You know that saying “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”? Well, we were prepared, or thought we were, for the arrival of our newest additions to the farm, but we were quickly taught how quickly those plans go awry.

In anticipation of the arrival of our Katahdin sheep, we decided to put up our sheep fence, energizer, and shelter earlier this week to make sure that we would be prepared when the sheep arrived. Everything was looking great, the fence was charged and working, the shelter we had put together was staying put after days of being out on the pasture with large gusts of wind (we were worried it might blow away…), and we had everything in place. When the sheep arrived, they were so adorable and happy munching on the green grass and drinking water.

But as Jack and I were peacefully watching our newest additions, a gnarly storm was building over Pilot’s Knob and the wind started whipping. I didn’t think much of it, after all we had several storms pass through over the last few days, but I kid you not, as we were standing there watching our sheep, minding our own business in blissful unawareness, a massive gust of wind came through and ripped the shelter out of the ground and the thing started catapulting through our field. After one stunned moment, we both went running like mad to catch it before it did any damage to any animals or fences.

Honestly, I wish someone had been there taking a video. It must have been hilarious from an outsider’s point of view watching the entire debacle unfold. Happy farmers, happy sheep, and then WHAM! massive shelter tumbling through the field, pouring rain, farmers running after it, sheep and horses staring wondering what in the world just happened. It is funny now looking back at it, but what a lesson in farm life.

Nothing, hardly nothing, goes to plan when you live on a farm. You can plan and plan and take good notes, and write it all down, and build a nice shelter, but when it comes down to it, we are all at the mercy of nature, and she is not always kind. Frosts happen in July, foxes get in to chicken coops, and shelters get destroyed by one gust of wind. But, even with these challenges, I can’t complain. If there is one thing I know, it is that farming makes us resilient. It forces us to be. When the wind is howling and it is pouring, but you have animals that need to have access to shelter you have to move fast. It doesn’t become about you and what you want, it becomes about the well-being of the animals and protecting and taking care of them. Sure, we would have rather not had to re-do their entire fence in the pouring rain so they could have access to a loafing shed in another section of the field, but it had to be done. It was not a question of if it should get done, it was an absolute must. Farm life reminds us to appreciate the little things and we are happy to oblige when things don’t go the way we planned. The adversity makes us and the farm stronger, and I am grateful for it.

And now, the storm has passed, the sheep are happy and they have a temporary shelter to keep them out of the weather, and we can move on to the other projects we have on the farm. Starting with building a new shelter for the sheep…

Happy Friday and thanks for reading!

Farmer Kinzie