I love ani­mals! I have had ani­mals al­most al­wa­ys, even when I li­ved by my­self in these “back­woods”.

You can tell yo­ur ani­mal friends anyt­hing, and they will lis­ten. When their ba­sic needs are ful­fil­led, they are con­tent with their li­ves and al­wa­ys hap­py to see their ow­ner. You can lean yo­ur head on their fur (if they have fur) and cry yo­ur sor­rows away. You can run and play ga­mes with them, or just lie down on the yard with a stalk of grass in yo­ur mouth and en­joy the spring or sum­mer.

My first spe­ci­al ani­mals were go­ats. When they grew, they be­ca­me old enough for mil­king. I had ne­ver be­fo­re mil­ked go­ats, but it did not take me long to le­arn.

I first mil­ked my goat one day in ear­ly spring. Af­ter­wards I went on a small hike in the woods. I took along a ther­mos of hot cho­co­la­te – with goat’s milk! I was bit doubt­ful, won­de­ring what it would tas­te like, but it was de­li­ci­ous. And goat’s milk chee­se is even more de­li­ci­ous!

I had al­re­a­dy had go­ats for some time and then I al­so got two sheep. I thought they would be one herd, but it was not so simp­le: they ne­ver got used to each ot­her. Each group had their own le­a­der. I even had to build a new win­ter shed for the sheep be­cau­se they re­fu­sed to share the shed with the go­ats.

Most of my go­ats have been horn­less. My last goat with horns got one of it horns stuck so­mew­he­re and bro­ken, so it en­ded up a “uni­corn”. Go­ats like to be al­wa­ys to­get­her in a herd, and they al­so fol­low their ow­ner.

Many ti­mes over the ye­ars I have won­de­red about the pa­rab­le of go­ats and sheep in the Bib­le, which so­me­how imp­lies that go­ats are bad and sheep good. That seems a bit cont­ra­dic­to­ry to me, be­cau­se go­ats are such sweet ani­mals.

Mat­t­hew in his gos­pel tel­ls us about the last judg­ment and says that pe­op­le will be se­pa­ra­ted like a shep­herd se­pa­ra­tes sheep from go­ats. Sheep rep­re­sent pe­op­le who are sa­ved and go­ats pe­op­le who go to per­di­ti­on. Ma­y­be this ima­ge in the Bib­le te­ac­hes us about good and evil rat­her than anyt­hing about go­ats and sheep?

My go­ats have been nice, friend­ly ani­mals. Ma­y­be, ho­we­ver, go­ats are more stub­born and cun­ning than sheep, so­me­how wi­ser. And bra­ver.

Our on­ly big­ger ani­mals now are two sheep: white 12-ye­ar-old Hil­la and black Mii­na, who is a few ye­ars ol­der. I have got a lot of wool from Hil­la and Mii­na, which I have used for knit­ting wool. I still have lo­ads of wool wai­ting to be car­ded and spun in­to yarn. Thanks to my sheep, I have been ab­le to le­arn such tra­di­ti­o­nal skil­ls.

Sheep are al­so use­ful in that they keep the grass on the yard short throug­hout the sum­mer. Our sheep are free to graze on the yard and even in the woo­ded area up to the fen­ce dee­per in the woods. They par­ti­ci­pa­te with us in many out­door ac­ti­vi­ties and love to be scratc­hed. I find they are mem­bers of my fa­mi­ly, just as our cat and dog are.

Text: Lii­sa Lil­va­nen-Pel­ko­nen

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

You will find the ori­gi­nal blog post here.