Wheewh! It's been a rough few weeks.
Spring is a super busy time in the shop with work schedules, show schedules, tour schedules, class schedules and production schedules to put in place. Follow this with a week of the ever pervasive flu that is circulating. I'd like to say that I have been kept on my toes however I was actually knocked off my feet for a week with said flu (with an apology to Arn who was first to get sick while I rolled my eyes thinking - it couldn't be THAT bad- oops).
Thanks to "the girls" who always keep the shop running smoothly and who are now - you guessed it-down with the flu.
Worse than all else, one of my goats, Louie, fell ill this week. Now when I started out with sheep and goats it was with the understanding that these animals are not on level with our dogs who are our constant companions and who share our home. Sheep and goats are "livestock". They live apart from us. They exist in our world with a degree of separation. Wrong. Well, wrong for me, anyway. My Sheep and goats are embedded in my world. They are intrinsically timid, cautious animals who have come to trust that I will be consistent and caring and respectful. Trust is trust regardless of the direction from which it comes at you. It's big and it's real and when Louie became ill, his suffering weighed on me like a ton of bricks. I have been medicating, rehydrating and working to maintain his rumen function for the past 5 days. he, in turn, has been working on pulling through a bout with (?)not full blown bloat - possibly toxicity ? All this to report that yesterday evening Louie met me at the gate, was most interested in his feed and I finally got a good nights sleep. This morning he lays perched on a snow mound taking in the spring sunshine........ they exist to test me, why did I sign up for this? - oh yah, to enjoy the good bits, that's right.
a side note to this story: the animals at London-Wul are used in fibre production only. The farm remains entirely no-kill, no-sell in it's functioning.
....on another note: our next handspinning classes will be held on Saturday May 3rd and again on Sunday May 4th... deatails to follow or call 506-382-6990
...back to the London-Wul Homepage: www.thewoolworks.com
