Niseach's Deep Questions

Sometimes, I like to philosophise in the snow. I'm a deep thinker, and the silent whiteness of a day like this helps my mind focus on the really important things in life.

Things like:

When will I get my next Rich Tea biscuit?

How can I convince them I need to stay out longer, when I've already piddled-and-pooed?

Why did Daddy take that boot off me when I'd only just begun to tear it apart?

More importantly, why do these sheep act as though I'm not at all frightening? Why do they look at me as if I'm a walking, barking teddy bear?

Every day, the response is the same.

"Mehh, what is that fluffball?"

These are deep and meaningful questions, and I wish not to be disturbed whilst mulling over them.

Not disturbed, Mum, I said.

Unless you have a Rich Tea for me.

You do?!

Sheep, Me, and a Good Shepherd

The week before last, many of my Bible readings were from parts of the Bible relating to our Lord as the Shepherd of His people.

You know, like many of you, Psalm 23 was the first part of Scripture I ever learnt, and the words are more familiar to me than any other words in the Bible - indeed from any piece of literature. But when I read and meditated on the Psalm last week, it was as though I was reading parts of it for the very first time. After 45 years of knowing the Psalm, and after 30 years of knowing the Shepherd, His Word is still new and living! In fact, I was thinking that if I have a 'death bed', I suspect this Psalm may be my meditations even then :)

One thing that struck me was the One who is my Shepherd. The LORD! The One who is my Shepherd is Mighty to save; He is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe; He is Altogether Wonderful. He is all these things, and He is my Shepherd.

Mine! He is mine, and I am His! 

This is beyond-words amazing. Truly, it would never have entered into the heart of man what God had prepared for His people.... to belong to such a Shepherd. Don't our hearts just want to sing aloud! 

The following day's reading was from Isaiah 40 (and by the way, please go and read this chapter. If you read no other words today, read Isaiah 40, and tell me if you're not moved by it.). Verse 11 says this: 

"He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young."

This blew me away. The mighty arms that 'hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand' (v13); the One who cannot be likened to any other, for He is 'the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth'... He 'faints not neither is weary, there is no searching of His understanding' (v.28). He is ALL this, and yet, these very arms gathers His lambs and carries them in His bosom. He gently leads ....'.

Who would want a god who was ALL mighty, but who had no care for His lambs? Or who would want a god who cared for his lambs, but didn't have the power to actually do anything for them?!

Our Lord cares and leads and holds and guides. No wonder Isaiah wrote, "He is altogether Wonderful"!


When I took a wee wander outside the other day, I was reminded of this again. There were some sheep in the field just in front of the cottage, and I casually and quietly wandered over to them, as unobtrusively and as unthreateningly as possible.

They looked anxiously, 

waited ...

and then, almost inevitably, turned their backs and ran off.

I meant them no harm. But the point is they do not know me. I am a total stranger to them; they have no relationship with me; and I have never been anything more to them than a passer-by with no real care for their well-being.

This used to happen to me at home too, with Big Brother's sheep.

On the other hand, the Builder's youngest sister had a totally different reaction from them.

See how they follow her.

And look at them here! The follow her and want her to stay!

In the photo below, they turn off the road and head into the field following Big Brother.

See them? They need no persuasion. They follow their shepherd.

Big Brother, and my sister-in-law in the previous photos were trusted by the sheep. The flock knew them, and because they knew them, they followed them, they surrounded them, they ate out of their hands.

Before I knew the Shepherd, before I was one of His flock, I ran too. Like Adam, I would have hidden myself, if only I could. But now, I know His voice. He is mine, and I am His, and it is my delight to follow Him, to feed from Him, and to hear His voice. How could it not be my delight? He is, after all, the most delight-FUL Shepherd.

Sheep Shearing on the Croft

It's the time of year again for the sheep to be getting their short-back-and-sides, and so Big Brother called on my help once again.

Okay, so he didn't actually call for my help, but having my offspring there as his assistants is kind of the same thing.

And talking of offspring, for this post, I'm going to let DR do most of the talking ...

Take it away, DR.

Okay, here's where the process starts:

The smallest amongst us dives in and grabs an unshorn sheep, holding it for long enough for....

me to take over the head.

I haul it over to the shearing platforms and.....

flip it over on its back.  

Uncle Calum, aka Big Brother,  then takes over for the expert part - the shearing.

When BB is almost finished with the sheep, I prepare to take its head. As a side note, the best way to hold or control a sheep is to hold its head - control the head, control the body. (I'm sure there is a sermon in there somewhere ... )

At this point I take the head again,

Calum clears the wool and I hold the sheep in preparation for...

a dose from CF and a mark from my cousin, Mairi.

This is what I do while CF is shearing - I lay out the wool, inside up, clean any lumps off it, and fold the sides into the middle

I roll it up,

and use the tail at the end tucked into the middle of the ball to hold it in place.

And, voilà!  Half a dozen balls of wool ready to be packaged.

Now for some trivia:

Sheep are sheared section by section - front, tail, neck, and sides.

Mairi is holding the power cord to the shears - here it's because Big Brother is almost finished, but if it's a restless sheep she'll be there just in case it goes postal on BB.

(note from Mother: I have no idea what 'postal' means in this context. Any help from readers on this score would be appreciated.)

Here, she's just pulled the cord. 'Good action shot, Mum!' 

I've taken the head and.....

I have it.

"Huh? A camera? And Anne? What is she doing here, so far from her natural environment?!"

(By 'her natural environment', I do believe Big Brother means the kitchen... )

Home free..

These two are really 'home free' - two runners who jumped the fence. We got them back eventually - two rugby tackles later!

Calum takes a go with the spray.

This sheep is wondering where her buddies have gone - they've made sure they're as far from us as they can get!

Dosing and Marking Sheep

This is a post about sheep.

The Wee Guy, Big Brother and his younger sister were moving sheep this evening. It was such a beautiful evening, it even took me out of the house. 

They took the sheep to the bottom of the croft into a pen for some dosing and marking.

Did I mention it was a beautiful evening. The temperature is still in single figures (Celsius), but with a very light breeze, and sunshine, it felt wonderful.

I can't say they were too happy at being locked into the pen, but sometimes, needs must.

When I turned the other way, this was what I saw. The machair and the calm Atlantic.

Now, which one first?

The Wee Guy sorted out the doses: 5ml of something and something ml of something else.

I really know my stuff, don't I?

After a while, he decided Auntie Catherine could get the filling-the-doses job and he'd do the lamb-catching for Big Brother.

His technique needs honing, but with a teacher like BB, who could go wrong?

After all, he's taught me all I know.

The lambs get sprayed with a blue dot and an additional dot of either orange or red.

The red dot tells that this lamb's dad is John Wayne.

An orange dot tells us that Bruce is the daddy.

"Am I doing it right, Anne?"

(I do my best to reassure him every so often that he's doing great.)

But then I had to leave them to it. It was after 7pm and the guys at home hadn't been fed.

The Builder doesn't complain about much (anything, in fact), but I did reckon I ought to go and get dinner served. It can be quite a novelty having him home at a reasonable time in the evening, after all.

On my way home, I passed John Wayne and Bruce. 

Their babies were being dosed, and marked specifically to show whose they were. 

Do they look bothered?

Moving Sheep - it's my kinda thing

The Builder has a sister - he actually has four sisters - but he has one in particular who, unlike moi, is worthy of living on a croft.

She's never heard Big Brother say to her, 'Go find some town to live in'. He reserves such sweet talk for moi.

(Why, may I ask, am I referring to myself as moi? If you know, please let me know, cos I ain't got a clue.)

This is the Builder's wee sister.

The sheep like her.

They do as they're told, and when she speaks to them, they don't give her The Eye.

... like they're giving me here.

These sheep are due to begin giving birth on Friday. They are the mums-of-singles, and are kept separate from the mums-of-twins because they receive different food allowances during their pregnancies.

Each time I was pregnant, the scans showed I was carrying only a single, but I liked to be on the safe side and eat for twins. Just in case, you understand.

The expectant sheep were moved to this croft where I can keep an eye on them. Some of you may remember from last year how I love to have the Maternity Ward in full view of my house.

Not.

It makes me very nervous.

This clever Mama has the job done, and here is Big Brother's first lamb of the year.

Adorable, with a perfectly black face.

Having made sure all the mums-of-singles were safely ensconced in the appropriate field, we then went to move the mums-of-twins.

They were simply moving across the road, and here they are following Big Brother, 

in through the gate and into the field which looks at the other side of my house.

Gimme strength ... I'm not sure I can cope with the pressure.

This is Tweedles. She was a pet lamb that another of the Builder's sisters had. Well, when I say she had the pet lamb, you will understand that the kids had her. Aye, the kids had her, but mum looked after her ...

Tweedles still loves human company (except mine. Can't think why.), and follows BB around like a little puppy.

See? Here are all the sheep following younger sis. They never do that for me. I'm convinced BB has warned them to stay away from me.

And here she is speaking to Tweedles. She really thinks she's a puppy.

Have I mentioned before that we've been having amazing weather? 

Well, it's worth repeating.

You've met Louis before, haven't you? He, like me, likes to kid on he knows his stuff around sheep.

He, like me, knows nothing except how to look busy.

When was the last time you rode home on the tailgate of a pick-up?

(For any of you who are overly keen on Health and Safety matters, I may have taken this with the pick-up not moving. So sleep easy.)