Promotional Photos on a Disheartening Day

We had our friend Tahni come to take promotional photos for our website. She arrived at 5:30, and before that, it felt like the farm was in a conspiracy to keep me edgy and tense.

Abraham was in with the lambs and said, “Mom, I think Cassandra is dead.”

Sure enough. Lamb Cassandra (number 13), so chunky and chipper, was recently dead.

Why? I have no idea. I had found sheep minerals the day before and given some to the sheep, but there’s no reason a little extra free-choice calcium should harm a sheep. Of the lambs, she was one of the plumpest, so she didn’t starve. The sheep had water (not dehydration), the weather was in the mid-60s (not overheating), she had some cud in her mouth and her throat appeared clear (not choking).

Her head was twisted back. Death pangs? Some sort of fatal fall off the compost heap? Inbreeding (her parents had the same father) causes congenital heart failure? No idea. So much of farming is simply mysterious.

Also, we had gone for chicks, which reached us well. We put them in the trailer, and opened the back a bit for ventilation, with chicken wire across the opening. Incredibly, the chicks fit through the teeny chicken wire openings! By the time I realized it, we’d had about five little babies break out. The dog found one before me, and, I’m sure without malice, took it in her mouth and killed it. (We have slightly older chicks walking the homestead and she now ignores them; I think she’s still figuring out what’s a toy and what’s off-limits.)

And I misplaced an important paper. I had hoped to plant sweet potatoes, but instead I turned the trailer inside out and still couldn’t find it.

But by the time Tahni came, we laughed and enjoyed the animals, and after three hours, we ate homemade lettuce with homemade Caesar dressing and sat and talked. So fun.

The end of the day was better than the beginning.