Snapshots: DIY Shearing

Happy Mother's Day! Cubby made me an origami tulip.

Not for Mother's Day; just because he remembered I liked them.

The very nice but somewhat old shearer --he had to have been at least in his mid-70s, probably closer to 80--who came to shear our sheep last year has stopped returning phone calls. I have to think it's related to his age, and I can't blame him, but A. still had some seriously woolly sheep that really, really needed to be sheared.

So he bought electric shears and readied himself for the woolly battle.

He sheared a couple of sheep with non-electric hand shears when he got his first sheep many years ago, and he had a very frustrating experience with electric shears last year that completely failed because the machine failed. Maybe because these are a Merino breed, which has incredibly dense wool. Or maybe because the shears were garbage. In any case, he was apprehensive about trying again.

However, the sheep weren't getting any less woolly on their own, so he fired up his new shears on Friday and, with Cubby and Charlie's assistance, sheared some sheep.

First, the smaller helpers herded the sheep into the old hog pen in the pasture.

These sheep had no idea what was coming.

Here we go. Merinos, unlike most other breeds, have wool down over their faces, which makes for some tricky shearing around the eyes and ears.

Jasper parked himself right here, about two feet from the action, and was literally vibrating with excitement. Chill out, dog.

This first sheep took about an hour to shear, as A. figured out how to adjust his shears and shear more efficiently. The next one took about 45 minutes, and the last about 30 minutes.

He did two more on Saturday. He's bringing some sheep to auction, so he doesn't have to shear those.

In other news, Howard is back.

Hello, Howard.

We had a predator of some sort around last week that forced open the door of the rabbit casita. A. found Howard in there, torpid from eating baby rabbits. He had incriminatory white fur around his mouth. A. wasn't too upset about losing some rabbits--they do indeed breed as fast as you've heard rabbits will--so he just brought Howard over to show the children, and then let him go.

For last week's state testing treat, I made flour-less peanut butter cookies for Cubby's and Charlie's classes. I'm always pleased by how they spread out in such a symmetrically round shape.

Well, except for the egg-shaped one in the front there. There always has to be one rebel.

In addition to being flour-free, they only have five ingredients, are incredibly easy to make, and are delicious. Yay.

Poppy volunteered to be quality control. The cookies passed her rigorous examination.

And there you have it! My life, snapshotted.