It’s been a long week at the farm. Sometimes when I look back at weeks like this, I wonder at how we managed to do the rest of our life around all these happenings. The week started with me almost getting run over by the lawn mower–which I only avoided by running smack into the raw, cut edge of a hog panel. In the dark.

Thankfully my leg took most of the cuts and bruises.

Apparently the brake wasn’t set. By human accident or possibly by chicken interference, I don’t know. But while I was trying to feed the sheep it started rolling out of the shed and down the back hill and there wasn’t room for the two of us through that gate! Meanwhile the sheep were practically climbing over me to mob the feed bucket. Then the mower got stuck–half in and half out! I couldn’t close the gate to keep the sheep out of the feed shed and I got tangled up with the hog panel sitting against the back of the garage while I was trying to beat them off the feed bucket I had just filled up.

And the mud was so slick I couldn’t get the mower backed up the hill!

I finally gave up and shoved the mower all the way out and left it there for Mr. Fix-It.

Then we lost Tag. I’ll save that story for another day. It was a long battle and I don’t feel like re-living it right now.

Then we had our first lamb!!

Then we had another lamb.

And she struggled.

Her momma was right there, doing everything right. But she was weak and cold and struggling. So I dug out the extension cords for the heat lamp and we pulled out towels and vitamins and just started doing everything we knew to do before heading off to work for the day.

Then I get a call…two calls actually…no it was four calls and three texts…from, well, our whole neighborhood…and the vet, animal control, the local deputies, and someone’s mother’s house-cleaner that was on her way to work…

There were sheep out front.

And apparently everyone knows that we have sheep.

AND that we don’t have a fence out front.

Great.

So I zoomed home to find that our neighbors had patiently rounded everyone up into the backyard. Except that after a head count, I was missing lambs and mommas! Turns out they had more sense than to go galloping around the neighborhood and had just stayed home in the barn.

Thank goodness for a little common sense around here!

Then we lost the second lamb.

There’s just no words for how discouraging that can be. You do everything you know to do, the momma is doing everything she knows to do, and you just can’t change what’s going to happen…{sigh}

And yet we have 14 more ewes to deliver and you have to focus on moving forward…

I’ve talked before about how part of God’s mercy is that He keeps moving time forward…even when we think it should stop. Because there’s peace in knowing that tomorrow is another day. And then there’s another season. And then another year…and life just keeps going. Lambs are born, and they grow, and they’re harvested, and then next year more are born, and they grow…

Farming is a constant lesson in how life is bigger than we are…how GOD is bigger than we are.

A lesson in HOW MUCH bigger God is.

A lesson in how PEACE and JOY have pretty much NOTHING in common with “happiness.”

A lesson in being sifted.

A lesson in being still.

Lambing season gets pretty busy around here. And most of it is fun, cute, and fuzzy. I hope you’ll stop over and LIKE our Facebook page so you catch all the play-by-play fun of farm life in spring–even if I don’t find time to post it here!