Tuesday 15 June 2010

Farewell to Fred


Today started an hour earlier than usual, at 5. am all the young poultry at home were let out, fed and water, much to their surprise. By 5.45 am Fred had been loaded into the trailer ready for his last journey and the other sheep moved onto fresh pasture.


Fred went into the trailer easily, he was so trusting. The journey to the abattoir was quiet and just after 6.30 am we had arrived at his destination. All appropriate paperwork was dealt with and just after 7 am we were back in the yard to start the usual morning routine as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. There was just a very noticeable silence.


6 comments:

Marianne said...

I didn't even know Fred, but it made me tear up reading your post. And, I am not the cryin' type. It sounds as if he had a good life though and that is the important thing to remember.

Anonymous said...

sounds like the right thing to do.

how come you always go to abattoir so early? we never get such early times

Sandra said...

Until you said I didn't realise you were given a time , so we just turned up. This time I asked if we could come first thing, didn't seem to be a problem in fact he seemed surprised I'd asked.

Early suits us. We can get there and back before work and the roads are quiet. Also as we normally do the run later in the year it is still dark and less stressful for the livestock.

Just this years lambs left for this year.

Anonymous said...

and playing freezer tetris.. am beginning to wonder where two lambs and 4 pigs are going to go...

Sandra said...

:) that's why we didn't do pigs this year.

Last year we bought a new freezer but a new freezer every year ?? :)

How far off are they from going?

A Green and Rosie Life said...

We are slaughtering a ewe and one year old lamb soon and have bought another (second-hand) freezer as the other two are virtually full.