Maude's Pages

July 2003

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Well, it's about time! Things got bad here for awhile and I guess I can't really blame my shepherds for not helping me keep up my page, but sometimes I wonder if they realize how much my fans want to hear what's going on! I keep getting letters and notes, and I really can't answer them by myself!

First of all, I thought you might like to see how much our world changes here from summer to winter. This is a real miracle that Our Shepherd in Heaven works every year! Here are two pictures of one of our pastures, taken from the same spot in March and in June.

Does the world change as much where you live? You can see how much we like to spread out when it is summertime -- in the winter, we like to hang out together! And we prefer being outdoors -- I'll bet you didn't know we even get sick if we stay inside all winter!

At least last time I was able to show you some baby pictures from early this spring. What I didn't tell you, is what a miracle it was that I had my babies!(Webmaster's note: Click here to see the first picture of Maude's lambs: Maude's 10th Page!)

The beginning of lambing season was just terrible. Eleven of the first lambs were born dead or died right after they were born and I was so scared that mine would be the same... The mothers were all from my group -- why Our Shepherd in Heaven spared mine, I will never know, but I am very, very grateful.

It turns out they had some kind of virus. At one point, Sister Macrina, my shepherd, thought we were going to lose all of this year's lambs. She was just about to give up being a shepherd! As you can imagine, it was a terrible time for all of us. I wasn't sure we should talk about it, but everyone around here seems to think it's important to let people know what happened -- and "All's well that end's well," as I've heard my shepherds say many times recently. By the end of lambing season, we had almost sixty lambs very much alive!

My babies are growing up! They are named Matilda and Moses.

Let me show you how much some of the other babies have grown: Here are Janie's lambs, Crescent and Moon, right after they were born.

We were so worried because she's older, from another farm where she never had babies, so she was a first-time mom and there were a lot of risks. Well, in fact we thought at one point we were going to lose Janie as well as her lambs!

But my shepherds worked very hard and Our Shepherd in Heaven let us save everyone. Here is how they look now:

Can you see why my shepherds named the black ewe "Crescent?" Baa is the father and he and Janie are both registered, purebred Romneys, so while they aren't quite as special as my lambs, I know my shepherd thinks they are pretty important. Janie makes so much wool she gets shorn twice a year! Moon, Crescent's brother, used to look like an ad for "Got milk?" Here he's even licking his lips! Even though he's graduated from a bottle now, he still likes to drink.

Then the twins, Fire and Light, were born on Pascha: Their mother didn't want them! Can you imagine that?!

Well, she probably won't stay on our farm. My shepherd says every once in awhile a two-footed, human mother doesn't want her babies, either. I simply can't understand that! Our Shepherd in Heaven loves all of us so much -- how can we help loving the new creatures He lets us have? Still, I really feel sorry for their mother, Gretchen, because she has no idea how much she is missing by not seeing her lambs grow up around her!

Here's one mom who really DOES enjoy having her lambs nearby! Then on the day when my shepherds' shepherd came to visit us (they called him a bishop or a metropolitan or something like that -- he has so many names

I can't keep them straight), Kyra came up with triplets! It seems she always has to have a bishop around when her lambs are born. Here they are now:

(Webmaster's note: to see photos from Metropolitan Herman's visit on Myrrhbearers Sunday, click here: Monastery Events.)

Do you remember last year when Goliath was a bottle baby? Here he is now, all grown up!

And here are last year's doelings all grown up into yearling goats:

Here they are with the three milkers, Cinderella, Barbie and Winifred -- and one of our new shepherds, named Nektaria. Seems like everything around here is growing!

One other thing I really want everyone to know about: You probably know we live on a very old farm. My shepherds moved here in 1983, but the first person who settled here and started building barns came around 1790! His name was Phineas Cook, and he raised a LOT of sheep (and even goats) and he even had a mill where he made the wool into cloth!

I'd be really grateful if you'd tell people how important it is for farms to exist! It seems some people don't know their food and clothing ome from farms -- they think it grows on the store shelves! Well, we know different! You need us -- and we need you! We can't just live in the woods like our cousins the deer. We're a lot like you humans -- we need shepherds to take care of us!

Our big barn was built around 1866 and my shepherds have done a lot of work to fix it up.

We really need the small, older barn, too! It's a real antique, called an "English" barn, according to some fancy people who visited us from some Historical Society because they heard about how old (and nice) our farm was.

My shepherds had it painted this summer and next they are asking someone to come and work on the foundations. All us "critters" would hate to see it fall down -- we really do need to have shelter sometimes in the winter, and I know my shepherds could never build another barn to take its place!

So if you know anyone who would like to help my shepherds save our barn, please, tell them all about us! Thank you!

I hope I'll be back soon to talk to you again -- we can't have another spring like this one!