Anytime a Western Producer editorial meeting ends with the phrase, “I’ll supply the livestock,” you know something fun is about to happen.
For this special holiday edition, we needed a special holiday cover photo.
It had to be something seasonal, yet unique, that could easily be seen as special.
So naturally, we decided to place an electrically lit, artificial pine wreath around the neck of a 175-pound yearling, purebred Hampshire ram that we had never met before.
We would photograph him in the middle of a city under a set of photographic studio lights, outdoors in the snow.
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It all seemed so logical. We wondered out loud why we hadn’t thought of it before.
Remember, we’re professionals. The four editors involved in this scheme have a combined experience of nearly 80 years.
It just so happened that some relatives of mine from Wilcox, Sask., were picking up a new ram from a breeder several hours northwest of Saskatoon.
So I asked Mom and Dad, as they were going to be staying with us while transporting this new herd sire back to the farm, if I might borrow it for a few hours.
Always eager to be part of something that hasn’t been done before, they agreed to loan the animal, with Dad acting as livestock wrangler on the studio set.
Kitty, my wife, expressed her concern about seasonally clad livestock roaming our urban neighbourhood trailing power cords on a Sunday evening.
She said no.
Which, as every male farmer knows when it comes to having livestock in or around the house on an occasional basis, really means OK, but you clean up the mess.
I pointed out that using a horse or cow could be far more disruptive to the community, but what harm could a little sheep do, anyway?
Our four-year-old son was in favour of the idea from the start and I relied on his opinion in my decision making.
So, on a cold December night, I opened the drive-through doors to my studio, adjoining our Saskatoon backyard, and introduced Reath the ram to the bright lights and big city.
We didn’t have a sheep halter, so we seconded and modified our 85-pound Bassett hound’s halter and leash.
Bassett hounds aren’t normally the sworn enemy of sheep. But he eventually tired of lunging at the patio doors where my wife, son and mother watched as my father wrangled Reath into participation.
The hound continued to bark wildly at the spectacle unfolding a few feet away on the patio, producing the telltale sounds that accompany a southern prison break.
When I tested the massive camera flashes, Reath only dragged Dad around the children’s play-structure twice. Once I disconnected the extension cord from the heavy-duty LED-lit wreath, the rodeo ended peacefully.
My father spoke calmly to the sheep for several minutes and then led the woolly model to his position under the lights.
Dad backed away, as I photographed at will. Reath was a natural, providing left and right profiles, raising and lowering his chin, all the while listening to Dad and keeping his feet on his mark for nearly 10 minutes.
That’s when our neighbour came into the yard “to see what you were up to now.”
You can take the farm boy from the farm, but not the farm out of the boy.
