Maude's Pages

February 2001

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(Webmaster's Note: We apologize for being late in getting Maude's page up. She (and her friends) have been keeping us a bit too busy. She's had plenty to say; we just haven't had the time to get it up here! But let Maude take the floor...)

Sometimes I think my shepherd is a slow learner. Last year we were in and out, in and out. This year, she decided she was just going to leave us out. She said that is the latest thing Cornell University says shepherds are supposed to do. Well I don't know about this Cornell University. They seem to be pretty slow about things that we sheep have known for thousands of years. So I guess I can't fault my shepherd too much. After all, she only really started learning when I came on the scene!

She has an assistant now, and we're trying to get her educated in a hurry. She never lived on a farm before and she's needed a lot of remedial training, coming in on the middle of things like she did. We didn't get to go see, but my shepherd showed me the photos of the class she took on hand shearing up at the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown. I'm glad we were already sheared so she didn't try to practice on us, but I must admit, she's been a lot better at catching us since she took that class...

But back to the farm here. Remember how I told you about Meyers getting ready to have a baby? Well, the baby came, and she is a cute one! Thankfully, she was pretty small (6 1/2 lbs) because Meyers is ridiculously young to be doing this. Thankfully, my shepherd told me she was there and had some help just as the baby started to come, because it took two of them to pull her out!

We could hear Meyers hollering all the way up the hill! Of course now she's calmed down and being a good mother. Our neighbor girls named her baby Angel. She's probably going to be a celebrity almost like myself! Here she is with her mom being shown off to folks who were visiting us from St. Sophia's Church in Albany:

And here she is with some triplets who visited us. I have to admit they were ALMOST as cute as we are: (Their grandfather, Mr. Macko, took this picture.)

I promised I'd tell you about Roo: Well, we are protected by servants who look a bit like us, but they are really very different: they aren't as smart as we are so they work a lot harder than we do. Still, to be fair, we're glad Lubov stays up all night. She saved my life, when I was just born, and all night long she's telling those coyotes that they can't come here to our farm!

'Bove and Roo are called dogs, and we put up with them, even though  Roo is young, and she seems to think we are her litter mates and sometimes runs us around too much...  Until 'Bove and our shepherd catch her at it and she really gets it!  'Bove is being a really good trainer for Roo. 

so Lubov can get some rest. Lubov is older and much more serious, so she has her hands full with Roo! When Roo first came, maybe two months ago, she was just 6 months old and weighed 80 lbs.

She's still growing -- she's going to be bigger than 'Bove! My shepherd says she will grow until she is three years old!

By the way, thank you to everyone who has been praying for all of us and especially for Meyers and Teddy. I already told you about Meyers and Angel. Teddy is still pretty sick, my shepherd says, only he doesn't show it. He comes out and helps show us the way back into our pen when we get out and go too far and get lost. He hasn't slowed down yet, and we know we shouldn't get our hopes up. But the vet said there IS a small chance he could go into something called remission. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but my shepherd says it would be a good thing so we are all praying for it.

My shepherd also says we just have to take things one day at a time, and trust Our Shepherd in Heaven Who loves Teddy even more than we do. She says all people and "critters" die, and it's always when Our Shepherd in Heaven knows they have learned everything they need to learn here, and He wants them up in His own pasture. Well, we miss everyone when they aren't here anymore, and sometimes I wish Our Shepherd in Heaven would be a little more patient. He took my mom and my sister really early! I hardly had a chance to get to know them!

But I shouldn't complain. For every one we miss, He sends us two brand new ones to cheer us up! The latest are Sarah and Gracie who were born really late, after we thought everyone had arrived for this year! A very nice family was visiting us that day, and their two little kids (Emma and Ben) gave them their names.

They just were old enough to go out to pasture and I asked my shepherd to get a good picture of them to share with all of you.

So now it's really hot out here and my wool is growing back and I can hardly think straight and my shepherd says this is getting to be long enough so I guess I'll quit for this time! I'll tell you more when things cool off again...