Saturday was shearing day here in Grafton. Jim McRae, the nicest shearer on the planet, leads a shearing school each year in Grafton. When he’s finished for the day, he heads up to our barn and shears our sheep too.
This year Bonnie needed a haircut. She was none too happy about the process, fussing, growling, spitting and all sorts of histrionics. Afterward, she felt much better. She must have known she looks a bit silly without hair, though, as she began making silly faces at us:
After Bonnie, it was the sheep’s turn. The sheep were even trickier at first. An enterprising whether torn down a rail, allowing several to escape. Then everyone made a break for it, requiring a bucket of grain and some serious running on a very hot day. We succeeded, however, and one by one the sheep were shorn. The rowdiest, Maxine, is on the right – she knows what’s coming:
Maxine is a big, gorgeous corriedale that does her best to slam me into walls and railings on a regular basis. My revenge? She gets shorn last!
That’s one big sheep! Everyone feels much better today. We have had an unusually warm few days. It has never hit 85-90 degrees when the sheep still had wool on them, but it did Saturday. As much as they protested, they all felt a whole lot better when all that wool came off. Now comes the hard part – finding time to process all the wool!
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