Today is Tim's birthday and he is on a farm, building a shed, surrounded by nature, fields of growing things, and the sounds he loves: highland cattle and their hairy calves, bleating sheep and their gorgeous little lambs, Clydesdale horses, chickens (and their fresh eggs), dogs, and even cats. He is eating home cooked meals by someone who really knows how to cook (aka not me!) and is watching his children work transplanting seedlings from an enormous greenhouse to the horse ploughed field where the market garden vegetables will grow... there couldn't be a better present for my farmer's birthday.

Ted and Lou Wiggins are a wonderful "legally retired" couple who own Shepherd's Garden, in Frog Lake, NB. They still work ever so hard but perhaps now the difference is they love what they are doing. They are Wwoofers - and we are Wwoofing! Wwoof stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (sometimes called Willing Workers on Organic Farms), an organization we discovered on the internet where crazy people like us volunteer to work with people just as crazy, who accept people like us! Each farm is unique and the requirements thereof. Ted and Lou are absolutely wonderful and have made us feel like family. We help with anything that needs to be done... chores, bottle feeding lambs, building projects, planting, sheering sheep, selling at the market, whatever... we do it. The girls and I even went with Lou to quilting circle last night (Sharon ought to get a kick out of that! Not a glue gun in sight).

Of course it was my beloved son who announced to Ted our first day that, "We forgot to mention, you are really only getting four volunteers, and one photographer!" But what a blast, with all the little baby animals and fun things going on all the time. It's a photographer's dream, and a Farmer's dream, and a kid's dream. We are all living our dream and loving it.

Happy Birthday Tim! You'd almost think God loves you as much as I do! xo