Winds of Change

Change is always happening. We find our comfort zone, then a change happens and we have to rebalance and find the comfort zone once more. Two days ago I learned some news that is a major change for myself and my sheep farm. The sheep and goat auction where I sell my market lambs and cull ewes, and purchase a rare find is indefinitely closed.

My daily life is challenged by two conditions I live with, Asperger’s syndrome and post traumatic stress disorder. I have a difficult time determining people’s facial expressions due to the Asperger’s syndrome. The anxiety associated with the post traumatic stress disorder makes me even more uncomfortable in crowds of people I do not know what they are thinking or feeling from facial expressions have to be learned.

The past seven years I have been going to the same sheep and goat auction, with the basic same people attending every sale. I had learned this group of people, learned their facial expression and that lowered my anxiety. I learned who to trust and who I stayed away from. Now I am forced to learn a new group of people.

Yesterday, I spent the day on the internet searching for sheep and goat auctions around me. The auction I attended was close to my farm, thirty minutes away. The closest auction I found is over an hour drive away, but this auction does not have good reviews, has been in some lawsuits concerning animals sold. I will not attend this auction. The other auction is three hours away, it has good reviews and no lawsuits. I will be visiting this auction although it is located a three hour drive one way from my farm. When I go to this auction, it is close to where my daughter lives, I will be able to visit her and her family more often.

I do believe in divine direction in my life. My daughter is pregnant with triplets. Yes, spontaneous natural triplets. I am going to be spending a lot of time in the area of the auction I am visiting and will probably be selling my sheep there. We have also been considering moving closer to my daughter to assist with the children.

Due to her pregnancy, my husband and I are thinking of moving closer to them. It would be in a few years, after he retires from working, but we want to be closer to the grandchildren and be able to more involved in their youth years. Getting acquainted with other sheep farmers and buyers will be good for the future move of our sheep farm. It will allow me to see the land and climate in the area, learn what parasite and other illness the sheep farmers of that area deal with during the year. I will be able to learn where to buy feed, the local sheep veterinarian. All this before I move the sheep to that area.

Change is not a bad thing. In fact change is good.

amtolle