The Willa Cather Maria is one of my favorite Maria’s – the artist, carpenter, Vulva Queen – are just three of the many others.

The other day Griselle, one of our oldest and increasingly addled sheep, got herself stuck in a corner of our fence between some old wires and the new fence.

It is almost impossible to imagine how she might have done that but Maria got her unstuck and today, we went out with the wheelbarrow and some mesh to block off the section of the pasture where Giselle got stuck.

(One of these days soon, Giselle is going to glory). Accompanied by Fate and Zinnia, we all trekked out to the far pasture.

Maria and I used the sledgehammer to bang in four stakes, and Maria tied the mesh to the poles with string while Zinnia observed and took some breaks to roll in the mud.

(She is tired, snoring peacefully next to me as I write this.)

It was a beautiful, chilly, early Spring Day and soon, the donkeys and other sheep hung out with us. Maria built the mesh fence in half an hour and we think it will keep all of the sheep out of that murky corner.

There is nothing more iconic on a farm than tending fences, and I could picture Antonia out there the prairie hammering some wood to the wall of a barn with some holes in it.