Well, I had my first experience with slaughtering and butchering a lamb this weekend. Well, I didn't do it, but I got to watch. A Bosnian gentleman named Safeco, his wife and their lovely, young daughter contacted me last week to see if they could come out, pick out a lamb and slaughter it on my property. They live in an apartment and have no place to dress it out. Not having any idea what it entailed, I said, "Sure, that would be fine." I immediately was asking my rancher friends what, if anything, I needed to know. A couple of tips and I was good to go. But not before calling Katy and begging her to be here with me! Such a sissy!
So the family comes out. What nice people! Zip and I held the lambs while they picked one out. I caught it and handed it over to him, and then moved all the rest of my lambs out of the round pen and set them out to pasture. He needed some twine to tie the legs together, so I gave him some and quickly skedaddled out of there. Not being able to stand not watching, and being the big weenie that I am, I watched the slaughter from the window. It was very unremarkable. He cut what I am guessing would be the jugular, and then quickly cut the twine and freed the legs. He'd obviously done this before. I helped him carry the lamb to the spot under the tree, and watched him peel back the skin off the hocks, and hang the lamb up by the "ankles." He allowed me to hang out and watch him and ask all kinds of questions. He explained himself as well as he could in his broken English, and his daughter would occasionally translate. He skinned it all out, took all the intestines out, showed me what's good and what isn't with the intestines, emptied the stomach, etc. Apparently they also use the head, so he cut the head off and then sawed the entire lamb right down the middle. Bagged it all up and put it in his truck.
When I gave him the lamb for free for allowing me to watch and learn, you could see that his wife was very touched by the gesture. The man offered to come back on Sunday morning and slaughter and butcher a lamb for a friend of mine who showed up right as he was finishing. I think it will take a few times of me watching to build up the hootzpah to try it myself. So on Sunday, now that I was more comfortable with him, I planned to stick right by him as he does the slaughter and have him show me how. Simply fascinating.
Why am I so interested in learning how to do this? I had one lamb break a leg last year, and I didn't know how to kill it, and no one that was at my house knew how to either. I felt awful watching it lay down and shiver in shock. We called a friend of mine who came over and picked it up, splinted the leg, only to have it die a month or so later because it was never one of the stronger lambs. I feel that as long as I am raising, breeding and using these sheep, that it's my responsibility to take care of them the best I can in any situation -- and that includes knowing when to end it, and more importantly, how.
So, Safeco came back on Sunday morning, slaughtered and butchered a lamb for Ann, and then decided to get another one for himself. I helped him catch one and I helped him hold her down while he slaughtered her. I don't know that I could watch that again, no less do it myself. That was tough. Anyway, once she was dead, we carried her over to the tree, hung her up and I again watched him work. He's very clean and meticulous. He then called some family, who wanted to come out and get some more sheep.
Turns out the guys who showed up later in the day were Safeco's brother-in-law and a couple of buddies of his. They had a much different method. I didn't watch the slaughter this time, but before I knew it, the head was off, and they were both standing at the picnic table (that someone's 4 year-old son was sitting on) cleaning the head. Just to show a difference in culture, the 4 year-old was sitting there happily playing with one of his "uncles" and laughing and stuff. When I went out to check to see if everything was ok, I hadn't even entered the pasture yet when the 4 year-old started screaming. The uncle tells me he's afraid of "the dog." Zip was at my side and totally focused on the sheep in the pasture, and was nowhere near the 4 year-old. But the 4 year-old could have reached out and touched the sheep head. Feeling burned out on the whole thing, I again called Katy who came running to my rescue. Thanks, Katy! You're awesome!
Anyway, the rest of the process wasn't as clean, neat and well thought out as Safeco's method from the morning. Safeco was friendly, respectful, and cleaned up everything when he was done. You didn't know he was even here. After the second group of guys left, I have 3 black bags of entrails, lots of feet strewn about (some hanging on a fence), the skin to the head over where the picnic table was, they'd moved the picnic table to use it as a cutting board, never put it back, never cleaned it off, etc. The area is a mess, and I'm not impressed. Safeco is welcome back. The second group will have to find somewhere else to get their sheep.
On a much better note, as I mentioned earlier, Safeco slaughtered and butchered a lamb for Ann Sunday morning. So Sunday night, Ann invited me, Nick and Katy over for BBQ lamb. To this point, the only time I'd eaten lamb was in a pita at a restaurant, and it was very tough and gamey. Not Sunday night. It was marinated in red wine, garlic and rosemary, grilled perfectly, served with yummy potatoes and a wonderful salad and crispy loaf of bread. It was probably one of the best meals I've ever eaten. I'll never look at my sheep the same again!
Happy tails,
J.D.
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