It's a wonderful life.

I feel blessed today. Most days I feel blessed, but some days I'm really aware of how incredibly lucky I am.

Yesterday was such fun! I rose early - like a good farmer - to let the animals out of the barnyard and back out in the pastures. Sometimes that's a crazy scene with goats heading off in the wrong direction and alpacas that don't feel like following - but it was a perfectly gorgeous morning, and the animals were very cooperative. I shook a bucket of grain, and they followed me right into the field. Fence closed. One job done.

After breakfast I raced over to Dryden for a workshop at the Sheep Barn run by Cornell University. They have a system for winter pasturing that I really want to try. Brian Magee, who also shears the goats for me, gave us the morning and early afternoon to find out more about the STAR system and winter pasturing. Cornell raises sheep mainly for meat, so they want to have a steady supply of all sizes of lambs throughout the year. He's developed this great system to keep the ewes lambing through all seasons. Feed costs might make that unprofitable, but Brian has them pastured year round. Not only is that cost effective - they're healthier!