Two Shakes of a Lamb's Tail Tale

I grew up in a farming community, but not on a farm, although two of my protags were farm girls and like to harken back to their roots. It's always been apparent that there is a lot of agricultural illiteracy running amok, but I sense the same applies to animal husbandry. We are viewing the new born lambs at Old Sturbridge Village. I seem to be the only person present who understands that their tails have been docked, and that's why they have orange painted on them (iodine or the like). And "docked" is the proper word, I believe.

No one must read Thomas Hardy or Willa Cather or D.H. Lawrence even Little House on the Prairie when commonplace farm events are mentioned. Today at Shaw's a woman came up to me and pointed to the Raddichio. I told her what it was, and mentioned a few facts about it. She thanked me profusely. For a while, the supermarkets had little cards identifying the produce with notes about the vitamin and mineral count, that sort of thing. Bring them back.

It's lambing season. Read this blog. http://www.countryhome.com/blog/2007/03/lambing-season.html . Try to understand the natural world around you. It's spring people, and stuff is happening outdoors. Take a walk. Sniff. Look. Amazing what you might see.

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