Find your Holly
The author and his wife unexpectedly find a wealth of sheep knowledge and experience in a mentor named Holly.
A couple years ago I lost my immediate interest in beekeeping when I was visiting my boys' 4-H group and heard a young girl talk about setting up and keeping honeybees. What I thought was easy was a lot harder, more complex, and a lot riskier than I thought. So that idea will take a back-burner for now.
But what I learned most from her presentation was that she had been successful because an older gentleman had shown her and her father everything they needed to know to get started and have a couple successful and productive years. Without his help, they would have likely lost the bees (sometimes they up and leave) or made some catastrophic mistake.
The same would have been true when we got started with sheep a couple years ago. A friend at church put me in touch with his neighbor who kept sheep, and go in turn put us in touch with her neighbor Holly.
Holly and her husband are Minneapolis transplants who have made farm and environmental stewardship a way of life.
Holly didn't just sell us sheep. First she allowed us to vaccinate her sheep. And help move her solar-electric fences. And she taught us to trim hooves, and check the sheep eyelids for evidence of parasite loads. Once she was confident we knew enough, she sold us three ewes and two lambs.
Here are some photos she sent as we were asking about buying sheep:
I can't really express what it's meant to keep sheep and to be in the pen with sheep. I love their warm, stuffed-pillow bodies and their individual bleating voices, their stupidity, their need for attention, and their fresh-mowed-lawn breath. Hopefully some of the photos I post communicate what I can't put into words.
We wouldn't have made it the first year without calling Holly for help or having her come over when our sheep had a problem. She coached us through the multiple remedies we tried and visited our home to personally administer meds to a sheep that got 'bloat' (and eventually died) because of my ignorance.
If you're thinking about taking on animals find someone who can show you how to get started. You're going to need it. Your animals will be thankful, too.
