Sister Dorothy was our first sheep. She is a black & white Florida Cracker/Jacob sheep cross. Dorothy is particularly attached to Mark, and has been from day one. We even have photos of him carrying her on his shoulders, like a biblical shepherd. She is a doll, and extremely friendly to everyone. Especially if they come bearing treats.

Sweet Dorothy has also been patient with our fumbling attempts to learn how to shear wool. Like many other farming skills we’ve had to learn from Youtube videos, it is much more difficult than it looks! Even so, she always looks much more comfortable afterwards. It has also been fun making and using wool dryer balls grown and harvested right here on the farm. I haven’t quite gotten the knack of making them as tight as the ones you can buy from a store yet, but we will get there one day.

The story behind her name probably won’t matter to anyone else, but it is meaningful to me. Her black white markings are similar to those of my late Border Collie, Our Companion Diocese (Diocese, or D-Dog, for short). Since she looked so much like my boy (who was, predictably, sheep obsessed), we decided to give her a “church” name too. We joke that she looks like she is wearing a nun’s habit, so Sister Dorothy she became. Our second sheep was Katadhin ram named Saint Peter, but his story will come another day.