My dear and faithful wife of over fifty years is baking everything one could ever imagine. The smell of bread, cookies, and fruitcakes gives our house a wholesome aroma. The warmth from our little wood stove gives out a gracious heat that makes our old farm home a peaceful sanctuary from the cold outside. We all know that we are safe as a special peace relieves the stress of our busy lives.

My family has lived on this land for well over a hundred years. At this time farming is no longer the same, and for the first time I worry about the future of this family farm. Farming is now big business. Large corporate factory farms are now nibbling at our very way of life. The question is: can we be efficient enough to hold off these giant corporate farms with big money behind them? I have faith that our great old brood ewes will help bring us through so that our wonderful, stressful, busy, yet happy lives will continue.

Hurting the Sheep Business

At this time of my life I’ve no doubt gotten hard and controversial when it comes to the sheep business. I find it unthinkable to pick up certain sheep papers, constantly telling us the decline in sheep numbers. If that isn’t bad enough they seem to enjoy telling us about every no account disease a sheep might have. I was almost flabbergasted when I was looking at one of our oldest sheep magazines. One of the main articles was showing baby lambs that had been killed by a coyote. If this wasn’t bad enough, they showed a big pile of sheep that had been killed by dogs.

Talk about a big turn off to the raising of sheep; this was a real killer. What does the good young ambitious farmer with a great wife and kids who wants to get into the sheep business think? Or for that matter families who want to raise sheep for a hobby and sort of go back to nature? I can tell you from experience that they are completely turned off. The young farmer is going to raise cattle, and the hobby farmer is going to get some good riding horses.

This kind of sad, sickening reporting of the sheep business must stop. I’m no psychiatrist, but I know enough about human life that if people continue to concentrate on the negative things they only grow and become contagious. The ambitious young farmer with the great wife and kids is the one we must encourage to be raising sheep. These are the families that should have a hundred ewes or more. Just as important are the good families who are raising sheep for a hobby; they should have fifty good ewes. Not only would this be a real moneymaker, but it would be a project where the whole family could work together and share a bonding experience that would last a lifetime. When we get this fact across to people who are lucky enough to own land, we sheep people will no longer be a tiny minority group. In short, the more breeders we have, the more power we have.

The Importance of Family

The older I get, I find myself talking and writing about the importance of the wife and family more and more. In this day and age we have taken marriage far too lightly. I feel it should be a sacred or Godly event and should always stay that way. The most important day of a person’s life is when they choose a mate to share their life. I feel the schools and churches should be doing more to educate young people on this subject.

I’m sure at Christmas both husband and wife are thinking what kind of a gift they should buy each other. Just maybe a touch, or the simple words "I love you, care about you and of course respect and need you" might well be the greatest gift of all.

I’ve never been good at buying presents for my wife. One of the main reasons is because she always handles our money, and really all she ever wanted from me was those three or four words. The best present I ever got for her was a Jersey cow. While my wife loved that cow, my friends and neighbors were not happy with my selection, and you can be sure that they told me so. The things Thelma did with that old cow’s milk was astonishing. I can still see her making butter; she could whip that little churn so fast it was amazing. Another great thing about this old cow was that her milk was really rich and good for orphan lambs, and no, I did not make my wife milk this splendid Jersey cow. At this time, my granddaughter takes me Christmas shopping. I act dumb as a fence post and they take charge; how easy can it be?

I wrote the following story for the National Suffolk News in December of 1999. Of all the things I have ever written, this was one of the top three in cards and letters that I received and conversation stirred up. I feel that it’s worth repeating at Christmas time.

A Christmas Story

I’m not one to dwell on the past, but at Christmas I like to reminisce. I feel this is a special time for us parents and grandparents to tell our children stories of the things that we did when we were their age. They should know of our culture and the important moments in our lives.

We all have great stories, and I thought that I would share my very favorite. It’s a story I’ve only told my children and a few veterinary students at MSU. Maybe they are the only ones that would really appreciate it. It may be that you had to be there or get the real emotion and meaning of it or that you had to live at the time. It’s not about sheep, blue ribbons, championships, or big trophies. It’s about the pride and faith that men have in their livestock. This is a story of my father and his favorite and most dependable team of horses. I’ll try to write it; if you’re interested, read on.

Go to A Christmas Classic

Once again, I thank you for letting me come into your homes; love your families. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year