RicelandMeadows

                                                               May 18, 2011

     Babies raising babies makes people think about teenagers raising children from bad decisions they made. Here on Papa and Mimi’s farm its about children feeding our farm’s babies… a much better analogy.

     This is what it’s all about for me. Most of my favorite memories come from animals and especially the ones where my grandparents or great grandparents showed us how to do something. We picked apples, berries and vegetables. We pulled the wrong weeds, let the lambs suck air from their bottles by accident and probably drove our grandparents to the edge of their patience. This absolute love that they showed us, taught us many life lessons. We learned where our food came from and where babies came from. We learned tolerence and for sure we learned to love and nurture. I didn’t know we would learn so much by accident, but I am glad to have grown up country and am blessed to be able to share this love with my family.

     Today we learned that the bottle babies in the photo are not twin rams. The red one is a girl… another lesson in bathroom behavior pointed out by my grandson led to this discovery!

     My heart is full today. The work is not work, it is a reward. Seeing the joy in my son’s face as he watched his children feed the lambs was a wonderful thing. I was reminded of him and his little brother doing the same thing not so many years ago. He was the teacher for his younger sibling, just as my granddaughter showed her brother the ropes.

     If I don’t live another day, my farm and my way of life, will live on in the next generations, just as I have carried the torch from my decendants. I have much to teach and much to share. I will continue to be a resource and a rock for my family .. and I am sure my parents and my grandparents are proud.

     My grandpa would be especially pleased that I sent the perfect kitten home with my granddaughter today 😮