The Sheepish Scribe

Just this morning I was lamenting the wait... and this afternoon EweNika delivered a very healthy and feisty pair of ram lambs. Here is twin #2 finishing his arrival.

Waiting is always the hardest part. We're in waiting mode at Twin Willows Farm. The first lambs should arrive this weekend, but as with humans, due dates are fickle things. Our ewes are naturally bred by the ram, no artificial insemination or use of a marking harness to give us a calendar date. Instead, the ram is turned out with his ewes in the fall and we count ahead five months for the first possible lambs. It looks like they will stretch things out this year. Two of our ewes are very close to lambing and a couple may be as much as a month away. Only time will tell. Watch for updates and photos of the newborns when they arrive. Golly... I love this time of year!

Have you ever read a book that held your attention until the final few pages and then... fizzled? Did the ending leave you looking at the back cover with the desire to call Paul Harvey? Did you feel robbed of the "feel good moment" the end of a story should bring? I know I have.

My story is languishing at the moment for want of a good ending. I thought I knew, at least roughly, how my story would end. But as the characters have unfolded and come to life, I realize that my original ending will not do. Not at all. I am roughly one third of the way through a story which has, at this moment, no ending. I have nothing to write towards. I'm flummoxed.

I sit here this morning listening to a Mourning Dove outside my window. Spring is coming with warmer weather and the hope of a good crop of lambs and produce here on the farm. In the grand scheme of life, my book is at best a smudge on the landscape. But it matters to me. And I want it to matter to others. So I need an ending that will make that happen.

What book have you read that ended with a "feel good moment" so powerful you remember it years later? I'd love to know!

I've been out of whack lately. Literally. My neck has been messed up making simple things like driving painful and difficult. Not to mention sleeping. It left me moving around with all the speed and grace of Lurch from the Adam's Family.

Today I went to the doctor for an OMT visit. That stands for Origami Mangle Torture. You know it's bad when you're sitting on the table and the doctor crawls up with you, kneels over the top of you and tries to twist your head off your shoulders. Then came the folding, pushing, pulling and crunching. My spine sounded like Rice Crispies on steroids.

After thirty minutes of this, she sent me home to apply moist heat for the rest of the afternoon. That was the best part of my day, spending it in my favorite chair with moist heat on my shoulders and neck. Every torture has it's silver lining.

My neck is still very sore, but I can turn my head further to the left than I've been able to do for a week. Did the treatment work? I don't know yet. My doctor said it could be a few days before we know if I'm... back in whack.