Leaving the nest...err I mean farm.

I will not even begin to say it's the same. What I am saying is, for me, I imagine it must be a little something like this.  You watch them born and find a part of you instantly connected, sometimes even assisting in the delivery.  Shoot. I even bottled fed one for a week.  And through the spring, into summer, they grow and grow.  And eat.  And grow.  I digress, but anyway, you work to raise these great specimens of sheep for a purpose.  As I am able to accomplish just that, people want them.  That is what is supposed to occur.  The goal is to sell them.  But the day comes where visitors ogle over of which ones they like.  And you watch the would be buyers, and reminisce about the excitement you too had when you were picking out your own starter flock.  Soon you're loading up sheep into a trailer and the smells and sounds all start coming back to you.  While you watch the trailer close up, you hear their final few bah's, recognizing each call and placing the face you saw out on pasture all summer with its individual unique sound.  These same sheep that are now leaving your farm are the ones you intended through intentional breeding, watched stand for the first time, introduced to pasture, trimmed their tiny hooves and sometimes even petted and said hello too.  This is now the business side of raising livestock.  

I can imagine at this point some of you are wondering just where these sheep were headed.  Doherty the one and a half year old "veteran" of the group, Abagail the beautiful Moorit ewe lamb and Ike too, the farm favorite that developed a larger fan base in his 6 months of existence in Northport than I have in over two years here.  Well I'm happy to report that these sheep have a destination of a barn in Wisconsin.  They will continue to be the founding ram, the pretty little girl and the farm jester; it just so happens it will have to be on another farm.  

I feel proud, accomplished, and weird all at the same time.  Perhaps I would have been more cut out for this had I been raised on a farm.  Or maybe even a little 4H in the background.  Tae Kwon Do and little league never covered animal behaviors nor prepared me for the psychology of raising livestock.  And of all the books I've read there wasn't a Ch 12: This is how you will feel.

It's true not all lambs leaving this farm will carry the badge of good enough, but from my side of things its the same regardless.  Despite the destination, they leave here never to return.  I did my job as a farmer, gave them the best life I could and raised them in a sustainable manner.  One farm, one sheep at a time, trying to make our food and our earth just a little better, a little more honest and doing it a little more responsibly.