Maude's Pages

September 2001

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My shepherds are certainly upset! From what my own shepherd said, things are pretty bad in the world right now. I've thought and thought and decided first of all, I need to put here a beautiful song we sheep sing to ourselves every day. You may know it, too, but maybe you haven't learned to keep repeating good words like we sheep do. Of course, we're born knowing them, and you have to read them and memorize them. Here's a chance to catch up with us:

A Psalm of David
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He feeds me beside the waters of rest; He restores my soul.
He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Now isn't that beautiful? It reminds us who our real Shepherd is, and no matter how bad it gets, He will be there!

One of our shepherds got to go to the Holy Land last year, where that beautiful song was written. She brought us back pictures of how sheep like us live there.

We can't figure out how even Our Shepherd in Heaven finds food for them! Can you see the flock of sheep huddled at the bottom of the mountain in this picture?

Still, we are here now, and we need to live the best way we can each day where Our Shepherd in Heaven has put us. So I'll tell you some of the things that are going on here, like I was going to before those two-footed villainous creatures messed up the whole world.

First of all, our whole farm is getting to be famous! My shepherd decided this was the year to "go public," and she took some of our fleeces to the Great Otsego County Fair in Morris, New York. Practically the whole world goes there! We were all waiting with bated breath to find out how we were going to do, since we think we grow some of the best wool in the world, but how can you be sure until you look at the wool some of our friends grow? Well, to make a long story short, all of our fleeces got ribbons, and my father's and half-brother's fleeces both got first prize! (My father's name is Baa, because he's a black sheep, and my half-brother's name is Big Boy because he is.)

Even better: Here's a picture of my shepherd with those two fleeces, and the extra "Reserve Champion" ribbon Big Boy's fleece won! I guess we could all tell she was happy!

But my fleece with some of other the extra-soft ones are going to be spun here and then made into very special blankets. I was hoping they would be ready by now, but I guess we've kept our shepherds too busy with other things: They spent most of this summer putting up fences for us! But once winter comes, we'll stay put in our pastures and they can do some other things.

Some of our shepherds drove the other fleeces to a mill in Putney, Vermont where they will be made into yarn. I hear all of our yarn from last year has been sold! Now we're going to have two different kinds: The white yarn made from sheep like me, and dark colored yarn from sheep like my dad.

Slava and Nika and the other Icelandic sheep were shorn this week -- they sure grow fast and so does their wool! Here's Slava right afterwards:

Even one of my fellow Romneys had to get shorn again. Her wool was over six inches long when they clipped it this spring! So I guess we're all pretty much champions!

We also got three new girls. They'll be part of next year's class, because they were born this spring. They've been named Winken, Blinken and Nod. They are Tunis sheep. My shepherd says they are a very old breed of sheep, that our country's first shepherd, a man named Mr. Washington, was the first to bring them here. They look real different too!

I guess they're cute, if you like red-heads. Hope you can see the two in back of this photo -- the first one got shorn before I could get my shepherd to take this picture!

Speaking of red-heads, here are some other new girls who joined us this summer:

And before I forget, thank you again to everyone who's been praying for Teddy. He's doing really well right now. The vet says he's in remission! Whether its for days, weeks or years we don't know, but here are some shots of him in action keeping us on the move!

I've grown back most of my wool so I look more like myself again. Can you tell I'm growing up?

I hope I get to meet you if you come visit. Be sure to ask my shepherd to bring you over to my pasture and say hello!