I had been told that I would need to wait till next week for the lamb and Hoggart to be ready, I had no issue with this, it meant that they would hang longer and I am always ok with that.. compared to many places, we are far to fast to cut our lamb and package it and I have even been known to ask and pay extra to hang my own longer..  

Instead on thursday afternoon, I got the call, they were in fact ahead and it was ready, come friday..  Yes, sir.. I will be there.

Got the bill, price was fine but the amount, had my head doing that auto jerk and my eyes widen a touch on the sheet.. 

There in Black and White on the bill was 620.5 pounds (not including bones)..  The smallest lamb, the one born almost 4 months in difference was 28 pounds, and the rest of my lambs, ranged between 44 to 56 pounds.. (again without organs or bones)

Milk crate after Milk crate came out for me to move over into packing my little car.. the guys as they brought more out said.. are you sure you are going to get it all in there?? and drive careful on the bumps.. 

Now I knew that I had picked a medium sheep breed in my choice of hair sheep, the average female is around 110 to 120 pounds and even my big hair ram was around 160.. I have never minded my small lambs sizes.. 

So when I added in a bigger meat breed ram, I knew it would increase lamb size, then throw in the fact that all my lambs this year were all BIG singles and I knew that I would have bigger lambs, and because I had cut down numbers the year before an with some lucky rains the pastures did not bad, plus my normal feeding out of sqaush/pumpkin/apples as my “no grain” finish..

But call me a bit dumb struck at the return differnce.. I butchered early.. normally I send my lambs end of oct/early nov, they went 4 to 6 weeks early this year and I thought that would reflect downward on the sizes.. 

I have never been so grateful to have a spare freezer to turn on.. I had space planned in a different freezer but honestly.. without that full empty being turned back on.. there was just no way I would have had enough room.. 

What I do regret is sending the ram, I know we made the choice we did, but clearly that ram nicked together with my female in a OUTSTANDING way! 

And I can’t easily get another one, the folks that sold me the ram, sold out the flock this spring, so I can’t go back for another one either very related or possable even the same breeding.. 

As for now, I will enjoy all the unexpected bonus that has filled my freezers.. and you can expect lots of new lamb or hoggart based recipes over the winter..