Bummers

It’s the middle of February, twenty degrees Fahrenheit and some clean, wet snow is falling on the scuffed, stained snow of the sheep pasture.

Ariella and Dirk Envers are supposed to be cleaning the sheep shed. None of their own ewes are due until March but Bonnie, their mother, is hoping to pick up a couple of bummers this month. She’s a weaver and a vegetarian. When she culls their flock in the spring, though, she sends the unwanted ram lambs and the used-up ewes off to market.