Monday, May 24, 2010

Sheep Shearing at the Ranch


Now that I have your attention with this adorable photo I took of "Sprite" the day she was born two years ago (she was a real cutie, wasn't she??), I want to tell you that there will be a couple of photos of horses at the end of this post.  But, Blue Fountain Farm (and photography) are so much more than horses.  Yes, horses are the biggest part of this ranch, but there are so many things going on around here on a day to day basis, it's hard to keep up with everything.  So, on with today's story........

My sister, Wendy, keeps several Shetland sheep (and their guard llama, "Joe Llama"), here to raise for their wool.  Once a year, she shears them so that she can spin the wool (yes, she spins it herself), and knit cool things with her home-grown wool.  This weekend, 2 of the 4 ewes  were ready to be shorn, so it became a family affair - Wendy, my other sister Becca, her daughter Delaney, (and Laura, one of Wendy's friends) did the shearing, and I did the photography.

The first up to be shorn was one of the original mamas, "Candy", who has been shorn many times.  It was fun to watch as the wool just kind of "peeled" off her pink skin in one big piece.

    




She was very calm and cool during the whole process, since she's had it done many times in her life.

Ever  heard the phrase, "A wolf in sheep's clothing"?.......


Louie in disguise

Next, it was "Sprite's turn - (remember how cute she was above?) - and she had a totally different take on the whole process.





"Help!  They're killing me!"

She was also very unhappy with how her haircut turned out ...........


I said "Not so much off the top!!"

Funny thing is, when you put the shorn sheep back with their family and friends, they don't recognize them for awhile, so not only do the poor sheep get stressed with the shearing, they then get chased around on top of that!



You look awfully familiar, but.............?


Uh-oh, he saw me!

Yikes!!


Just doing my job, ma'am!

Even "Candy", who had just been shorn first, decided she needed to chase Sprite around.............



Louie tired to offer solace................



And Lil Bea really couldn't have cared less, she just wanted peppermints.........



The sheep/goat/llama pen finally settled down, but I looked beyond that pen to the horse pastures, and realized that the horses had become excited by all the commotion due to the shearing, and it was feeding time as well.  Sax (the Paint), and Sol (the black dude) were trying to decide what to do with their excitement, so they challenged each other to a duel.........






It ended in a draw, since food came, and that's always more important than "fighting"!


I'll leave you today with one more "cute" photo of another one of the lambs that was born two years ago - and the thought that there's always something to do at Blue Fountain Farm!

  

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