The Sentinel, The Old Barn

I remember tearing down the barn. That part painted white was at one time a one room cabin and someone lived in there. I used it as my tool and potting shed for plants. I did the whole teardown myself, using a sledge hammer and a chain anchored to my little truck. Once it was down I had to burn all the old lumber, damn-near caught everything else around it on fire. The barn was 100 years old and the wood was all dry-rotted.

We fed and cared for many a calf, sheep and chickens in there. Many nights we were out there several times birthing sheep. One cold night we had a newborn lamb that was suffering from hypothermia so I picked it up, brought it into the house and dunked it into warm water up to its neck. It revived fine, but the water washed away its mother’s scent and she wouldn’t allow the lamb to nurse. I kept the ewe in the barn and had to milk her for 3 days and then feed the lamb the milk. Once the lamb smelled like its mother I reintroduced them and she let her lamb nurse after that. If you have ever milked a cow, or milked a goat, that is easy to do (it gets tiring on a cow) but a sheep has practically no teat to grab onto. It was difficult for me and the ewe wasn't fond of it either.