Episode 2 - Miracles Happen in the Shuswap
Shuswap people are fantastic– they can take a bad day and turn it into a good one, just like that! So it was for my realtor, Tina Cosman, who rescheduled her entire weekend to whisk me away on a whirlwind Magical Mystery Real Estate Tour! She was AMAZING to work with – keeping her cool and catching every curve ball I threw her way! But despite three days of intense searching, we were both very clear about what I didn’t want, and that’s where the story seemed to end. With the car packed and keys in hand, I took a quick look at the latest real estate paper and my eye was caught by a new listing. Wait a Minute! This sounded perfect! A phone call to Tina and we headed out for this last ditch attempt. With my rosy tinted glasses firmly glued over my eyes, I couldn’t have cared less that there was no livable house, no fencing, no running water, and a ghost in the barn! To me, the hills of Sorrento were alive with the Sound of Music, my music….the ink was dry on the deal by the afternoon! The grass didn’t grow long before I was back with three favorite sheep in tow. Suddenly, I encountered one of my first problems – getting to know the neighbors in all the wrong ways, chasing after incorrigible herbivores intent on destroying beautifully grown veggies, ornamental trees, and succulent apple buds. My three ewes had become a marauding force of unconscionable operatives zoned into eating everything they could find OFF my property. My artistic attempts at building fences using baler twine tied in beautiful bows just didn’t seem to impress those three sheepies. Future Farmers Be Warned! I have found that running after animals and rescuing neighbor’s shrubbery as your guilt free animals skip away is enough to drive the sanest person absolutely mad! As the sheep had trained me to run around like Lassie, I was used to checking on their whereabouts regularly and had convinced myself they would not stray far. So I was surprised one afternoon to find my sheep had disappeared in a veritable puff of wool. Yikes, my sheep were on the lam! Every neighbor received a polite phone call, “Have you seen three sheep in your garden?” “Not TODAY…” came the politically correct answer from all sides. After six hours of searching with dusk falling, I was feeling desperate but refused to give up, pushed onwards by spine chilling images of howling coyotes lunging at tender lambie throats. A neighbor was up for some excitement, so she jumped on the back of my ATV and guided me to the back of her property, with me frantically yelling at ear splitting volume “SEEPY, SEEPY! Where Are EWE?” every few minutes. I know she thought I was mad, but Shuswap neighbors are friendly to a fault and she said not a disparaging word. As the gloom descended, my hope was rapidly disappearing with the light, but when we turned the last corner, she suddenly pointed ahead “What are those shapes over there?” “Is that Ewe, SEEPIES?” I hollered, and even in the deep shadow, I could see them leap high, bounding towards me, so thankful to be found in the nick of time. My Lesson Guide to Happy Farming Lesson No. 1 - Miracles Can Happen, So Don’t Give Up On Your Dreams or Your “Seepies” – They are Just Around the Corner. Lesson No. 2 – Build Your Fences BEFORE the Animals Arrive!
Snow Sheep Sunday
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