If you have a farm and a baby, it is possible that you will someday find yourself riding in the backseat of a Subaru, a two-year old who despises car rides strapped next to you, and two large sheep tethered (you hope) in the back.  Or maybe you won’t.  But today I did.  Ben and I have wanted sheep for a long long time, and decided that this summer we would finally just plunge in and get them.  So today while Ben and Adam were harvesting the spring wheat (1000 lbs of Red Fife – yay!) down at White Oak Farm, my dad, his girlfriend Laura, Ella, and I drove to the Old Chatham Sheepherding Company in New York to get two ewes. We’re very lucky to live so close to a source for East Fresian sheep, a breed meant for milking (as well as making wool and meat – how amazing is that?).

We left in the afternoon, planning to coincide the trip there with Ella’s nap, kill some time walking around the farm and Chatham, and then return with the sheep in the back at night, while Ella slept.  Of course, Ella didn’t sleep on either trip, but she (and I) remained wonderfully calm.  Have I mentioned that Ella previously found the baaing of sheep terrifying?  Um, yes.

Anyhow, we made it there safely, looked around their beautiful farm, met the sweet baby lambs, and then got to met our two ewes, who immediately terrified Ella with their baaing.  When we saw how large the ewes were, and Ella freaked out at the baaing, I think Dad, Laura, and I all thought, “Uh oh, this could go very, very badly.”  (Except my internal thoughts probably included more expletives.)

In any case, we walked around Chatham, had dinner, came back to the farm, and spread out the tarp in the back and laid down hay, as planned.  We had our dog’s leashes and collars, which we did put on the sheep and hook in the back, in case they got scared (or curious) and tried to jump up front onto Ella and I’s heads.

We helped Beth and her husband load the girls in back, and we were off!  When the sheep both baaaed loadly right behind Ella’s head, she curled up into as small a ball as her carseat would allow and clung to my arm for dear life for about ten minutes.

Then she seemed to forget about them for a while.  When they next baaed softly, she announced to us calmly, “The sheep are in the car.”  Yes, yes indeed.

She ended up thinking it was hilarious that we had two sheep in the back and demanding to see them constantly (I was trying to keep the tarp up so they wouldn’t be too interested in trying to come up front).  She named them Molly and Curly (”Molly is biiiiig.”), and we got them home and into the backyard safely.  Whew! We also provided some pretty great entertainment for the folks driving around us, at least one of whom slowed down to take our picture.

This is the sort of thing that makes people tell us that we’re crazy.  And we say, sure.  Crazy like a fox.