WELLINGTON COUNTY – Barbara McLean has tended to a flock of Border Leicester sheep on her farm, Lambsquarters, for 50 years now.
With a background and PhD in English, she recently released her second book titled Shepherd’s Sight: A Farming Life.
“A lot of it has to do with aging… wondering and sort of interrogating the ideas around aging of how much longer I could do this,” said McLean.
“There [is] a lot of that, and then just thinking about the farm and the cycle of agriculture which actually really follows the year.”
With her sheep, McLean explained that farming is a “cyclical process.”
“The sheep go into estrus in the fall and they lamb in the spring, unless you’re artificially manipulating that.
“And there are certain breeds that will be out of season, but generally, they follow the calendar,” she said.
“In this book, what I decided to do was to make a shepherd’s calendar.”
The book includes 12 chapters from January until December, going through the specifics of what McLean experiences during those months.
Her first book, Lambsquarters: Scenes from a Handmade Life is the “genesis” of her farming career and tackles the “getting here, starting the farm, the first lambs, all that kind of stuff,” she said.
Where to find it
The cover of her new book, Shepherd’s Sight. Submitted photos
Published through ECW Press, you can find McLean’s book through its website located at ecwpress.com/products/shepherds-sight.
Shepherd’s Sight is also available on Amazon.ca and in “many bookstores” in the surrounding area.
