I know, I just said we would say goodbye to Sharon first. Well, we didn't. Even though Sharon can't feed her lamb, she still takes care of her, and dotes over her. She's only a month old, and mama makes sure she is safe out in the pasture, and can snuggle up and sleep next to her at night. This is important for a growing lamb. Especially a singleton who doesn't have siblings or even another bottle baby to attach to.
Attachment is important in mammal babies. It provides the lamb protection. It provides the lamb a living model of how to be a sheep. Tori Amos will learn more by being with her mother, even if she isn't nursing. There is still a bond there. Mama teaches her what to eat and what not to eat. Mama will show her where the waterer is, once she's big enough to reach it. And mama teaches her about predators, weather changes - all sorts of things a little lamby needs to learn for herself. It also means her bond with mama is important to her. When she starts weaning off the bottle, she'll blend in better with the herd than say, an orphaned lamb who thinks I am mama.
So with Tori Amos only being 4 weeks old, we just couldn't take Fat Sharon to the processor today.
So we did take Frigg. Shannon was upset, she likes Frigg. This big, stocky girl held promise. She was one of the few ewe lambs Alice ever had. Alice was not a stupendous performer, but she was no slouch. She had some of the cutest lambies. Frigg was really the last of our true dorper ewes. We've had so much Katahdin thrown in lately. Frigg was the only offspring of Alice that we kept, so Alice's genetics end here (unless we keep Frigg's ewe, Sarah McLachlan). But she didn't meet up with that promise. Small lambs, few lambs, skipped lambings. Frigg was not a good ewe.
Frigg when she was born
And oh my goodness was that ewe LOUD! And HUGE. She would shove her way to the front for any hand out of treats. She'd step on your feet and not even notice. Aside from Oola (who is the size of a tank) she was difficult to vaccinate or trim her hooves. She was feisty through and through. Believe me, rounding her up this morning was nothing short of a rodeo.
Frigg with her first lambs
I'll miss her, like I miss all my ewes when they go. But hopefully this makes space for a kinder, gentler, quieter ewe, who gives us good babies, without all the hassle of Frigg. Goodnight, girl.