So I borrowed this post’s title from one of my favorite bands – The John Butler Trio.
Last week I witnessed the birth of another living creature for the first time in my 25 years on this planet. Wow. We were dead in the middle of “lambing” – this means that all the ewes that were bred during the month of December are at the end of their gestation and its time to release new life – and Jim (PhD, Animal Science) and his wife Adele were scouting the fields for new births while I finished up the chores. They noticed that one ewe (female lamb) in particular was experiencing tremendous difficulty while birthing her lamb. This ewe turned out to be a first-time mommy and the lamb was coming out with its feet turned upwards – not good. Sheep are typically born as if they are diving into the lush pasture that presumably awaits them – front feet first and facing down.
We loaded Mama Ewe into the Mule and gently drove her down to the “maternity room” (pictured) that the Hayes’ keep for first-time mums. I then held and tried to comfort Mama Ewe while my main man Jimbo safely delivered her lamb! I was more or less bear-hugging her and whispering in her ear, while Adele took the photos and Jim worked his magic. The border collies (Pandy, Mactevish, and Guiness) clambered to see the new addition to the flock they so faithfully (and sometimes insubordinately) shepherd.
The actually delivery of the lamb lasted less than a few minutes, though I couldn’t say because I was so enamored I saw it from start to finish folks. Right up close too. It took me a bit to process Jim has this ridiculously intense connection with his animals and it’s something I pray that I begin to develop while studying under him.
The fate of this lamb attempts to chip away at the whole “quixotic” part of this experience. We saved the ewe and lamb’s life only so both can go to slaughter? That’s a BIG booger to swallow folks. I am not going to open the omnivore v. herbivore box in any way, shape, or form right now.
We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.
Eric Hoffer
What I DO want to focus on is that these sheep give us human beings 3 mighty helpful resources that sustain our health and well-being:
1) Meat
2) Milk
3) Wool
Have you utilized a sheep lately?
Synergistically,
Andy
Well, I suppose I should have clarified this by now!
The “dream” is to be fully competent in not only how to provide my own nourishment, but how I can aid others in providing their own nourishment as well. I just finished garnering a couple degrees and qualifications through 7 years of higher education (Registered Dietitian-eligible as of May 2008) and I am presumably fit to become a “nutrition expert” (American Dietetic Association-dubbed). Shannon Hayes (www.grassfedcooking.com), Michael Pollan (www.michaelpollan.com), and a few others have tempted me to think otherwise. Why? Prior to 2 weeks ago, I had absolutely NO idea how mine or anyone else’s nourishment (i.e. food) was produced.
So here I sit at Sap Bush Hollow farm (www.sapbush.com) in upstate NY on the first leg of my journey (leg #2 = sustainable vegetable farming) - learning how meat gets to our plates. The beautiful thing about Sap Bush is that the livestock (sheep, laying hens, one dairy cow for us ( “Trill”), beef cattle, broiler chickens, and swine) are done truly sustainably, ultra-humanely, and symbiotically. Shoot, I wouldn’t have it any other way! I’ll focus on each animal and how it gets to us (sustainably) in the future but onward for now.
So, the goal of this blog is to reveal to anyone who may stop in to read, the bizarre paradox of a “nutrition expert” knowing zilch about real (real food is whole food produced in a sustainable manner that benefits the grower, the consumer, and the earth) food production.
So…here goes and I hope you’ll dig the updates on my world being quite rocked.
Synergistically,
Andy
