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14th November, 2008 - The Start Of The Lamb Slaughter Time waits for no-one and even though the lamb slaughtering had been postponed by a week due to Tracey being ill, it was now time for our lamb to go.
Our friends Gilly & Geoff had spent a good 8 months looking after, not only our lamb, but 4 others for themselves and another friend Steve.
Having being shown the ropes last year by Geoff's neighbour, the three boys (Dan, Geoff & Steve) felt suitably equipped to do everything themselves this year.
So with much bravado and boyish humour, the process began.
The first job of the day was to prepare the barn where the lambs were to be slaughtered and butchered. So while Geoff got everything ready there, Steve set about sharpening knives and Dan took photos!
Obviously, to butcher a sheep, you first have to catch it.
As it turned out, this happened to be a lot easier than had been expected - mainly due to their friendly nature and the fact that they were stupid enough to get themselves cornered in their stall.
With a quick grab, the lambs were soon turned on to their backs - at which point, they just laid still, blinking, while their legs were tied together and they were wheeled into the barn.
The actual process of killing the lamb was again, easier than expected. We had all primed ourselves to do it "the French way" which involves a sledgehammer on the head - brutal, but effective.
However, Steve had a cunning plan and produced his nail gun (he's a carpenter-cum-builder by trade) and as the lamb laid completely still, it was a simple matter of using the nail gun to fire a nail into the brain.
Far from being barbaric, it was amazingly quick and the lambs were not so much stunned, but killed outright. The throats were then cut and the blood pumped out.
With 5 dead lambs, the next part of the process was to remove the wool and skin.
Last year, Geoff's neighbour showed us a neat little trick which involves using an air compressor to actually inflate sheep, so that the fleece comes away from the flesh.
Simply put, a small nick is made in the sheeps knee and the compressor nozzle is inserted inside, between the fleece and the flesh.
The force of the air being put in, means that the fleece becomes detached from the flesh - although it does make the lamb look like childs balloon!
With the lamb inflated, it is then a relatively simple process to remove the fleece - it's a bit like pulling a jumper off or skinning a very large rabbit.
The last part of the process is to remove and discard the inards.
This was a really simple process of just slitting the belly, and letting everything fall out into a bin.
Dan, being a bit heavy handed though, had a slight accident and when he was cutting the belly, he stuck his knife in to far and punctured the stomach - the result being that he was covered in hot, sickly sweet smelling, half digested grass!!!
Aside from this little accident (which both Steve & Geoff found highly amusing), everything went much smoother than expected - so much so, that over a final cup of tea, the notion of keeping veal calves was being kicked around!!! View The Blog Read All Sheep Stories |
