Yesterday was a bittersweet day.
As you saw in my previous post, we had our first lamb! Always time for a celebration.
The bitter part of the day, is that we had to say ‘good-bye’ to our old girl, Venus.
She has quite the story and I wish she could have told me her tales. She travelled all the way from an island off of Maine, where she lived with a flock of Jacob sheep. She lived with Ingrid Painter for the majority of her life and came here a couple of years ago. In that time, she managed to work her way into my heart in a stand offish way. We spent some quality time together over the last couple weeks as I could see she was deteriorating. I think she had a stroke or something along those lines Saturday and I told my husband that we were going to need to evaluate her on Sunday and make a tough decision if she didn’t look any better. She passed away some time during the night. Rest well, sweet Venus.
Farm life gives you so many opportunities to marvel at the circle of life. As were saying ‘good-bye’ to Venus, we were saying ‘hello’ to Hyacinth’s lamb…
Malachite
Lisette and Hyacinth do most things together, so I wasn’t surprised to find Lisette with lambs this morning…
Zelda
She is a loud girl!!! I love the little spot on her chin.
Rose – not to be out done by her sister, has a very cute spot too!
The sire to all three of the lambs is Byeburn Hector.
Definitely a sweet part of our day 🙂
Stories from the Farm 
Venus gave you the final gift of taking a difficult decision out of your hands, dear girl.
Yay for lamb candy! That Malachite has a comical face; I don’t know quite why. And Zelda is a beauty! What is the third one’s name?
She certainly did. Silly WordPress didn’t publish the first photo of the third lamb, along with her name 🙂 It is fixed now and her name is ‘Rose’. Malachite’s facial marking is pretty silly.
I’m so sad for your loss. I know she will be missed What a blessing to have new life to soften the loss
It is extremely sad when the old ones go but she went on her own happy and content. You gave her a wonderful life. On a happy note I love seeing your babies. 🙂
Last year our opening day of lambing was a big one… 5 lambs in less than 2 hours. That same night our nearly 16 year old Shetland matriarch died in her sleep (she too had been having a rough go of it for several weeks). When we went out that morning to do chores, she was snuggled up with one of the new moms and her twins. When the mom and twins jumped up to join in the usual morning commotion, Jasmine the old black Shetland laid there silent and I knew. Sometimes the tough times and joyful times are all jumbled together.
So sad about Venus and hope her ending was peaceful. The little ones are so cute and show us that Spring is just around the corner!
i’m so sorry about Venus! but i’m glad you didnt have to ‘make the decision’ – sometimes that’s easier. 😦 but golly those little ones are adorable! that hector is a badass…zoikes!
Bittersweet news – a passing along with many blessings. Happy Tuesday:)
So sorry about Venus. Congrats on the new little ones!!!
Hi Shannon!
We are terribly sorry to hear about Venus… I know you will miss her dearly. I have one of her daughters in my flock that I love very much… Puddleduck Vanessa.
Your new lambs are, as always, beautiful! Thanks for sharing the pictures with us! 😉
Sorry about Venus, but she did you a favour:( Having to make ‘the decision’ really sucks.
How exciting about the new lambs though, congrats:)
Big hugs to you. I hope the babes bring you some solace.