After almost four solid months with a larger-than-anticipated Nigerian Dwarf Goat herd, we’ve finally sold the three doelings we wanted to and are down from 11 to our final 2017 herd of eight:
- Thee mamas
- Three doelings
- One buck
- One wether
I won’t pretend that I’m not a bit sad to see the three doelings go, despite their insatiable appetites. They were gorgeous and sweet, full of personality and love.
One went to join a First Freshener and her soon-to-be kid(s) just over the Rio Grande and two went to join a larger herd in southern Colorado. I trust they will all live happy lives in their respective new homes 🙂
Along with their parents, this leave us with:
Ethel’s daughter, Lila
Mama Mello’s daughter, Thumbalina
Lucy’s daughter, Marilyn
Mama Mello’s son, Rocko
And so begins a new practice for us in learning to let go of some of the sweet babies we helped bring into the world and then loved so fiercely for months as they grew and thrived and prepared to leave to their new homes.
There is a release there, of control and of knowing what’s to come for those three sweet girls, that I anticipated but didn’t quite know how it might manifest.
And so I’m working through that.
There’s also new herd dynamics that are working themselves out as the mama’s process the loss of their girls (how do they process that loss?!) and figure out where each of them stands again in the chain of command.
And so we all grieve a bit and learn a lot and grow in ways we might not even recognize until the next big lesson comes up and we are stronger for it all.
xoxo,
M
It is such a leap of faith, selling animals you’ve raised. Will you breed again next year? It’s been such a wonderful thing to watch, from start to finish 😊
Such a leap of faith, indeed! Trust, bless, release 🙂 Yes, we will breed our three mamas again this fall (probably October) with Ricky. He threw such beautiful babies and the ratio of 6:1 (does:bucks) was fantastic! We’ll see what he does again next time before deciding whether or not he’s going to be our Main Man.