Four New Faces in the Pasture
From the Gardener’s Journal
The Gardener’s Letter No. 03
Dearest friend of the Hollow,
There are sheep in my pasture.
I have walked outside every morning this week just to make sure this is still true.
Four beautiful St. Croix sheep are now living at Hickman Hollow, and I cannot quite explain how happy it makes me to look across the pasture and see them there.
I have been searching for St. Croix sheep for months. I looked and looked and could not find the right ones. About a month ago, I finally started considering Katahdins instead, thinking perhaps I needed to change the plan.
And then Michael from Bare Bear Farms sent me a message.
He had ewes available.
Sometimes I think God’s plan for me is to wait until I have almost given up on one of my plans before quietly putting the answer in front of me to teach me patience.
Michael and his wife, Jessie, made this new adventure so much easier for us. Sheep are completely new territory for Jamie and me, which means I currently have approximately seventeen questions for every answer I learn. They have patiently answered so many of them, and Michael even delivered the girls right into our pasture with feed and hay to get us started.
When the trailer door opened, the sheep were understandably unsure about all of this.
New pasture. New barn. New people staring at them with ridiculous smiles on their faces.
They were shaky and frightened at first, but it did not take long before they hopped out of the trailer, discovered the fluffy grass, and decided perhaps Hickman Hollow was not such a terrible place after all.
And, because apparently every group needs one, there is, of course, one that is younger and smaller than the rest.
She was born in April of this year and is still very much a baby. She is shy and timid and usually positions one of the older girls between herself and whatever suspicious thing is happening.
I am usually the suspicious thing.
Fortunately, she is also beginning to understand that I am the suspicious thing who carries treats.
We are making progress.
I walk out every morning to see them, and they already make my heart so happy. I still have moments when I look at them and think, oh my goodness, we have sheep.
I love them already.
The Great Escape
Rose and Little love the sheep too.
The sheep may actually love them a little more enthusiastically than Rose and Little were prepared for.
The girls chase after them, trying to get close, which is hilarious to watch if you do not know what is happening. Their previous livestock guardian dogs apparently loved licking them clean, so I suspect our sheep arrived expecting a similar level of personal service.
Rose and Little have not received that particular memo.
Unfortunately, there is another small complication.
Rose is an escape artist.
Jamie and I put the dogs in with the sheep and then walked around the barn to tend to the chickens. A little while later, Jamie headed toward the house while I started back to spend some time with the sheep.
Then Jamie came walking back.
“Why is Rose in our backyard?”
Excellent question.
Apparently Rose had found a way beneath the pasture fence, slipped through, and returned directly to the place she considers home.
And really, when I thought about it, I could hardly blame her.
For the past several months, Rose has been guarding our backyard.
More specifically, Rose has been guarding us.
As far as she is concerned, I am the livestock.
We cannot simply move her to another pasture one afternoon and expect her to understand that her job description has changed.
So, this week Jamie is fixing the fence. Then we will spend more time in the sheep pasture with Rose and Little so that this new place begins to feel like part of their territory too.
It may take a little patience.
The Keeper of the Hollow, I suspect, would say most worthwhile things do.
Why Sheep Milk?
There is another reason I have dreamed about having sheep here.
Next month, our ladies that are over a year old should have a special gentleman visitor for a little while. If everything goes according to plan, there may be lambs bouncing around Hickman Hollow next spring.
I am trying not to think too much about tiny lambs yet because I will become completely unreasonable.
Lambs would also mean milk from the sheep.
One of my hopes is eventually to use our own sheep milk as a main ingredient in some of the handcrafted soaps and body products we are developing for the Hollow.
Sheep milk is fascinating because it is naturally very concentrated. I have even read studies that have found sheep milk is around 6 to 7 percent fat and roughly 5 to 6 percent protein. It also contains minerals and fat-soluble vitamins. That rich fat and protein content is part of what makes sheep milk so very interesting to me for our body care products.
There is still quite a journey between four sheep munching grass in September and jars or bars made with Hickman Hollow sheep milk in the Spring.
But that is part of the fun. You get to watch us learn.
A Note for Gardeners
Before I go, I have one little reminder for my fellow gardeners.
If you have been planning to grow garlic and have not ordered your bulbs yet, now is the time.
Garlic is one of those things I always seem to start thinking about when fall finally begins to feel close. Here in South Carolina, this is the time to start getting ready to tuck those cloves into the ground so they have plenty of time to settle in and grow before spring arrives.
And if you are choosing which cloves to plant, save the big beautiful ones. They usually reward you with the biggest bulbs later. It feels a little strange planting something now that I will not dig back up until next year, but I suppose the Hollow is rather fond of teaching me patience.
So order the garlic.
The Gardener loves garlic.
The Keeper has offered no opinion on the matter.
We assume this means the Keeper has never had roasted garlic spread on warm bread.
Until we meet again.
