I have tried numerous times to get a good picture of our bottle lamb, Sue. When she was born in April, she got separated from her mom and with a cold front coming in Ellen decided it was safer to take her in. There have been bottle lambs on the farm before but Sue is a special case.

Last year, there were two bottle lambs, but they were kept in the shed and didn't form much of an attachment to Ellen. Sue, however, has the run of the yard with the dogs and thinks that she is a dog. She even goes so far as to eat dog food when she can get to it. She is perfectly adorable, with a cute attitude when she's hungry, and unafraid of anything. She doesn't understand why she isn't allowed in the house with the other dogs and she regularly tries to change our mind on this subject.

I often think of the creator of the rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb," whoever it was knew what they were talking about. If there is a human in sight, Sue is on their heels. That brings me back to my original statement about pictures; in spite of Sue's non-stop cuteness and funny "Kodak" antics it is nearly impossible to get a good picture of her. They often turn out something like this one.

In the case of this particular picture I was letting her suck on my finger in an effort to keep her occupied long enough with one thing to get at least a decent head shot. Sucking on fingers is not a new pastime for her, nor is sucking on or tasting anything within reach.

Sue is not going to be a bottle lamb for many more months and so she is learning to use her teeth to good advantage. I didn't think of this until the little monster had sucked my finger into her back molars and gave it a good crunch. AAAHHHH! It felt like it had been slammed in a car door.

Sheep, as well as many other ruminants, don't have top front teeth. This includes sheep, cows, deer, and goats to name a few. So, up till now, it has not been at all dangerous to let Sue suck on my fingers. However, to make up for the absence of front teeth, a ruminant's molars are quite capable of grinding grass like a mill. My finger hurt for a good three days.

Here is another gem of a picture, making Sue look perfectly crazy. I begin to think it may reveal the true depths of her silly heart.

Fun Fact: When feeding milk to baby ruminants the milk must come from a nipple above their head (as apposed to giving them milk in a pan or a bucket) so that it bypasses the rumen and flows into the true stomach. The rumen is designed to ferment grass and will cause milk to curdle.

It's haying time and my first chance to see how it's done. First, I got to help replace broken teeth on the hay rake, making me feel like something of a mechanic. The emphasis there would be on "something". I thought of a child's joy in doing or helping with "big people work" as I enjoyed the simple pleasures of tightening bolts with the right tools for the job. Today, I am not enjoying the repercussions of parking the rake in poison ivy.

Afterwards, I rode with Ellen and two dogs on a one person tractor, getting an education about tractors in general and raking hay in particular. In the traffic of the hay field, we eventually passed Nathan, who was baling hay, and I was invited to switch tractors to receive more education. Nathan was driving a borrowed tractor (his is in the shop) and it includes two seats, air conditioning, and a radio. I learned that baling hay in the borrowed tractor is more desirable than raking.

Our yellow zucchini, cucumbers, lemon squash and radishes are starting to produce. We plan on having our first yields available at the Sulphur Springs and Frisco farmers markets tomorrow.

The sunset as we were working a few nights ago.