Court and the Ram

This is the kind of story only a farmer in the SCA can tell, or imagine.  "No sh..t, there I was.." (because so many good SCAdian stories start that way) waiting in the back of court at Ice Dragon in Buffalo, NY, when a phone rings. My friend sitting next to me says, "who's phone is that?" with some irritation in her voice as it is so impolite not to turn your phone off in court. Suddenly, I determine...oh heck, its my phone. I don't routinely turn mine off as most of my friends know that I don't talk on the phone when I am away at an event, so they don't call me. And I keep it on just in case the only person that matters at that point would call me...my farm sitter. Now, when you are a SCAdian farmer, it is no simple thing to leave your house and attend an event out of town. Someone needs to feed the stock, put the dogs out to pee and watch out for things while you are away. And if things go awry, that person needs to be able to get in touch with you. I have received a variety of calls while at an event. Some were over minor issues, like feed questions, while others are of a more serious nature. On this day, the call was of the latter type.

Upon seeing that this call was from my farm sitter, I bolted from the room, phone in hand. The news - the ram was out! The ram in question was bought last year for food production. Last fall, he appeared to be interested in breeding the ewe I bought at the same time so I decided not to butcher them at that time, but instead see if they produced a lamb. The plan was to butcher the ram in the spring after the ewe lambed, keep her until her lamb was old enough to be weaned, and fill the freezer with lamb meat. One of the first days I was away tis time, my farm sitter told me how gentle he was being with the lamb, so I decided to postpone his date even though he was getting increasingly ornery. Now he was loose - Oh heck! When you are 200 miles from home and the ram is loose, there isn't much you can do except offer some advice for your sitter and hope for the best. I gave her that advice and scurried back into court as I was due to be called up for an important affair. The last thing I did was ask her to text me as soon as the ram was secure. I rejoined my friends, who were of course curious about the nature of the emergency call, and related, "The Ram is Out!" I am sure that is not something most people hear everyday but my friends know that I operate a small farm, so understood my concern. For the next several minutes, I waited, checking the phone several times, worried that my sitter who is elderly may not be able to get the ram back in the fence, or that she would get hurt.  The other real fear is that the neighbor might try to catch, steal and butcher the ram for his own use, because he is like that. After several more minutes, the text came "He is In!"  With great relief I relayed to my friends, "The ram is secure!" This is not something most people hear while sitting in court waiting for their friend to be called into court to be elevated to the Order of the Laurel!  All in the life of a SCAdian farmer ........  By the way, said Ram was delivered to the butcher this morning, as his stay of execution was revoked.