The Affair of Bleat-s and Baa-s | Sheep and Goat

🎶Here bleat, there bleat,
In fields and homes,
Do they greet,
With a baa-baa here,
And a baa-baa there,
Sheep and goats, everywhere! 🎶

---

---

_{Eid ul-Azha is just around the corner. To be specific, tomorrow morning in Pakistan. For those who are not familiar with the concept, Eid ul-Azha, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, is an auspicious day in the Islamic calendar. It commemorates the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. However, God provided a ram to sacrifice instead.}

_{On this day, Muslims around the world sacrifice animals, typically sheep, goats, cows, or camels, and distribute the meat among family, friends, and those in need. The act of sacrifice and the distribution of meat symbolize charity, community, and equality.}

There will be many publications dedicated to this topic. At least, that's my intuition. So, relax—mine is not about this. I have an entirely different topic to discuss.

This YouTube video of mine, that you just saw is of a sheepfold. Yes, this is the correct term. A very angry user on social media pointed out that this is the correct term for the place housing the sheep. Although I am not sure what he is referring to—whether the sheep are used for lambing, wool production, milk, or meat. Whatever he intends, I like the term "sheepfold."

If you are pressed on time, you can have a look on this gif!

So whose sheepfold is this? It belongs to my father. Ever since his retirement, he has invested in many projects like these. Sometimes it's orange orchards, other times crop fields for wheat and vegetable cultivation. Occasionally, it's animal farms. The previous one was a hen shed. And now this sheepfold is his latest passion or, you could say, his latest venture. I can say he is a doctor by profession, still working in a hospital, but a farmer at heart.

My husband visited his farmhouse yesterday, and these are the aerial shots captured by my brother earlier. I am definitely in love with this place and plan to visit it someday. Right now, I am pressed for time. Or, to be honest, it's unbearably hot here at the moment. My husband suggested that I join them, but my father declined, saying it's too hot for me and اس نے ریں ریں کرنی ہے گرمی کی وجہ سے (she will keep whining because of the heat). Daddy's princess, you know. Lol. So, I was reluctant to tag along.

At that moment, I was thinking about @chriddi and her sheep. The weather extremes—the cold in Germany and the heat in Pakistan—pose significant challenges, especially when tending to farm animals. Both conditions are tough and make farming quite demanding.

My father has lost three sheep earlier due to this weather. He has installed a security system and is always in touch with the caretaker there. But I guess an outsider can never feel what an owner feels for his animals. The caretaker definitely neglected them. He didn't shear their wool as instructed by my father, didn't give them deworming medicine, and didn't even bother if they were roaming about under the scorching sun with a thick coat of wool. My father had even provided a fan to combat the heat, and the fan was running but just not for the sheep. The caretaker's cow and his nephew felt it was more appropriate to sit in front of it. He assumed the sheep could cool down themselves on their own!

Anyway, these sheep were kept for meat farming (for sacrifice on Eid - both commercially and domestically). So, I wanted to buy from my father, which was the main reason for my husband's visit to the farm. But alas, when they went there, one more sheep had expired. God knows why - either due to negligence or if the weather is really that hot, taking its toll on all forms of life here.

My father's hopes of making a profit from this latest venture vanished into thin air. Instead, he will have to bear the losses. But I guess that's part of the deal in any business—profits and losses! However, he was more disappointed and disheartened by the fact that those animals were (maybe) not well tended. The sheep were roaming under the blazing sun, when these mute بے زبان animals should have been cared for more diligently. They had high fever when my father went to check on them. The farmhouse is about two hours away from my parents' residence, so he can only visit them on weekends and weekdays in case of emergencies.

God knows better. I am of the opinion that a caretaker cannot be considerate and honest enough to do this job of taking care of these animals. And as for my father, at this age, his time is already divided between his job and these farming activities.

My husband also wants to invest in this venture. Did I tell you he is also a farmer at heart? But our domestic arrangements and job commitments make it really hard for us to invest our time fully in this. Maybe after retirement!

After this ordeal, we (husband and I) bought only one sheep from my father instead of two. My husband had to buy a goat (instead of a sheep) from market بکرا منڈی for his father because the rest of my father's sheep were not properly tended to and hence didn't gain much weight. I am writing in hope of any suggestions or comments on what could be done to properly tend to these animals. While there are many YouTube videos and tutorials available, you never have a complete guide until you undergo some form of formal training, which is not possible right now. Any tips or suggestions on what went wrong other than the extreme heat, or how there could be more efficient ways of farming? Specially in this hot weather.

---

---

A little not-so-side story... Here's a picture of my father-in-law's goat. It seemed a bit off yesterday, not eating anything, just drinking water. We've been keeping a close eye on him. The ceiling fan has been running since it was brought home from the sheep market. Today, he eagerly ate watermelon. Seems like he also craved something refreshing in this heat.

Just when I am writing this, the sheep from my father's farm house that we bought has also arrived. So here's the picture of the pair:

And I instantly observed a very interesting thing. As soon our sheep started eating greens and Sponge gourd / Luffa (ٹوری اور وانڈا), my father in law's goat immediately joined him in the dinner. Wow, just wow. We have been politely asking him to eat since the morning. But no. I infer that after all, the animals need company too :)

---

---

On this positive note, I wish everyone (celebrating), a very auspicious and blessed Eid-ul-Azha :)