Tonight, I headed to the barn to milk.
Some of our goat kids are on their dams this year for a few reasons, though I still milk each doe twice a day to keep their udders even, and because they produce a bit more than the kids use.
I noticed that one doe was too full when she came into our milking area. I immediately asked the farming fellow to look around for her buck kids. He couldn't find them inside the barn. He went down the hill to the house for a better light.
Horrible storms were coming, and you couldn't see a thing outside of the barn.
While he was down, I milked the doe for her comfort's sake, then looked in the places further out from the barn he hadn't checked as best I could feel around.
Nothing. No kids.
I was fairly panicked. Where could they be?
My husband came back, and he kept saying as we looked in all of the places that made sense that something had to have happened, that we were looking in vain. He said something had to have taken them, they couldn't be alive and be no where to be found.
I think it was pretty clear, no matter what, I was not going to go the house for any reason until I found those kids, for better or worse.
So we started out across the mountain side.
Nothing.
As we kept walking, I could hear Coyotes yipping and owls. Heavens, I never hear owls here.
My Pyr decided to come along, as well as Bubbles, the house "guard".
We were out so far, I figured I was looking amiss when I thought I heard a faint "Maaa" up in the woods quite a bit further into the mountains.
John was sure he hadn't heard a thing, but he followed me as I ran up and into the hillside. I kept listening, hoping to hear something to give me direction, but the owl, the coyotes and my dogs were too loud now. I just kept going up further into the mountains hoping to hear anything more.
Finally, I thought I could see the kids under a tree from some little moonbeam coming through the trees. It was, it seems, the very tree I swear the Owl was calling from, and let me tell you, these are little, young kids. . .so it is reasonable to imagine they could have been prey shortly.
I thought about how it made no sense they could have been so young and so very far away.
But yes, there they were. . .so, so far into the mountains, you would never believe they went so far or that we could have found them in pitch darkness.
A happy doe met us at the barn, and John joked the whole way down about the Good Shepherd who left the flocks to find the one gone astray.
Indeed.
So I will leave you with this:
Luke 15:2-7
1599 Geneva Bible
Then spake he this parable to them, saying,
What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders with joy.
And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me: for I have found my sheep which was lost.
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven for one sinner that converteth, more than for ninety and nine just men, which need none amendment of life.
#whatfarmersdo
Some of our goat kids are on their dams this year for a few reasons, though I still milk each doe twice a day to keep their udders even, and because they produce a bit more than the kids use.
I noticed that one doe was too full when she came into our milking area. I immediately asked the farming fellow to look around for her buck kids. He couldn't find them inside the barn. He went down the hill to the house for a better light.
Horrible storms were coming, and you couldn't see a thing outside of the barn.
While he was down, I milked the doe for her comfort's sake, then looked in the places further out from the barn he hadn't checked as best I could feel around.
Nothing. No kids.
I was fairly panicked. Where could they be?
My husband came back, and he kept saying as we looked in all of the places that made sense that something had to have happened, that we were looking in vain. He said something had to have taken them, they couldn't be alive and be no where to be found.
I think it was pretty clear, no matter what, I was not going to go the house for any reason until I found those kids, for better or worse.
So we started out across the mountain side.
Nothing.
As we kept walking, I could hear Coyotes yipping and owls. Heavens, I never hear owls here.
My Pyr decided to come along, as well as Bubbles, the house "guard".
We were out so far, I figured I was looking amiss when I thought I heard a faint "Maaa" up in the woods quite a bit further into the mountains.
John was sure he hadn't heard a thing, but he followed me as I ran up and into the hillside. I kept listening, hoping to hear something to give me direction, but the owl, the coyotes and my dogs were too loud now. I just kept going up further into the mountains hoping to hear anything more.
Finally, I thought I could see the kids under a tree from some little moonbeam coming through the trees. It was, it seems, the very tree I swear the Owl was calling from, and let me tell you, these are little, young kids. . .so it is reasonable to imagine they could have been prey shortly.
I thought about how it made no sense they could have been so young and so very far away.
But yes, there they were. . .so, so far into the mountains, you would never believe they went so far or that we could have found them in pitch darkness.
A happy doe met us at the barn, and John joked the whole way down about the Good Shepherd who left the flocks to find the one gone astray.
Indeed.
So I will leave you with this:
Luke 15:2-7
1599 Geneva Bible
Then spake he this parable to them, saying,
What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders with joy.
And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me: for I have found my sheep which was lost.
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven for one sinner that converteth, more than for ninety and nine just men, which need none amendment of life.
#whatfarmersdo
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