Yesterday we went to our first "weigh in" for our 4-H pigs who are now 5 months old and WAY TOO BIG thank you very much. All the trucks and stock trailers line up, painful ear tags are shot into ears and distress is had by all breeds. The little goats being lead and yanked by their pint sized owners made me sad. My boys clung to my side and whipsered "they're being mean".

Back in april I mentioned about my struggle with this livestock venture. (just now getting a friendly nudge from miss Blossom :) I just can't seem to seperate the beast from the soul. Some experienced farm moms told me i'll get used to it.
I hope i never do.

Maybe in the dinosaur world i was a swamp thing that only ate plants or maybe i was a lamb or a cow who only ate grass. Maybe I wandered the Umbrian hills with the naked St Francis 800 years ago and talked to birds. Besides the whole vegetarian/carnivore discussion, i am most curious about the friends i see in animals. I LOVE ANIMALS. So, when i see a goat in distress or a pig in a panic i want to mother them into calmness, gain back the trust that makes us all friends. Its a pull i cannot deny.

A funny devout mom i know was giving me crap at the soccer field one day, saying how disgusting is it that i have a lamb. She now calls me Mrs. DOOLITTLE. I am flattered which was surely not the idea. The only thing i remember about being raised Catholic is the day we celebrated the animals. ( and my communion at which i secretly pretended to marry Adam as we walked down the aisle in our fancy wedding outfits) There was a big altar spilling with flowers and statues of little lambies and animals. It was the most glorious thing i had ever seen. Then, much later a friend told me of a cathedral in New York City she attended where she witnessed everything from a newt on a pillow to an elephant being lead down the aisle to the tune of harmonic angels in a grand procession of blessings. Oh how i would love to see that!!

Its pagan and christian, weird and wonderful but most importantly a ritual with pure intent - acknowledging that we all are blessed creatures - ALL OF US -from the slimey spotted to the coiffed, waxed and clothed. its the ALL ONE principle and it just feels right.

What do you think?? I'd love to hear.

http://www.stfrancisanimalblessing.com/

xo milady

Sheep milady in my etsy store

hello, i'm cute

are you my mother?

Rosie and Blossom

sweet little miss Dot

Meet my new love, BLOSSOM.

I recently had a birthday, April 16th to be exact. I felt old . It was a miserable snowy day and nothing about it felt unusually special. A friend left a message about some bum lambs that needed mothering. I had a naughty warm feeling in my heart...and said YES without even telling my husband. Next thing I knew, I was at a lambing shed looking at 1000's of sheep and as many newborn babies. Mr. Field, being a hardened sheep farmer, still had a softness in his way which made the sad bits a little easier. Life and Death. The lessons of farmlife. At the far end of the barn was a little lean -to with warm orange lights and dozens of little wooly newborns and a super nice lady with a baby bottle. Knowing I was coming, she picked a hopeful one out for me....may I introduce....BLOSSOM.

I will be documenting Blossom's progress with a Flickr because, well, i'm slighty obssessed with her. I actually took 2, Dot a teeny little twin who never really had a chance to nurse in the wee frigid hours after birth, stole my heart with her floppy bunny ears and single black dot on her side. I slept with her by my side all wrapped in towels. I held her all day in my lap - a riduculous late spring snowstorm had us housebound. Rosie and I watched the Boy in the Blue Pajamas...a quiet deeply sad movie about the holocaust, while Dot lamely swallowed drops of sheep formula from a syringe. I put her down for a short bit when she peacefully slipped away.

Of course, we all wept.

On a happy note, Miss Blossom is well, blossoming! She is smarter than a puppy and I am totally in love.
The nice farmer said, "you just don't know...some just don't have the will to live"

Blessings Miss Dot.

xo milady