As I round the bend to 32, I continue gaining perspective on how inadequate my reasoning skills were just ten or fifteen years ago. I lucked out with solid parenting, a very safe peer group, and unambitious risk-taking tenancies, so pulled through my youth relatively unharmed. Though not without some memorable lapses in judgement. The summer of my sophomore year, I adopted a compact but un-housebroken dog with elaborate plans to hide him in a dorm room for the following 2 yea

I was woken up last night at 2 am by the sound of the donkey alarm. He has a particular hee-haw for when he thinks his sheep are in danger, and it's not the sort of racket you sleep through. I'd never heard it at night before, and woke up imagining sheep scattered and trampled and tangled in fences. I shuffled down the ladder from my loft, and hurried across the icy tile to the bathroom window. Nothing but white snow and dark shadows. I turned back to the sink for my glasses,

Today one of my sheep came down with some pretty nasty scours, and after driving myself crazy for a few hours researching, asking opinions, and making no headway with a diagnosis, I decided to take in a fecal sample. For such a simple transaction, it was an awful long wait at the vet clinic due to a 4-H club tour and the usual handful of Friday afternoon emergencies. I hadn't come prepared for a wait, and the 4-H parents and their tubs of brownies were taking up all the chair