Lamby Goes to School

As an update to the Woolite washing fiasco of 2008 I shall inform you all on how that went. I actually got brave enough to start the process before Isaiah returned home from school. I thought since Lamby feels as though he may not actually be a lamb and may be more closely related to a person. (He's the only sheep we have for another couple weeks) I figured the temperament of the guy may allow me to attempt the shampooing process. I thought about how to go about this by myself through all of Anna's nap and felt confident I could do this.

At 3pm Anna and I went outside to start the process. I first cleaned out the stall inside so he'd stay all fresh and clean at night. I then filled up a little bucket of water and put a small amount of Woolite in the bucket. The water was a tad cold but the air temperature was relatively warm so I thought if I proceeded slowly all would be well. I didn't want to shock the poor guy.

I heard a story once how a farm wife wanted to give relief to some pigs on a very hot day and poured some cold water on the pigs and she shocked them to death. I thought that would not be a good scened for Isaiah to come home to.

I crawled in the outdoor pen with Lamby and brought Anna in with me. Washing a sheep usually involves a nice stand with a halter that goes around the back of the sheep's head behind their ears. This holds them in place so that you have two hands free. If we had this piece of equipment I could wash a ton of sheep all day long. We don't. I was watching a 2 1/2 year old girl, holding a very large 10 week old sheep with one hand and pretending to wash the sheep with my other hand. Sheep don't just stand still unless you're holding a bottle for them to drink. It was a struggle.

This could turn into a long story so I'll sum it up and let you imagine how this circus looked and suffice to say Lamby had THE cleanest shoulder area any lamb could ever have. That's about all I could do without the stand. I tried. I didn't get anyone or anything killed. We'll just call that good 'nuff and take the lamb to school as is.

This whole fiasco took two whole hours. I never did put fresh bedding in the stall for him. Left that for Matthew. I figured that's the least I could do, after all I wanted him to feel a part of the whole experience.

Anyhow, we took Lamby to school yesterday and Isaiah was thoroughly excited to have such a show and tell experience. How'd we get Lamby to school? Ha! That was easy... I had Matthew figure all that out. Anna and I went in the car since we had to go in the opposite direction afterwards to head up to my Bible study group. Matthew took Lamby in Matilda's dog kennel that was shoved in the front seat of his old '66 GMC. What a hoot to keep looking in my rear view mirror and watching him hang on to the kennel with Lamby a bleatin' away.

When we got to school Matthew held the lamb and Isaiah stood next to him while Isaiah's class stood in a circle around the lamb and asked Isaiah questions. It was fun. Anna even stood next to the boys to get in on the school action.

It was fun. We all made it.