Thursday, August 25, 2011

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Have you any wool? 
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

The sheep shearer came today. Here he is shearing April.  I'm stood in the kitchen, stirring apricot jam with one hand, and trying to take brilliant photographs with the other.  
Not going to happen I'm afraid.



Eventually Pride wandered down.  He must have thought he was missing something.
This is sheep number 3, known as 'the young ewe'.  
You can see 'the fat ewe' over Pride's back.  Actually, 'the young ewe' could now be known as the 'the fat ewe', or maybe she should be called 'the young fat ewe'.  But who really cares:)



One of the 'three bags full'



April and 'the old ewe', and Luna of course.
Poor April.  At 15 1/2 years old she's like an old lady with dementia.  She still toddles around and eats, but isn't carrying any weight.  It was tough to shear her, so she looks a little rough.  The shearer moves and bends the sheep in various ways to round out the part he is shearing, to create a nice smooth surface to run the shears over.  It was hard to create any smooth surfaces on April, there is no fat, she is all points and angles.
I don't think she'll be around much longer, but so far she isn't suffering.  She's the closest thing to a pet sheep we have.


Buckets of blackberries picked - 4 
Total - 11

7 comments:

  1. And you still look beautiful sheared, cute
    Benny & Lily

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  2. I suppose 'Fat Ewe', 'Old Ewe' and 'Young Ewe' is quite easy to remember :) We usually just call them all 'Matilda' - very confusing!

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  3. We kept animals until they expired, too. Vet always said we ran a retirement/nursing home for animals. Not that he complained; we helped put his kids through college. ^^

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  4. That's 'late' shearing. When does winter arrive? Only 29 more buckets to go. Get pickin'....:0)

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  5. About three more months until Winter (geez that sounds depressing). If she survives that long, April might need a coat. I did have one on her years ago. For some reason the chickens were pecking out her wool, and her whole back end was naked. (no, she didn't have lice). The hens were eating the wool. Weird. Anyway, during a particularily cold spell I had to put a coat on April. I made it out of an old wool blanket. It seemed appropriate:)

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  6. Good thing you have a coat for her..she does look thin. You have had her a good long time:)

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