Shearing Day

Ian did a great job shearing the sheep yesterday. I’m so grateful to have a reliable and experienced shearer.  He also trims their hooves.   The most sensitive part of the shearing is their bellies.  That’s where the shearing begins.

The shearer tucks the sheep’s head under his arm when shearing the belly as you can see in the picture of Kim above.  The older sheep, like Kim,  didn’t give Ian any trouble.

Asher was next in line. On Friday he started limping. When Ian trimmed Asher’s hooves he found a small abscess.  Ian cut it,  allowing it to drain.  Asher will limp around for a few more days, but he has already begun to heal.

Constance gave Ian the hardest time. She kept kicking and squirming.  But Ian just kept at it until she settled down. I’m not surprised it was Constance who was trouble.  She is a dominant sheep.

The sheep often don’t recognize each other after they are shorn.  Constance (who was the first to be shorn) and Merricat did some head-butting for a bit.  In the picture above Constance is smelling a hunk of shorn wool, no doubt recognizing the smell.  And Merricat is smelling Constance’s rear which is one of the ways they know other.

Sometimes when the sheep are being shorn they can look pretty strange, even as if they’re dead. But it’s just that they go dormant when they are on their backs.

Biddy lost a lot of weight over the winter.  She is the last of the Romneys we rescued in 2016 from a farmer who could no longer care for them.   I know she is old, but I don’t know how old.  She did look like she was having a hard time eating hay, but still has a good appetite.  I always made sure she got grain this winter, but now I will begin feeding it to her on a regular basis, at least until the grass comes up.

There’s a good chance that will fatten her up again.

Socks, along with Suzy is one of my original sheep. She is ten years old, is still in good health and is often at the gate baaing at me.  Her wool doesn’t grow as quickly anymore so I will continue shearing her only once a year. She is a Border Leicester and her wool mixed with Romney wool makes good yarn for knitting and crocheting.

Lori was shorn next.  Her Romney wool is long and beautiful this year.  The best it’s ever been. She’s a quiet and gentle sheep so I was surprised when she gave Ian a bit of a hard time.  She has a lot of lanolin in her wool, especially around her belly which makes it tougher to shear.  Ian said it was like shearing through oil.

After she was shorn she and Robin found each other and stayed together until it was Robin’s turn.

Bleached brown on the outside from the sun, Issachar’s wool is black close to his skin.  I loved stuffing all the wool into the plastic bags, feeling the softness and warmth of it as well as getting my hand soft with its lanolin and breathing in the smell.

Robin looks very different after shearing.  He has the lean body and long legs of a teenager.  And he jumped more than once as Ian tried to catch him to shear.

Ian said he appreciates how we have the sheep contained in a small area.  Sometimes he’ll go to a farm and the sheep are still out grazing and have to be herded into the barn.  But once the sheep see him they are less likely to come quietly if at all, even with the promise of grain.

Suzy was the last to be shorn.  She didn’t give Ian a bit of trouble.  But then Suzy is in many ways a wonderful sheep. Her wool is always long, soft, and clean.  She gave birth to Liam without any help or trouble and was an attentive mother.

She was so calm during shearing that Ian was able to sit down next to her (something he said he never does) to trim her hooves.