Madferit: The Novel

Chapter 145

"I imagine the hens'll be layin' soon." I told John as he, Noel, and I watched the birds pecking around inside the coop. "And since we ain't gonna be here, you can take the eggs home with you if you want to."

"Cheers!" John smiled at me.

I smiled back before focusing more on the chickens. "The hens'll be settin' soon too hopefully. So when that happens, I wouldn't be stickin' your hands in the nestboxes if I was you."

"Never!"

We continued on to the sheep, goats, cow, and donkeys. They were all outside nibbling on the grass that was finally edible again.

"I think it best to band the boys when we get back." I mused watching the lambs toddle around.

Noel crossed his arms over his chest. "Addie-"

"We'll be back the end of March." I ignored him and focused my attention on talking to John. "With about a week before we're off to America I think so that'll be a good time to get it done. Plus it'll give the boys some more time to grow before we-"

"We shouldn't be doin' it at all!" Noel objected. "It ain't fair. It ain't right-"

"Then you can figure out how to separate 'em when the time comes!" I cut him off again. "Unless you wanna get involved with line breedin'."

"Addie-"

"They do it with cattle. They do it with goats. I'm sure they'll do it with sheep and other animals too."

He rolled his eyes.

I rolled mine too as I turned back to the sheep in the field. "I can't have a ram but I can't castrate the lambs either. How's that work?"

He tutted. "I'm just sayin' it's not-"

"It has to be done unless you wanna figure out how to separate 'em!"

He shrugged. "Can't be that hard. We'll use the fencin' that were named after me!" He grinned.

I shook my head slightly. "You only know there's fencin' named after you 'cuz I told you about it!" I muttered.

"Still named after me though!"

"Don't know that for sure. Just 'cuz it has the same name as you don't mean it weren't named after somebody else!"

"Yeah, but-"

"I can have everythin' ready to go for when you get back." John chimed in to stop our tiff. "Or perhaps if you'd prefer havin' the vet take care of it-"

"We'd prefer nobody takin' care of it." Noel spoke before I could. "'Cuz it don't need taken care of. These are ram lambs here not wether lambs." He pointed at Prince and Cinder. "I didn't have a say with our Rupe but I definitely have a say with these lot."

I smiled to myself admiring just how much Noel cared for the sheep and the other animals. As much as he liked to complain about them sometimes, his love for them always outweighed any of that.

We went over the rest of the caretaking with John and he assured us we needn't worry about a thing while we were away.

I wasn't worried though. I knew we could trust him to look after everyone and everything. Plus, we'd be back for a short break at the end of the month before the North American leg of the tour began.