Really Really Cold

The temperature read "-4" on the junior high's automated sign as Faith and I headed to the farm at 7:45 a.m. for our Sunday morning volunteer shift. It was really really cold. We listened to country music on the radio, as we do every time we go to the farm, to get in the proper frame-of-mind. The walk down the tree-lined, gravel path from the parking lot to the farmhouse is a like walking through a "breach in the time-space continuum" back to the 1890's for me --away from the mad rush of the 21st century to a simpler, slower-paced time and place. We anachronistacly logged in for our shift on the volunteer computer and donned our costumes for the morning chores. We worked with Mark and Kelly. Faith and I fed and stabled the horses, fed the cows near the barn and chickens while Mark and Kelly fed the rams, sheep and cows to the north. Faith and I had to take one break in the lower barn warming room to get the feeling back in our fingers before feeding the chickens. Then, Mark and I harnessed Annie & Jack to pull the sleigh in order to distribute hay and straw to the sheep and cattle shed while Kelly and Faith ground some corn. After finishing with the horses, we ended the morning chores with chopping some wood for the kitchen's wood stove -- Wayne was running low on his supply. Before calling it quits for the day, Faith and I strolled out to the sheep shed to take a look at the two lambs that were born last week. They were nursing vigorously. Two cute healthy little lambs. Always wonderfully amazing to me -- that we had a hand in that. Faith and I always look forward to seeing the new lambs bouncing in and out of the shed. Yes, lambs do bounce.