Finding joy and contentment…

Randy and I have different lives here than we have ever had before.  We have lived 1/2 block off the ocean.  We did the subdivision, suburban life in the South.  We’ve traveled, slept in, partied, ate seafood, swam in the ocean, walked on the beach, and spent our weekends shopping and eating out.  The winters were mild and we kept a tan nearly year round.

Our life now is not quite as “typical.”  We now live on a farm which includes sheep, chickens, and llamas along with our crew of rescued dogs and cats.  Our days start around 4:00 am and the end of the day varies according to the season.  We don’t sleep in, unless you count 6:00 am as sleeping in.  Our seafood comes from a shop over an hour away and only on occasion do to the cost and distance.  There is no ocean and are no beaches within a days drive.  We try to shop second hand and seldom eat out.

This time of year we long for the beach.  We long to pack up our car for an unplanned roadtrip to Nashville, the Gulf, or Myrtle Beach.

It isn’t so easy to just pack up the car and drive away without a care in the world.

We have lots of animals that count on us to take care of them.

And we would miss out on this if we hadn’t traveled down this path.

What would have happened to her?

Or him?

Our these girls?

Or this little cutie?

Our lives may not be glamorous.

 Our lives are sometimes hard physically and emotionally.

But it is worth it!  It does matter!

We may not get to see the world.  We may not even get to see our country in its entirety.  Or stick our toes in the sand while the ocean water covers our feet whenever we want.

We just have to remind ourselves from time-to-time that our life here does matter and has made a difference to someone.  I’m writing this post for myself.  For the times when I feel like I am missing out on life by being here.  Life is what and where you make it.  I read a verse in the Bible the other night that reminded me of that:

Just tell me what to do and I will do it, Lord.  As long as I live I’ll wholeheartedly obey.  Make me walk along the right paths for I know how delightful they really are.  Help me to prefer obedience to making money!  Turn me away from wanting any other plan than yours.  Revive my heart toward you.  Reassure me that your promises are for me, for I trust and revere you.

Pslams 119:33-37

It isn’t always easy to be content with your life…God’s word once again brought me back to where I needed to be.  To live the life we were called to live and find joy in the lives others live that are different from our’s and seemingly more exciting or life changing.  The places they travel, the daily freedoms they enjoy, the mission trips, adopting, whatever it may be, and remember we are all here for different reasons.  We all have our place as long as we are here.  Our’s may not be the same as the next person, but it is our’s to live out joyfully.

I hope everyone can look at their lives and see your life, no matter how routine and humdrum it may seem, is important and making a difference in some small (or big) way and find joy in it.  I have had to do that recently.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!  God bless.

A Day at Home…

Friday I was off and home by myself.  During the week when we are at work Dad comes down once it is light out and lets our sheep out to pasture.  Today I got to let them out myself.  They are so excited to go out on wheat pasture.  They run and jump and are so cute.

The first few pictures I took were blurry because I had a little black and white sheep jumping on me.

Guess which one it was???

Bet you can’t guess…

And last but not least is the big guy heading out to guard his girls.

Hank is such a great guard llama.  He has really been a good investment and does so well with the sheep.  Llamas convert their feed to energy very well, so it takes very little forage for a llama to maintain a healthy weight.  This was just one of the characteristics about llamas we used to convince ourselves we could afford to take on Sylvia and then Celia and Lexus when they all needed homes and the thought of them ending up in a sale barn and then who knows where was too much for us to bear.  Hank stays with the girls and does great with them even when they are lambing.  During breeding we had enough llamas to keep one llama with each breeding group.  Now that we are no longer breeding the girls all stay together with the rams.

Three weeks before letting our ewes out on wheat pasture we began adding magnesium oxide to their salt and mineral to help prevent wheat pasture poisoning (grass tetany).  So far it seems to work well as we haven’t had any incidents of grass tetany the few years we have been fortunate enough to have wheat pasture to graze.

We also have a pen with three ewes who no longer have their front teeth so they are unable to break off the wheat and graze well enough to sustain themselves and the lambs they are carrying.

They get some really nice hay, a protein tub, and rolled corn every evening.  They also have a nice little shed Randy built full of fresh straw to snuggle up in at night.  These ewes are from the original 15 we bought to start this adventure.  We’re not sure how old they were when they bought them, but were sold to us as “older ewes.”  We have had them  six years this fall.  The life expectancy of a sheep is about 10-12 years, but their prime production years are from 3-6 years and begin tapering off around 7 years of age. (source)

Although they are’t going to win any medals anytime soon, they look so much better than they did when we first realized they were falling behind the other and pulled them from the rest of the flock.

After I got the old girls situated I set up all the feeders to start the rest of the girls on corn for the final six weeks of their gestation.

All it took was about three kernels of corn to hit that first feeder and those little chubby, wooly, pregnant sheep came running.  We start them off gradually anytime we change feed on them, especially with grain.  We will continue to increase their corn until we get them up to 1/4 to 1/2 lb until they begin lambing.  Our Texels take very little grain to maintain during their pregnancy, but we will have to keep a close eye on the Romanovs.  They tend to have more lambs and may need a little more grain to ensure they don’t get pregnancy toxemia.

So far everyone looks healthy and happy…we hope it stays that way through lambing season.