When I was 8 my dad was already a father to 4 kids. Now that I am a mother to 4 kids, I get it. I understand how tired he must have been. He was the one who kept the peace between us and my mother. I’m not certain she would see it that way but based off my memories that was the arrangement. I remember vividly him telling me if I cleaned my room, and kept it clean for x amount of time, he would buy me a sheep. I had the master plan of keeping it in my closet which was really just a shelf with a rod hanging on the wall of my bedroom. We lived in Prior Lake at that point in my life. There were farms on the outskirts of town but our house in the middle of the city was not equipped for a sheep. I wouldn’t say I’m angry I never got my sheep he promised but I did think about it often throughout my childhood.
Last Wednesday, as I finished up a 12 hour day in the car with 3 toddlers, I called my dad. He didn’t answer but if he had I was going to give him the total he owed me for the sheep I bought myself. I’m not unreasonable. I didn’t expect him to pay for both but I did call the next day and give him the total he owed me for the one ewe. We brought home two bottle babies. They were born sometime around the 17th of last month. One was from a set of triplets and the other from a set of twins. Neither mom had enough milk to supply these babies with what they needed. I saw her post on Facebook, Tuesday night, about needing a home for these bottle babies and sent a screenshot to Connor. My screenshot was only to show him these adorable lambs drinking from bottles. I was not expecting my husband – who made it very clear he was drawing the line at the pigs – to start asking questions about them. “Are they available? Would they be for meat or wool? Could we milk them? Can they be bred together?”. I quickly answered the questions I could and sent the remaining questions to the lady selling them.
I messaged a friend early Wednesday morning and asked if she was up for a road trip. The lambs were 3 hours away and the extra company to keep me awake would be appreciated. Unfortunately, she had too many commitments at her own farm but she did offer to take my kids to make the drive a bit more peaceful. We ended up doing a trade. She took Annabelle(7) and Hayden(4) while I took Kobe(3) and the twins(2.5). I figured this would be the best solution so she could get her chores done and not have to worry about anyone little. Hayden(4) might be a bit of a wild child but he at least knows not to play in the road or challenge a cow.
I want to take a second to make a shout out to Costco in St. Cloud MN. I called them when they opened from Clara City which is still a few hours away. I explained to the staff member that I needed to stop for just one item on my way back through that evening. I would have 3 kids under 3 with me and two baby lambs in the car and I was hopeful they would pull the items to the front for me. I’ve been a Costco shopper long enough that I know this isn’t a service they offer. I actually know it is completely against the “rules” thanks to my sister being a manager at Costco. The staff member I spoke with let me know they’re not allowed to but she would get a manager and ask anyways. When the manager picked up the phone I again explained the situation to him. He explained to me that while it isn’t something they are supposed to do he could make an exception. He understood my concern with leaving animals in a hot car and trying to get in and out of anywhere with 3 small children. As it turned out the item I needed – two garden hoses – were the last two in the store! Mike of St. Cloud Costco did me a huge favor and I am very grateful.
The gal who was selling the sheep told me that she had to work but her father would meet us at the farm. When we pulled up no one was home so I called the number she gave me. He was 15 min away but asked me to go and try to grab the lambs we were taking. He said they would be the only ones to come right up to us and want love. I was skeptical but the kids and I went to the fence and sure enough there were two babies who came right up to the fence wanting our attention. I scooped them up and put them in the crate in the back of our van. When he pulled up he applauded the fact we had already done “the hard part”. He told me to send his daughter payment and we were good to go. I don’t remember what made him but he decided to look a bit closer before I shut the doors. He noticed that one lamb had “19” painted on his back and the other had nothing. He thought he remembered his daughter telling him we were supposed to take two sheep marked with numbers in the thirties. He called her just to verify and as it turned out, we had the wrong sheep. She had put our babies up in the garage so there would be no mistaking them. We put the two almost kidnapped lambs back and loaded up the other two.
We made the long trip back to our part of MN and traded out kids around 9 and made it home around 9:30. My amazing husband realized we had a problem. I had told him that morning I would put them in the 6-panel dog pen until we could build them a pen that weekend. When he got home from work he went to set it all up and realized the door was broken. He set to work pulling pieces off our broken barn – the one hit by the tornado last year – and putting pallets together to make them a safe space for the night. He did amazing with the supplies he had available. It has been just over a week now and while we did have to cover some larger spaces they are still using the same area.
The next morning we woke before the alarm. I told Connor I could hear the sheep bleating and said they must want their bottles. His response was “that or they got out and are right outside the window”. We lifted the blinds and sure enough there was Winnie, our golden aussie poo, herding the lambs in circles through the yard. Apparently Connor had thought they would be a bit bigger and they were able to walk right through part of the pallet fence.
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”6″ display=”basic_imagebrowser”]