Our amazing friend Omar raises goats and sheep. He was gracious enough to gift us a male and female sheep for us to start our livestock journey. The male is a Dorper sheep, and the female is a mix of Dorper and Pelibuey.

When Josh was a child, his Dad connected with a local dairy farmer in Kansas who allowed Josh and his brother to work the farm with him. Strauss Dairy farm was run by a husband and wife. His name was Emory and his wife’s name was Wally. The dairy farm is still in operation today, run by the children and grandchildren of Emory and Wally. Josh always talks about how they taught him everything he knows about farm and ranch life. We decided our first male/female animal pair we got we would name them after the Strauss couple. So Wallee and Emory had a new home, and new names.

We knew absolutely nothing about these animals we received. City slickers, remember? The first day we had them, it rained. They were so upset. Josh was out in the rain trying to build them a shelter from the rain. They refused to lay in it. Wallee just bleated and baa’d the whole time. Omar had given us some food he had until we could get to the feed store. The next day, we went to the feed store, and purchased feed and some treats. Later that day, Omar came over and said, “You can’t feed that food to them you’ll kill them!” Turns out, we thought we had goats but we have sheep! Sheep cannot consume copper in large quantities, it can kill them. So, knowing now that we are Shepherds, not Goat Ropers, we went back to the feed store with our heads hung low. I’m not sure if the gal behind the counter was just trying to make me feel better, but she said it’s a common mistake.

Wallee and Emory soon settled in to their new quarters, and we grew fond of Wallee’s baa-ing every SINGLE time she saw us because she knows we bring food 🙂