Fleeced again

[altivo]

But before you say "Aww, the poor sheep" I'll add that they are always much happier once it's over. It only takes Tom, our shearer, about four minutes per sheep to clip them down and trim their hooves. Most of the time spent on the process goes to setting up his equipment, dragging the sheep to him one by one, and breaking down afterward. At least this year the day we'd arranged turned out to be cool instead of 90F, which made it all much easier. And in spite of that, I feel exhausted, but that's probably lingering effects if this nasty virus, too.

Gary is off to a performance up in Wisconsin and won't be back until late. I'm here alone with only the dogs for company in the house. Horses and sheep are all bedded down and shut in since more severe thunderstorms seem likely later tonight. Now I need to go put my clothes in the washer, because they're all covered with sheep grease. Really. Our sheep have a significant percentage of Merino bloodlines, and Merinos may make fine wool but they are slippery as a proverbial greased swine.

Oh, yeah. I saw a huge rabbit outside the library windows this morning. It was about 8:40, just after I got there, and I was pulling interlibrary loan requests when I noticed the movement out in the park. I thought it looked like a rabbit and of course he froze when I looked directly at him, but I spotted him under a bush about 100 feet from the window. After a minute or two he took off again and headed right toward me. Big bunny, not a wild cottontail. About the size of a New Zealand, and solid chocolate brown, so surely an escaped pet from somewhere. He seemed right at home out there in the park, though, and is certainly big enough to stand up to most stray dogs and cats. I'll have to watch for him now.

Comments

[avon_deer]

Do you get much cash for the fleeces?

[altivo]

If I sell them, I usually just break even on the cost of shearing, which is about $12-15 for each sheep. I use some myself, of course.

This is more a hobby operation and was never intended to actually produce income. There have been a couple of years where I had buyers for the entire lot, but we actually have more wool stored up now than I will ever use.

[casey382]

Darn, missed it this year. You know I'm willing to help.

[altivo]

Yes, and I would have asked for help but we had very short notice on when Tom was coming this year. He tried for a Saturday in May, but it wasn't possible for us due to Gary's performance schedule. He called on Tuesday to ask about Thursday this week, and since it was getting so hot, we agreed. I normally have Thursday afternoon off and he was going to get here between one and two. He actually arrived at 12:30 and when I got home from work he and Gary were already at it by themselves and had two sheep done.

Thanks for the offer, though. I appreciate it and won't forget. It was good having some extra hands last year.