My new flock of sheep. That’s how I’ve been thinking of them. Seven sheep, Kim is the oldest at 11, but they are otherwise a young group of ewes and wethers.
It does feel like something new.
As if I have gone from one phase to another. It’s not that my learning about sheep is over. I don’t think, as long as I have sheep, it ever will be. It’s more like I’ve graduated after living and learning for 12 years with Suzy and Socks.
They were my teachers along with all my other sheep who have been born, lived and died at the farm. But it is Suzy and Socks passing that marks the end of one period of my life with sheep and begins another.
I’m still getting used to the idea that there are no sheep missing from the flock. I think it will take a bit more time to see my seven as whole. But every morning when I put a little less hay in the feeders I get a step closer.
In a way, that I will be taking this years wool to a new fiber mill seems like another sign of the shift.
