LETTING GO.......

         I remember like yesterday sending my daughter off to school for the first time and I have to say I didn't experience near the pain that I experience each time I send one of my lambs off to a new home....That is why I can't raise animals for food -at least with my lambs I know they are going off to good homes to be pets or lawn mowers-but to send them off to the dinner table - well that would send me to the loony bin for sure :)

        But as much as it hurts me to see them go -  nothing compares to the grieving that some of the ewes exhibit when their lambs leave.  Some are glad to see their offspring go - after a while they get tired of having a toddler bang on them for milk which they don't need.  Some yell for a few hours or less and then get on with the important business of grazing.  But there are a few that cause me to lose sleep.  One is Simone (my black Barbado).  She is a wonderful mother - maybe the best I have but of my - when her children are gone she wails night and day for a week.  She didn't notice when Aida left because she was the bottle baby of the tripletts Simone had.  But yesterday the two sisters left for a wonderful new home.  It took Simone a little time to realize they were gone but once she did....well - I found her this morning at the top of the pasture near the driveway looking and wailing.  She obviously knew that the lambs left via that driveway.  She is eating - nothing stops her from eating - but in between chewing she continues to wail.  A muffled sort of wail but a wail none the less.  

       Only four more lambs to go and then I can relax over the summer until breeding starts in the Fall.  In the meantime - listening to my Ipod while I work helps blunt the noise.  To those of you who have one of my precious babies - don't forget to send pictures.