Tonight is back-to-school night for parents of students at Valley Catholic High School. And today is the twelfth day of class this school year.
On Monday morning, September 20, 2016, as I was preparing to feed our animals their breakfast, I discovered that Kiki, one of our ewes, had given birth to two lambs. Sadly, the little boy passed away later in the day. But his sister, Woolly Tail Bo-Peep, is doing well and getting plenty of milk from her mother.
According to Susan Schoenian, author of the webpage Sheep 201: Reproduction in the ewe, “the average gestation length in sheep varies from 142 to 152 days” and “individual pregnancies may vary from 138 to 159 days.” And that's just the time it takes to produce a lamb that can begin living its life in this world.
Last February I planted several tomato seeds in small containers inside our home where they could get an early start on life. Like Bo's brother, several of those tomato plants didn't make it either. But a few did and they thrived. Today, about six months later, I enjoyed a vine-ripened, home-grown tomato and a couple of freshly-laid eggs from our chickens for breakfast.
It takes a little while to produce something worth producing.
