shearing 2008

ok....i hang my head with shame that i didn't do this myself, but it was stressing the crap outta me that i wasn't getting around to it and the sheep were so wooly and hot so for the most part i'm just thrilled that its done AND i got some great video of sharon, my sheep mentor, shearing one of them. this will be super handy when next spring comes. she also gave me lots of usefull tips and tricks. i'm a lucky student.

so here's sharon, a bit of a legend 'round these parts. one of the few that still shears with hand shears. she's something like 70....maybe 72 by now? and still does all of her sheep, and she has a lot of them. and proper shearing is hard work, esp. hard on ones back and legs. a full grown ewe can weigh up to 130 to 150 lbs. sharon mentioned that she only weighs 120....and during shearing she's basically got to flip them on their side then sit them up and lean them against her legs, roll them over, sit them back up and roll the over again. it takes about an hour. i helped her out with the handling this time...apparently i have frighteningly giant, ridiculously well fed sheep....sigh.

she's got this bottle baby right now thats just to die for....seriously...
and heres one of her many super vicious guard dogs

so i went and picked the giant girls up yesterday. they're getting pretty good at the mini-van thing...and lo and behold the bounty of fleece i got this year,a good 10-13 pounds from each of them!

oh....the lambs will be here in a couple of weeks...eeee!