Much as everyone’s life is these days my life has been jam packed busy. A bit more than I like but sometimes things just happen that way. I have been enjoying all the signs of spring that have made their presence known-ospreys have returned, bluebird have made their homes in our bluebird boxes, cherry trees are blooming and the tulips and daffodils are blooming. The photos below are from a pet sitting job I currently have. It took me about five days to realize they were blooming. I was so busy thinking, caring for the pets and thinking some more that I missed them at first. It took me looking from a kitchen window to see them. I failed to notice them driving up.

Now that spring is here pet sitting has picked up, lambing season is here and Michael and I are busy helping both of our mom’s plus caring for our properties. My mom wants us to help plant a garden along an L shaped portion of her home, Mike’s mom wants to plant perennials after years of planting annuals. Michael has been clearing parts of our property. We have been enjoying the deer, foxes and opossums who visit.

My life changed when my stepdad died. I am down my mom’s twice a week helping her with paperwork, bills and unpacking. Mike usually comes with me one visit a week to help do maintenance and outdoor work. I take my mom to visit my aunt about ever forty five days. It is a wonderful time watching my mom and aunt share memories. I love seeing my cousins who prior to last year I had not seen in many many years.

Over the winter Michael and I have worked hard on making our home a place of quiet, calm and a place we are eager to come back to. Michael told me he never really had that before. We have tidied things up and stopped using two rooms for storage-we now use the rooms as they were first meant to be. I have purchased recycled silk panels for curtains in two rooms, a couple of new pillows and lots of soft lighting.

Being away for pet sitting allows Michael and I a little time away from each other though we stay connected through visits, phone calls, videos and photos. We meet at the farm on the weekends and Michael is a big part of helping during lambing. He scoops up the newborn lambs from the field and gets the mother to follow while I get the gates and barn doors. He also has an amazing knack for helping bottle feed any lambs that need extra help. I have an instinct as to who will lamb and how the herd is doing but I don’t have the knack for getting new bottle babies to accept a bottle. It is really great to see Michael and a lamb who at first is hanging by a thread to becoming a fat and sassy lamb.

I never thought years ago when I was in college for animal science specializing in horses that I would now be so heavily involved in sheep and lambs. I have to say and I am sure this is true of most people- my life is far far different than I imagined it would be when I was twenty. I am living the life that I made from what life threw at me. The proverbial road less traveled.