Bedlam Farm got a big shot in the arm this week.

In a sense, we have returned to our roots in an important and timely way. With the arrival of three lambs from Vermont and a ewe, our flock has been reinvigorated.

Maria continues her remarkable journey with the animals here. Her work with wool and yarn – which speaks to the deepest creative parts of her – has been dramatically strengthened and invigorated.

I am reminded of one of the major reasons I  came to the country in the first place – to be a shepherd with my border collies. I nearly cried when I looked out to see this healthy, peaceable, and beautiful flock.

Since Red died, I see now that my way of mourning him was to stay away from the sheep and just turn them over to Maria.  I just didn’t want to be around them, since I was almost never with them without Red.

In many ways, the sheep are hers in many ways now, her soul and her future.

But the lambs opened me up to my love of having sheep and my strong connection with them. I’ve spent countless hours out with them grazing.

Post-Red, I will appreciate the sheep in a new and different way – helping Maria, feeding them much of the time, taking photos of them. And standing with them while they graze.

With this video, I wanted to share the extraordinary experience of watching how Maria does better than a border collie, and in her own gentle and patient way.  The sheep understand her and respond to her.

Liz warned us that Merricat is too thin, so Maria is fattening her up with special grain.

This is a lamb she barely knows, and who barely knows her. But she knew what Maria wanted and did it.

It was the sort of situation Red always handled. He would have walked her into the barn and kept the other sheep away.

To my eternal wonder, that is something Maria does effortly and very lovingly.

Merricat just follows her into a stall, and the rest of the sheep just to the trough – no brawling, bumping or rushing.

The sheep seem to know what Maria wants and so does this skinny little lamb. It’s a great boost for the original idea of Bedlam Farm – a peaceable kingdom for different animals.

This has been a crazy and distracting year, but the lambs remind us that we are about animals here, and the lambs have brought that spirit right up to the fore.

This is what we are about and I look forward to reclaiming the shepherd part of me.

Come and see Maria work her magic.