| Where Have All the Shepherds Gone?Hi all, Mark here.As if to re-affirm our bond with the farm while escaping it for our holiday in Québec, when we decided to see a movie on Christmas day we chose one entitled simply “Berger,” French for “shepherd”. It’s based on a semi-autobiographical novel about a 30 year old Montreal office drone, Mathyas, who realized his dream of a pastoral life by abandoning his public relations career to adopt the dying profession of shepherd in the high mountains of the South of France. I found it hard to surrender as completely to the story as I usually do at the movies. My problem wasn’t the language barrier. My deficiencies in French hardly mattered as the story was told through stunningly filmed locations and the acting was so expressive. Rather, what pulled me away from the story was the constant temptation to compare and contrast.Right off the bat, I was reminded that this was not the first film I had seen set in a high mountain sheep-herding milieu. Brokeback Mountain preceded it by several years. Might shepherd romances, I wonder, develop into a new movie genre, like Christmas rom-coms?One can already imagine the elements that might have to be in a classic “shep-rom”. At some point, a handsome young shepherd is going to carry a newborn lamb over his shoulder as the sheep migrate to their summer pasture. At some point, through a mishap like marauding wolves or by mixing with another herd, sheep will be lost and the question raised whether the shepherd is to blame. And at some point, there will be the complexity of human romance.In Brokeback Mountain, the protagonists were two hired hands who, alone on the high pasture, fell into a torrid gay affair. Their boss became aware. He considered their activity a violation of their terms of employment as well as morally abhorrent, and banished them from future work. In Berger, in contrast, the patronne specifically seeks a couple to conduct the summer migration. The French government subsidizes hiring this way, on the theory that shepherds who are sexually satisfied are better adjusted. Although when hired as a team the girl is as yet a platonic friend of Mathyas who jokes about being hired to provide sex, they ultimately become a committed romantic couple. Ah, the enlightened French.Aside from speculating about shep-rom plot elements, I found myself, perhaps not surprisingly, constantly comparing the film’s depiction of sheep care with my reality. I found it accurate as to sheep behavior and the work of the shepherd. It seemed right on target when one of Mathyas’s teachers said that the key shepherding skill is an eye — observation. It’s essential to constantly observe the flock for small variations in behavior or activity. The sheep who limps, for example, or who isolates uncharacteristically from the group. As in any endeavor, identifying problems early and addressing them promptly spells success.I also fully identified with Mathyas’s challenges as an urban neophyte on the farm. I cracked up seeing the first day of his apprenticeship, when his boss brought him to an enclosure milling with dozens of sheep and told him to catch Number Forty Eight. Mathyas haplessly waded into the group, waving his arms, without the remotest idea of how to anticipate their moves, let alone hold or control them. I recalled my reluctance to even touch the sheep when, at the age of 49, I began this farming journey. Confronted by the need to corral a sheep, my arms waved the same hapless way.The movie showed young Mathyas picking up shepherding skills at warp speed. Was he really practiced at clipping hooves on the fly after just a few weeks on the job? Lord knows it took me many years to develop such skills, and there are several at which I’m still not proficient.Like Mathyas, I idealized the pastoral life before engaging in it. But I was far too enamored of and enmeshed in my city life to jettison it as Mathyas did until a pandemic intervened to show me how I could work full time from the farm. At the same time, his professed reason for adopting the pastoral life was in large part to write a book. Since I, too, ultimately took to writing, it raised the question: do I write to assist in my shepherding, or do I shepherd in order to write about it?We were in Québec, but never really away from the farm. Our friend Arthur, who farm-sat solo most of the time as his husband was called away, kept us up-to-date. The lambalanche that had begun with three births in the days before our departure thankfully went into a lull, with just one uncomplicated birth for Arthur to preside over. It resumed on our return.On the last morning of the year, an extremely weak eweling arrived. She could not muster the strength to stand and nurse. I bottle fed her colostrum supplement. She took two ounces on the first feeding, three ounces a few hours later, and she seemed to gain strength, but still could not stand for more than a few minutes. From then, her intake and energy went down. In my last effort a few minutes after we toasted in the new year, I had to try force the nipple in, and she would not suckle. The following morning, my wonderful vet, Gillian, directed me to her video instructions on tube feeding and provided the equipment. Eric and I succeeded at several tube feedings, but they were too late, and the poor creature faded away.What does one do with that deep discouragement? As Mathyas did after his flock was ravaged by wolves, you recognize the rest of the flock still needs your care and do what you can to soldier on. The commitment of care from shepherd to dependent flock is where Mathyas and I surely share common ground. |
I bottle feed a frail newborn as mom looks on — photo by Arthur Gary
As the lambalanche proceeds, a nursery school forms Photo by Arthur Gary
FARM PICKUPS:Email us your order at farm@turkanafarms.com, and let us know when you’d like to pick up your order. It will be put out for you on the side screened porch of the farmhouse (110 Lasher Ave., Germantown) in a bag. You can leave cash or a check in the now famous pineapple on the porch table. Because I’m now here full time, we’re abandoning regular pick-up times. Let us know when you want your order any day between 10 and 5, and unless there are unusual circumstances we’ll be able to ready it to your convenience. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to call or text at 917-544-6464 or email.
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