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Yesterday was one of miserable weather days we can all do without. We have a 20″ base of snow and all Friday night and Saturday it poured buckets of rain. About 4PM we took a look in the basement and said “oh, oh”. We have a typical basement for an antique home in New England, dirt floor and a granite foundation. And usually the water flows in and out in a very short time. It has never flooded for us since we have lived here. But the frozen ground trapped the rain and the waters were a risin’! We set up the only sump pump we had and within an hour it was clearly not keeping up. Thankfully when we renovated the place our plumber had the forsight to build a new pad for the furnace so it was in the high spot of the cellar. That decision paid off ten fold.
So off we went to Home Depot at 5PM, bought a pump that would push 1750 gals and hour through a 1″ hose! We got back at 6PM only to find the package was missing the hose adaptor! So back to Home Depot. We got the pump going by 6:45 and at 9:30 the waters had receded. Thankfully the rain had stopped around 8PM. At Home Depot there were a few of us huddled around the sump pump section making our decisions and a man we know arrived to buy his third pump! He too, owns and old house and we all just sort of laughed and went our merry ways.
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Saturday morning Jack went to the barn to do the chores and when he arrived all the sheep were out in the paddock which is completely unusual as they usually all flood the barn to say hello. Jack could hear a light pawing sound on an adjacent barn wall. He rounded to the corner to find Crystal on her back, stuck and just about dead. She was against this wall, with one leg pawing the wall, but very weakly.
This condition is know as cast and once a sheep gets on their back they cannot get up without assistance and will die within a matter of an hour.
It occurs when the sheep gets into a position, usually after lying down where they cannot get righted. It occurs more often when they are full with fleece or before lambing when they are quite heavy. Presently Crystal is sporting more than 12 pounds of fleece and she is already a large sheep, weighing 200#!
Jack swiftly rolled her over onto her knees and after a few minutes helped her to her feet. She was covered in straw around her head and visibly shaken as you can imagine. By the time Jack put out the hay she did eat some.
We had a lot of cleanup to do after the last snowstorm and while I worked getting snow off the barn roof and Jack removed snow from their loafing lot, I watched Crystal. I wanted to see her drink water and chew her cud. I didn’t want bloat to set in and as an extra precaution I gave her 3cc of liquid simethicone, like you give babies for gas. It wouldn’t hurt and seeing as she had been on her back, unable to process her feed through her rumen I thought it an easy treatment.
Here she is eating snow which satisfied my concern for drinking water.
As we finished up the snow removal, I looked over from the lane and she was standing on the rocks chewing her cud. She was back in the land of sheepdom. Close call.
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About the snow! We are just about out of room to put anymore here! Currently NH is having the sixth snowiest winter since the records were kept in the 1800’s with a total snowfall to date of 111 inches. The grand total to beat is 122″ and we could do it yet with 45 more potential snow days to go!
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Sorry for the delay in posting! We took a vacation last week and got back to a snowstorm, have lost the power repeatedly so I can barely get caught up before it goes out again!
I have lots to share…hopefully later on today I can begin storytelling! Check back please!
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Webster that is. Here is Webster, hanging out comfortably in Sidney’s bed, Shelly in her usual place at the door, ready to go out anytime the door opens and Sidney, not interested in arguing with Webster. Good boy, Sid.
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Enough Love
“There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer;
No disease that enough love will not heal;
No door that enough love will not open;
No gulf that enough love will not bridge;
No wall that enough love will not throw down;
No sin that enough love will not redeem. . . It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble, how hopeless the outlook, how muddled the tangle, how great the mistake — a sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all. . . if only you could love enough, you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world.”
—Emmet Fox
Love is not just a romantic feeling to be celebrated with hearts and flowers one day a year. It is a dynamic power to be used 365 days out of every year, used without ceasing. The power of unconditional love enables us to live joyfully, abundantly and in peace, healing every disease, correcting every malfunction. May this day of love serve as a reminder to all humanity that when we are willing to love without limits of any kind only then will we be able to live without limits, as well.
May you always be willing to love without limit.
