Father's Day activities

So, what to do on an extremely hot and muggy Father's Day? First, get up really early and head to the barn. Then round up all the sheep, llama and alpacas. Gather all your equipment and supplies and set to work. That is how we spent about 4 hours yesterday morning and it was not my idea, but I will admit I'm glad we did it and that it's now behind us for a few months. Yesterday was the day Mike decided we should worm every critter on the place, finish the lamb's vaccinations, trim feet if necessary and generally give everyone a good going over. We were able to go through the flock and make the hard decisions about who should stay and who should go, assess the lamb's fleeces and begin to think about Fall 2009 breeding season. That's quite a lot to accomplish in one morning.

Unfortunately for Mike, because his children live away from here, he does not get to see them on a regular basis and Father's Day is not the family celebration Mike deserves. As parents, we want our children to become independent and responsible adults, but the downside to that is they sometimes choose to live far enough away that we don't get to enjoy being with them as often as we would like. It's a bit of a conundrum. So, though there was no traditional Father's Day cookout and family togetherness, I did try to make the day be about however Mike wanted to spend it. (I personally might have chosen something different than worming sheep, but that's just me, I guess!)

The donkey girls got some new personal accessories yesterday. I was thinking they would have been appropriate Christmas gifts, just because of the colors. Of course, there are no pesky flies at Christmas, so the masks make better presents in June. That's Fannie in the red and Jenny in the green. They were pretty skittish about wearing them in the beginning, but adjusted quickly to not having to continually shake the flies off their faces. We've been trying to come to grips with placing the donkeys with someone who could give them more attention. We enjoy them so much, but feel they deserve to get more hand's on time than we are able to give them. Part of raising livestock is caring about the quality of their day-to-day lives and knowing when someone else could provide a better situation for them. Though, as with our children, actually letting them go is not so easy.

Hope your week is full of cool and quiet moments to enjoy your day-to-day life, wherever you are.