Sunday, February 22, 2009

The Boys

The longer I am around sheep, the more I realize that they are a bit like humans. Here are "the boys" - better known as our rams. They are the dads of all the sheep and you can see them on the left side of the photo back by Eeyore, the donkey. There are two Romney crosses, and a Border Leicester. We also have a few more rams that aren't in the photo.


See how they stand around and eat and eat and eat. I suppose they feel a bit useless at this point in the year. Besides eating, they can't do much that is useful - they can't feed the baby lambs. The lambs have no relationship with the rams at all - they are just around. It struck me that the scene was similar to some families when the women are in the kitchen - cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, taking care of the kids and the men are sitting around the t.v. watching a football game.

Rams can be nasty. We once had a ram named Zeno who would charge us from across the field. I always had to be aware of his whereabouts - otherwise I would end up on my back unexpectedly. I never walked into the field when he was around without some kind of large stick to protect myself with.

One day, my brother-in-law David was taking care of the sheep when The Farmer was away. He knew about this ram - everyone did. David has a prosthesis on one of his lower legs due to an accident. He thought he would have a little fun with the ram. When Zeno came charging, David stuck out his fake leg and the ram butted it. The ram was stunned - he couldn't figure out what he hit that was hard. He backed up and butted him again harder. Poor guy, it must have hurt his head knocking into that hard piece of plastic. He never tangled with David again.


We didn't keep Zeno much longer - he was just too dangerous to have around. Off he went to the slaughterhouse and became ground meat. We enjoyed him more as that than when he was always after us, trying to knock us down.

10 comments:

Deborah said...

That's a funny photo--I like that--"the boys." Oh well, they do make cute babies!

The fake leg butt creates quite the visual.

Anonymous said...

This is off subject, but I wanted to tell you that I purchased the Nashua magazine at my local yarn shop yesterday specifically for your interview and the pictures taken on your farm. Delightful!

Willow said...

Love this post. It made me laugh from beginning to end.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha ground meat. That guy would have scared me so much. It's my worst nightmare to have huge animals attacking me and I can't do anything.

Unknown said...

LOL. What a picture your story made! I can totally see the scene unfolding as you describe it.

Anonymous said...

Your comparison of rams and men is a little scary. If the ram/men on the farm don't pull their weight and get aggressive toward you..... they'll end up as ground meat!!!!!!
The Farmer better watch his back.

JFibers said...

I've been reading your blog for a while now and often show my financee your sheep stories and videos. We decided to register for a Flip after he saw your latest film. I long to own a few sheep and a llama (or alpaca) of my own. I was wondering how you chose a llama over an alpaca? I know you mostly post about your lovely sheep but I've been wondering this for a while and just thought I'd drop a line about it.
Thanks for the visual of David.. quite funny.

Anonymous said...

Love that story! I should forward it to our pediatrician, who now espouses a complete vegan diet for all of her patients. We're looking for a new doctor. I'm sure Zeno was delicious!

Anonymous said...

Poor Zeno....mmmm...hehehe!
We had a goat that was just
like that, we called him
Mr.Wilson..(just think Denis)
He was such a grump. One day
he thought he would but a
Scarecrow we had made out of
a sand bag, he never head butted
anyone again. My dad thinks that
he must have hurt his neck.
But he took up giving everyone
the evil eye, and a bite.

Anonymous said...

Merci pour ce joli blog dans lequel je me promène régulièrement, magnifiques photos d'une vie heureuse et simple. Bravo aussi pour vos créations.
Amicalement.
Dominique

www.dominique-forest.odexpo.com

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