Sunday, March 04, 2007

Shearing Day

Shearing day & Sunday to boot - maybe we should have something special - since we have about 35 # of pumpkin in the freezer, all in nice tidy little one # packages, I remembered a recipe that I saw on Farmgirl Fare for "Spicy Pumpkin Pecan Raisin Muffins", so in my spare time this a.m. between feeding the sheep and feeding my excited husband, I whipped up a batch. Now, I don't make muffins very often, don't have the "touch" I guess - but these were really easy (and really good too!) and they made a lot! I actually have one of those silicone muffin pans that makes six BIG muffins - (and that is the only muffin pan that I own, so I put the other half of the batter in my bundt pan - worked like a charm!) (http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/2005/11/spicy-pumpkin-pecan-raisin-muffins.html

However, I digress! This was about naked sheep (I was actually going to title my post "Naked Ladies" but I thought that might get me some visitors that I didn't really want LOL)

Our wonderful shearer, Marsha, showed up right on the dot of 11:00 a.m. John was so excited he could hardly stand it - he's only been outside the house three times since Valentines day, and two of those times was on a stretcher into an ambulance!
Marsha starts out each sheep by checking feet & cutting their toenails. She's very organized and does such a good job - everyone got a nice haircut this year.









She was also very sweet and brought each ewe over for John to snuggle.
Now we have five more lumpits of wool - oops, you can see last year's lumpits stored in the corner of the greenhouse.
All in all, it was a great day, but very tiring for John. He pretty much slept the afternoon and woke up only for dinner. I went to the store, fixed dinner, ran a load of dishes, talked to my friend Kathy at Sheep Thrills Farm for almost an HOUR (thank you Kathy!) updated you and now I'm off to watch Brothers & Sisters - one of my favorite TV shows! More later this week - I'll show you pictures of Wednesday's snow - I actually caught pics of snowflakes - Cool!
Later, T.

4 comments:

Kathy said...

Thank you, Tina! I really enjoyed our "chat". That's what friends are for. :)
From the pictures, your shearer does a wonderful job! Now you've just got to get busy and start spinning those fleeces up, right? Soon, you'll have enough of each color to send them off for spinning and weaving into the Shetland Tartan!
And it was so nice to see John out, getting some fresh air and getting sheep-therapy to boot.
I'll call you in a few days to see how YOU'RE doing.
Hugs....

Michelle said...

I'm jealous -- I didn't get to talk to Kathy. :-( But she probably wouldn't have been able to get ahold of me anyway, as we were finishing up our big sheep project (see blog).

The muffins look good; I have some pumpkin in the freezer, too. Maybe I'll make some for OUR shearer on the 22nd. Just talked to him about rescheduling because my horse pulled a shoe yesterday, but he doesn't have a big enough block of time for three horses and four sheep (he's our farrier) any sooner.

Look at all those nice fleece! Whatcha going to do with them? You could enter some in the Shepherd's Extravaganza; I am, for better or worse!

Rascal said...

What excellent fleeces! Now, all you need is for me to come over and sleep on each one for you. A fleece isn't properly christened until a Cat has slept on it.

vlb5757 said...

You are going to be spinning your little fingers to the bone. I have not gotten word about when I will go out to my friend's farm and shear. I am hoping to be off that day so I can help. Working sure cuts into my fun time! Looks like everything went well!