These are our Katahdin lambs. No, they are not goats despite people, including ourselves, mistakenly calling them so. They were a test to see if we could keep sheep alive. And we did for about 7 months. The plan was that they would become dinner in the spring. However, they are neutered males and they started harassing the ducks a couple weeks ago so they met their maker today. Yesterday, they were picked up by our friend, Joe, a meat processor. I got up early and spent some time reflecting. I let Caesar and Czar (names given to them by the people we got them from) out of the barn so they could headbutt each other in the pasture one last time. They are not processed the day they travel because it is stressful for them so today was the day. I thought this was going to bother me more than it has. I imagine if we ever raise lambs from birth it will be harder. In Hit by a Farm by Catherine Friend she talks about taking their first lambs to slaughter and it taking a few months before she could eat their meat. She finally squared it with herself by thinking of it as  –  I took care of you, now you take care of me. I believe, too, that she was the one who said saying grace before eating took on a whole new meaning when she started raising the food she ate.

It snowed lightly today and stayed cold so evidence of duck and cat activity was preserved under the pine trees. The duck prints look bigger and the cat prints look smaller that I would have expected.