Halton Hills Newspapers

Independent & Free Press (Georgetown, ON), 27 Jun 2008, p. 7

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G o u r m e t F r o z e n F o o d s SENIORS 10% OFF EVERY WEDNESDAY (REG. PRICED MERCHANDISE) CAMPBELLVILLE MILTON HW Y 2 5OLDE HIDEHOUSE DU BL IN LI NE GU EL PH LI NE GUELPH GEORGETOWN 7 7 ITS WORTH THE DRIVE TO ACTON SERVING ACTON & AREA FOR OVER 20 YEARS! SPECIALS FROM: June 27 - July 13th HWY. 7, 1 MILE WEST OF ACTON 519-853-0311 (800)-387-4039 www.macmillans.ca *OPEN JULY 1ST, 9 - 6 PM* OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK * NEW HOURS: SAT. to WED. 9 A.M.-6 P.M. THURS. & FRI. 9 A.M.-8 P.M. A QUICK MEAL BALLPARK HOTDOGS (Reg. $4.99) 10 PK.$1.99 BBQ SEASON IS HERE 6 OZ. STRIPLOIN STEAKS (Reg. 3/$9.99) 9FOR$19.99 NEW CROP STRAWBERRIES 4.4LBS$8.99 15 FLAVOURS INDIVIDUALLY FROZEN KAWARTHA DAIRY ICE CREAM 1.5L TUB 2FOR$11.99 SUMMER HAS ARRIVED AT FREE LARGE FREEZER BAGS* Perfect for summer & cottage travelling. (While Supplies last) Reg. $8.00 ea. *With purchase of $50.00 COWBOY STEAKS ALSO AVAILABLE TASHA Carriage Square 15 Martin St., Milton 905.875.2356 ONLINE BOOKING AVAILABLE www.thecuttingedgemilton.com HAS MOVED Offering the BIO IONIC STRAIGHTENING SYSTEM. To all my valued new & long term clients, I am pleased to announce that I have relocated to THE CUTTING EDGE in Milton. I appreciate your support & hope to see you soon. TASHA! Its a no-brainer WEARA HELMET! Sports injuries are preventable, and wearing a helmet can help, especially when in-line skating, biking or climbing. We ve Mov ed! Long WeekendClearance Sale Sat. June 28 and Mon. June 30th only 332 Guelph Street (across from Canadian Tire) 905-702-0885 While Quantities Last(formerly Plumbing Warehouse on Mountainview) new Huge Selection of In Stock Kitchen Bath Accessories & more up to 80% OFF Selected Items Acton/Georgetown, Friday, June 27, 2008 7 Last weekend, the Brown Farm turned a page, and started a new chapter. And with this chapter, comes a new title for me. Seems Im now a shepherd. (Hmm, guess that makes The Sidekick a shepherdess.) You see last Saturday a load of lambs arrived at the Brown Farm, which will be used as breeding stock to establish a brand new flock. Now Ill be the first to admit that Im new to sheep. I grew up with dairy cattle for the first 38 years of my life and more recently have had beef cattle around (which are really just fat dairy cows with a major attitude). But sheep are a bit different. Theyre small. Theyre gentle. And this flock has already been a great learning experience. I do know sheep are not new to the farm. Tucked away in burlap bags up in the barn are a few old sheep fleeces, that have been stored there for eons. That tells me there were sheep on the farm at some point, generations ago, when all farmers maintained a variety of livestock. But sheep are new for me. Ive done lots of research and talked to several sheep people, so I do know what to expect in theory at least. It seems sheep are a lot like little dairy cows. Theyre ruminants (four stomachs), they give birth, they provide milk for their offspring and they graze or eat hay and grain to do it all. But they have a side thats kinda neat. They seem to have unique little personalities. When entering the stable, Im reminded of the Serta team of sheep in the mattress commercials, as they all look up to see who has entered. And I swear they whisper back and forth when Im working around them in the barn. One evening I was building them a little feed box (oh yeah, everything about a sheep is little) and one of them poked her head through an open- ing in the pen. She was watching me. As I assembled the feeder box, Im certain I heard her whisper to the others. Psst, hes build- ing a mineral feeder, pass it on. As I mounted a salt lick in their pen, rumblings buzzed through the flock. Is that a salt lick? Psst, girls, it looks like hes putting up a salt lick. Yup, it sure looks like one, what do you think? Could be, but its a different shape than the one at our last place. Let me see! No, I wanna see! No, its my turn to see! And so on. Mind you, flock mentality does exist. When I walk into the barn, they all stand up. If I stand there for 10 minutes, they all lay down. Unloading them from the trailer when they arrived, they refused to come out until we pulled a single one out, and then the rest followed her to the pen, like (what else?) a flock of sheep. While Ive been building feeders, The Sidekick has been naming them all. Keep in mind, these are registered purebreds, each with a registered name and number. But The Sidekick has been assigning them their own names, like Ewenice, Baaasheba, and another is called Ewegenie. In spite of the fact were working with them every day, feeding and watching over them, I fig- ure the real test of being a good shepherd will come next spring, when the flock starts delivering their own crop of new lambs. After a couple weeks of sleep deprivation to make sure those lambs all arrive safely, Im sure The Sidekick and I will have undergone a total baptism by fire. And then and only then, will we have earned the title of being real shepherds. Becoming a good shepherd Ted Brown

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