enough.
I was able to corral 4 of the rams while a single ram remained where he was supposed to be. I would imagine he was the one to get his horn caught and unwilling to test his luck. The remaining 10 rams were found in the orchard resting under a tree. These rams behaved well and were courteous in following me back to the courtyard where the others were. After walking the remaining ram from the original paddock around all the buildings and other paddocks to join the ram mob, we were finally set to start our morning chores. Good Morning!
After morning chores finally finished, it was time to figure out what to do with the rams. In 90°heat, running them entirely around the farm to where they should be wasn’t going to happen. Well, as would turn out, the rams overnight had rambled around the farm far enough to erase four months of pasture rotations to return back to where they started as lambs, in the ram lamb paddock for overwintering, and there, they will remain until the heat passes. Maybe life is a circular motion of repetitions and cycles.
In jest, I like to say that I prefer to awaken each day, show up to the task, and hope nothing goes wrong. I also like the idea of showing up to the task, doing my best, and being satisfied that I didn’t blunder something. And then there are always the livestock that have their own agendas of how the day is going to fare, of which they once again missed the corporate memo of letting you know beforehand. Today was one of those days.
Today, as well as the next several days, are scheduled to be warmer than usual, with temperatures above 90°F. While we have these spells a couple of times across the season, a normal part of the year, they are still a part of the farm dynamics and need to be worked around. With this in mind, the goal was to start the day as normal and then get all the livestock under shade from buildings or the orchard as best as possible. Enter the rams.
In all the years I have dealt with rams, I will admit that this crop of rams may be the best. Naturally, I now am typing one-handed as I knock on wood with my fingers crossed. This crop of rams has been gentlemen, easy to handle (for being rams), and have yet to break fencing, destroy something on the farm, test and get out of their fencing, or have us set alarm clocks to awaken nightly to serve their next adventure awaiting us.
This morning, our luck ran out. I ran the rams into an area under cover from the heat the following evening, hoping to save some hours in the morning to get the others taken care of before the heat of the day, a ram had a different plan for my morning last night getting his horn caught in the fencing for the first time in two years, and dragging it 20 feet across the paddock opening the whole line for all to have their way with the farm. There is a first time for everything, but does it need to always be inconvenient? Maybe I didn’t knock the wood hard enough.
I was able to corral 4 of the rams while a single ram remained where he was supposed to be. I would imagine he was the one to get his horn caught and unwilling to test his luck. The remaining 10 rams were found in the orchard resting under a tree. These rams behaved well and were courteous in following me back to the courtyard where the others were. After walking the remaining ram from the original paddock around all the buildings and other paddocks to join the ram mob, we were finally set to start our morning chores. Good Morning!
After morning chores finally finished, it was time to figure out what to do with the rams. In 90°heat, running them entirely around the farm to where they should be wasn’t going to happen. Well, as would turn out, the rams overnight had rambled around the farm far enough to erase four months of pasture rotations to return back to where they started as lambs, in the ram lamb paddock for overwintering, and there, they will remain until the heat passes. Maybe life is a circular motion of repetitions and cycles.