The Hard Part of Farming

I wish I could say I got to say goodbye but I didn't. Instead I stayed in bed and tried not to listen as Mr. went down to the sheep pen and dispatched Sweet Pea... and soon it will be Tony's turn to head to freezer camp.
This is not fun.  I feed and water and pet and talk and tame these babies and I KNOW that is what they are here for, they are our food. That is what I am doing here.

The chickens are no problem and the pigs, well I am happy to say good bye to them,but my sheep... that's a hard one.
Sweet Pea was just that... a runty little scruffy rag-a-muffin sweet pea sheep that came to live here for the summer.  His owner thought we might need a different bloodline for our ewes... well Sweet Pea just didn't have any good blood line to pass on to my beautiful momma's AND not long afterward we sold them all anyway... but no one wanted Sweet Pea. No one except Ferdinand the calf, and me.
Sweet Pea was the first one to tell us that the feed buckets were empty and that he thought they all really needed to get out and graze in the field instead anyway. Or that he needed a head scratch or that he wanted to play.  Tony, his other sheepy friend (who we kept for the freezer) played well and they had a great summer here, eating all the grass on the lawn, trimming my trees, laying in the sunshine chewing their cud. Getting into things they shouldn't get into and trying to eat all the chickens food before I noticed.
But like Terry Jack's song 'Seasons in the Sun', it all comes to an end... for all of us one day.

Val and Tony with their mom, Molly, out exploring just after they were born.

Lets just hope we, like the sheep, all take time to enjoy the sunshine and the outdoors, that we rested well and ate right, and had good friends to spend time with.... what more can we ask for?

I tell myself... "Buck up Farm Momma, that's how life goes on the farm." As I try to keep my eyes from leaking. This is the hard part.

I count the happy moments that they gave me and I hope that I gave them as many happy days as they gave me.
Thank you dear sheep. <3

Tony getting some scratches... <3

Sweet Pea looking or some loves.

Sweet Pea in all his pot belly glory