The Half-hearted Homesteader

The weather’s turning warm, finally. I thought I would have to do this earlier but it has been so cool in the last few weeks that Lucy the ewe has been fine with her heavy fleece. Except, perhaps, that she takes frequent shade breaks from grazing in her shelter on sunny days. But the nights have been cool. So much so that I’ve lost a bunch of tomato plants to the cold, I think. Either that or the hoop house is too hot. Probably both.

But now that the weather is taking a turn, that fleece had to come off. This week was looking very busy, what with getting ready for the mulling spice season and (finally) launching our sail boat Bon Vivant, that I came home from work, and Katy went out, so I fed the kids and took my new Sheffield Steel shears out the the paddock, along with a copy of Storey’s Guide To Sheep which has a promising twenty-step description of how to shear a sheep, and I went at it.

Before I started I gave Conrad the camera with instructions to take a few shots of me and Lucy. Below is the results. He got bored after a few shots and went off to climb a tree. Gemma, who can’t get out of the paddock without help, took over the job of photographing. 

Upshot:  half an hour later, one short-haired sheep with no blood. Amazing.

  

This is the point at which Conrad got bored. Notice his penchant for close up, all action shots. Preferably with my head missing. Gemma has a slightly different, but no less individual style. See below:

This one’s rather beautiful, almost lyrical wispiness.

Out of focus ass-shot

This one really conveys some of what I was experiencing

  Prancer looking sheepishly for a suck

are we done?

I took the last couple of shots. Gemma got bored too and I was left to document my own handiwork. A bit messy, perhaps, and not as short as it could be, but I was afraid of cutting her, which apparently is very easy, and they bleed alot. Also, I have to say, I wasn’t very impressed with the Sheffield Steel Shears. They had a tough time with some of Lucy’s wool, which was, admittedly, matted with all sorts of stuff. On reflection its not as smooth a cut as it could have been, but it will be effective. She’ll be cooler, and less likelihood of maggots.