Saying Goodbye

The fair flew by this year. Too soon, it was time for the girls to sell their animals. They've always been sad about this stage of the process, but more so this year it seemed.

This was Nicole's first year with a lamb, of course. At times during the summer, she was so annoyed with him. He would often bleat pitifully when he heard us outside because he was lonely, but he had the not-so-endearing habit of head butting whomever came to visit! Apparently, this may be an inherited trait, because not all lambs are as prone to head butting as he was, and the breeder said he got rid of their ram who also had this wonderful tendancy.

Despite his faults, he was still an adorable fuzzy creature. Nicole managed to hold back the tears while she was in the sale ring, but did let a few fall in the privacy of our camp trailer. (Yes, we bring our camper to the fairgrounds. We only live 6 miles away, but it's so nice to have a quiet place to go to and the air conditioning was a wonderful retreat!)

Then it was Ellea's turn. This was her fourth pig. Over the years, she has come more to terms with the reality of selling the animal at the end of the project. This pig, however, was her favorite out of all the pigs she's had, I think. She was really not looking forward to selling her.

She cried.

Her sister, sitting next to me in the stands, cried with her.

Her friend, a fellow pig 4-Her, stood outside the ring watching and cried.

There were a lot of tears.

Ellea says she will not be eating pork. We'll see.....