Friday, May 2, 2008

Life Really Is Good!

I remember every year, as a kid growing up in Garden Valley, waking up one morning in May to the sound of bells. Not church bells or anything like that, we lived 5 miles out of town and only had two neighbors. We'd jump out of bed to watch the annual migration of the sheep. Hundreds, if not thousands of them, ambling up Alder Creek with the lead ewes wearing bells and the hundreds of others following behind. The whole family enjoyed watching this yearly ritual and it will always bring back such fond memories of the best childhood anyone could have had...




Now, every year, the sheep come through the valley on their way to their summer range here at Hidden Springs. Today, there were thousands of sheep along the grassy hillside just below us. Yea, they're just sheep, but I love the idea that there are still Basque herders (there were two of them) who don't speak a word of English, that still live in those awesome wagons and continue doing things almost the exact same way that their families have done for years. Life really is good.

3 comments:

Dee said...

Don't you just love it? ! Every Spring and Fall when I see the sheep here, I remember the trek the sheep made on Alder Creek. And afterwards we'd find strays along the road. I think the Logues got some of them. Anyway, whoever awoke first, hearing the bells, would shout, "the sheep are here!" and we would all run to the windows. It was exciting.
And you know what Jodi did for the sheepherders today? She took them cold soda, feeling sorry for them standing out there in the sun. She may laugh when someone gets hurt, but she does have a kind heart. !

kate said...

Oh yeah, I LOVE that memory from Garden Valley!! Fo years in my 20s and 30s I thought I'd imagined that, but it really did happen didn't it?? So, so cool that you live somewhere now that you can still experience that.

And so cute that you took drinks to the sheepherders.

I guess you aren't so bad after all! :)

Linda said...

I loved that from Alder Creek, but I also got to enjoy it when I lived up on the hill with Bob. In fact, for a while, we had a lost ewe haning around our house. But then she disappeared. Coyotes, maybe.