Yesterday Eugene Wyatt and I weaned 200 lambs from their mothers. A rather chaotic exercise involving a lot of circular chasing and hoisting little lambs kicking and screaming over a fence into a separate pen never to be reunited with their mothers again.

So went the first day of my new internship at Catskill Merino Sheep Farm.

As it was, last Saturday on a whim I stopped for some River Garden daffodils (positively sumptuous creamsicle varieties) at the Union Square Green Market. Like a mirage I saw across the asile a rainbow of naturally dyed wool skeins. Rather sleep deprived, and wearing acyrlic (the horror!) I stumbled over without thinking - mumbling about my dog, my interest in the ovine arts, and my willingness to shovel shit in exchange for experience. Sometimes things just work out.

I am very thankful for the opportunity to learn something new, and especially for the chance to be out of my element for a day. I am thankful to my girls for allowing me to split town on a nutty whim, leaving them in the wake of mothers day orders and the daily pandemonium that is Saipua. And I am thankful that sheep, unlike people, tend to forget the trauma of separation rather quickly, bowing their heads down to the soft sweet pasture grass that is rather elegantly dubbed the spring flush.

Happy mother's day, see you on the other side of this crazy weekend...