Maude's Pages

June 2001

(Webmaster's Note:  We've been having long discussions with Maude about her earlier web pages.  We think it's enough to have one up a month, but she is worried that someone new may find the monastery site and they won't be able to read her Whole Story.  The folks who host our site aren't complaining yet, so it seems we have some time to work this out with her.  Perhaps some of you with more experience than we have could give us some idea about how to keep her old web pages in some kind of archive...?  But it's time to let Maude have the floor:)

I'm growing up!  I'm just over a year old, and my shepherd staged a special event to mark my coming of age!  Well, all my friends got to be part of it, too, but since this is my page, we don't need to talk about that too much...

They brought us all in to the barn again.  I must admit, we were all a bit nervous after shearing last month, but this didn't last so long.  And I've been working on my techniques! 

Here I am with my shepherd's shepherd standing nearby.  She isn't paying any attention to me, but I'm concentrating! It works best when she is paying attention to something else so she

doesn't realize I'm working on her (I use mental telepathy), but it only takes a minute or so before she does what I've trained her to do. (By the way, the dog in the picture is Roo -- I'll tell you more about her later!)

And here is the finished result:My new earbob!  My shepherd told me she picked red for this year's class just because she knew it would look good on me!   She only gives earbobs

to the yearlings that are going to stay on as part of the permanent flock, so it is a great honor! I am now officially a full-fledged, life-time member of Zoar Farms. There are some new folks in the barn -- some friends donated a dozen sheep

to our shepherds. They are huge compared to the rest of us! We're mostly Romney crosses, but they are all Corriedale and Oxfords.  Here is Miss Ewe, the one I like best of them all:

Our shepherd says we are getting close to the kind of flocks Our Shepherd in Heaven talks about: counting all the sheep and goats, we are 103 right now! But not everyone gets to stay like me to be a permanent part of the flock, so she says it will probably be at least next summer before we have 100 full-time members of our flock.

We also got to see Nika and Slava again.  They were born one day last month when there were a lot of visitors here.  Some nice man came out to the barn and gave them a blessing and named them!

They called him either a Metropolitan or a bishop, I'm not sure which, but he seemed to be really nice. I've asked my shepherd to be sure to put in both photos, since they are so cute -- they are Icelandic sheep, and they sure look different, even from Miss Ewe's bunch! And they are growing FAST!

Now I'm not sure how to introduce this, but I told my shepherd we really have to talk about it and warn people!  She said this wasn't a nice subject, and since little kids read this page, it might be better not to discuss it.  But I told her I think it's really important especially for little kids to hear about this, so they will all learn a lesson! 

I've reminded you all about the sheep and the goats, well, let me tell you, those goats have done it again!  Here is Meyers.She looks sweet and innocent, doesn't she?!  Well, there's a reason

she's sort of hiding in the shadows there. I told my shepherd 5 months ago when some friends brought Stinky, Jr., back -- such a cute little white buck -- that she shouldn't put him in a pen in the barn. She said "He's too small to be like his daddy." I thought to myself -- "We'll see!" And was I right! He got out of that pen and into the pen with the yearling does and In only 10 minutes the damage was done!

Do you know what this is called?  TEENAGE PREGNANCY!  It is SHOCKING to know that this went on in our barn!  Meyers is never going to grow up to her full size now -- this baby is taking all the energy she should have put in to growing up big and strong for her future kids!  We're all worried about her because she is SO small.  Next month I'll tell you the results.

Here are two more folks we're a little worried about: My shepherd says I shouldn't ask for prayers for any of us who live out here, because some people don't think they should pray for animals.

They're even worried that something bad will happen if they pray for people who don't go to their church. Well, I don't know about this, and this is my page, so if anyone wants to pray for Meyers, and also for Teddy and Goose, I hope they won't feel too badly about doing it! And don't blame my shepherd. Goose is better already -- seems she stopped getting enough food from her mom and wasn't growing properly, but a lot of love and attention and extra milk, and she's back on track. Teddy is one of our Corgis and he loves all of us -- you can see he's even giving Goose a kiss! Well, we just found out he's REALLY sick -- something my shepherd called "lymphoma." So everybody please pray hard he stays with us a bit longer.

Thank you. My shepherd tells me the rest has to wait for next month. I'll tell you all about Roo then and what's up with Meyers and...

(Webmaster's Note: We've had to ask Maude to stop for now -- come back next month for the next installment of her news!)