Time for a haircut

It's shearing day at Marietta Shetlands.  Five down and five to go. 

Well, what happened to the weekend and Ta Da - the "lost post #1000!"

Miss Frostiana - isn't she lovely?

 This post was supposed to happen back in February - you know, right after we sheared - right when The Shepherd started getting sick...

So we have double duty tonight - first - the Shepherd Update.  I can't figure out why I didn't post last night - I think it might be that I did an update to my Church email list and then, just slipped through my mind.  Not much has changed - they have been steadily dropping the liters per minute for the Oxygen - tonight (Sunday) when I left he was down to 7 lpm. and his "saturation rate was staying above 90 even getting up to 100% -  That is good - very good.

Micah, our Ace Shearer and barn helper

What wasn't so good was he tried taking a shower this a.m. without the oxygen and got a little panicky when he had some breathing difficulties. Once they put him back on the O2, he recovered very quickly, so I think that it will not be long before he can get along without it.  They said that he had to be down to 5 liters per minute before he could come home (on oxygen) - So maybe Tuesday or Wednesday - hope above hope...  We'll just have to wait and see, I guess. 

Emily throws those ewes around like a pro! 

These pictures were taken back on Feb 26. We met Micah through our friend Janet Maricle who is a 4-H leader and a Shepherdess of a beautiful, price winning, flock of Dorsets.  She recommended Micah to help John with some tasks, like worming, moving the ewes after they had been bred and she also mentioned that Micah and his sister Emily have both taken the WSU (Washington State University) shearing class.  After meeting him and seeing how he worked with the sheep, The Shepherd decided to take a chance and have them do our shearing this year.  They just did a fantastic job.  Because of school commitments and weather, we decided to do shearing on Friday evening - and we did it right in the barn for the first time.  Worked like a charm.  The Shepherd put a 150 watt bulb in the one light in the barn and it worked pretty good - (I think that we could have used another light on the other side of the barn - hopefully we won't be doing it at night again)

 The shearing went really smoothly - the kids sort of tag teamed - switching on and off - very few nicks on the sheep - one cut toenail, that they sprayed the heck out of with that purple stuff (should have put some spider web on it - bled like crazy)  Only one was hard to shear at all and that was Garnet - I think though, that she might have been coming on to the rise - Micah said that her wool was just "sticky"  (Shetland sheep, if left to nature, naturally shed their fleeces, called "rooing" and if you are trying to shear into the rise, well, it's just "sticky" 

Garnet being Miss Nosey

And luckily, unlike in years past, it didn't snow the day afterwards - although it did turn pretty darn cold and rainy.

Both Donna and Vanessa are showing baby bumps.  I don't think they are due until the middle of April though, so The Shepherd is going to have a couple of weeks to get better before the Blessed Event happens because you know he'll want to be out there snooopervising.  

Nekked girls - good haircuts, don'tch think?

It was a good shearing - Micah & Emily can shear for us again anytime -


So I have some observations on the past week:

~ The people who work at our local hospital, St. Joseph's, Peace Health Medical, are just fantastic.  Everyone has been so friendly and helpful.  I can't say enough about how nice they have been.

~ Sometimes you just have to depend on the kindness of strangers.  But the kindness of neighbors and friends can't be overlooked.  I have had so many offers of help, it has been really gratifying.  This has really made me step up to the plate and quite frankly has helped me get a little bit healthier.  I can certainly walk a lot farther than I could a week ago.  I can't remember if I mentioned in any of my updates that after nearly loosing my balance and falling over in the wind storm that we had last Sunday night, I determined that I would be safer to use my walker to get from the car to the hospital (about a block -maybe not quite that far, but it seems that way...) People are very willing to help you when you are using a walker - it is very sweet actually.

~  I'd like to mention, if you have a friend who is caring for a loved one, or has someone in the hospital, it is nice of you to say "let me know if you need anything"  - but here is what you might say:  "Can I go to the grocery store for you - give me a list of what you need" ;  "Can I bring you lunch at work" or, "What would you like for dinner, my treat".  Because I had been on the "sickly side" the whole time The Shepherd was getting worse and worse, things had kind of slid (worse than the normal slide) and I had 4 big loads of laundry to do - of course it had been raining cats and dogs, so I didn't dare do it at home - (drain-field issues) Our friend Nancy helped me take it to the laundromat - just the assistance of helping carry the laundry bags in, sitting and chatting while it washed and dried, then help with the folding when it was all done - that was enormous.

Sometimes it feels like there are too many balls in the air - juggling hospital, work, home, sheep.  Yes, I have hope above hope that he gets to come home this week.  Then I can at least take one of those balls out of the mix...

The "fruits of his labors" 

Ok, fellow spinners - doesn't Frostiana's wool (second from left on top) just make you drool - look at the beautiful crimp on that baby.  And it is snow white.  Lilah is the youngest of the six and her wool is the longest - I think it is probably about 8 or 9 inches long - I should go measure it.  One or two of them are pre-sold - the rest will go up for sale at the Wonderful Woolies Farm sale on April 9.

So there it is - Post #1000 - Michelle you won the "contest" - I'll be in touch about that lovely alpaca :-) 

Oh, and PS - Happy first day of Spring!!

It's Caturday!!!

Hello Effurrybody and effurrykitty!

It's me, Bella and I get to do the Caturday report this week!  It's almost St. Patrick's Day, so Mummy decorated me with this very cool hat & green ribbon.

And for all those who've been waiting, yes, the sheepies got their furs all cut off this week. 

 

The shearer guy's name is Dan Riley and he came up from Arlington (about an hour's drive to the south) on Thursday and sheared our sheep and our friend Nancy G's sheep.

Mummy seemed to think he did a pretty good job. 

He had good control of those squirmy things and didn't make any cuts or nicks on them.

And Mummy said she didn't see any second cuts - what ever that means...

This fluffy goodness looked very appealing to me, but The Shepherd shooed me away. 

I thought it would be great fun to jump in the middle of that puddle-o-wool and just roll around.  He didn't think so at all. 

It always amazes me the different colors that come off of the sheepies. 

This one was The Shepherd's favorite, I think. 

And see - they look pretty skinny and geeky, don't you think. 

They got all freaked out when Mummy tried to go into the barn, and ran out into the rain.  Silly things.


Mummy took a movie of the shearer guy at work for all of our friends who don't have sheep of their own - but the ebil blogger would not let her down load it today. She'll try again next week.

 

Now  that the guy with the scissors is gone, I can lay back and relax - I didn't want to add my pretty furs to those big piles, so I kept far away from him.  Hope you had a nice weekend.  See ya next week! 

Hey Everyone it's Caturday!

Hello everybody and everykitty!

It has been an exciting week here on the farm - The man with the clippers came and now all the sheeps are "nekked" - as in without their sheeps furs!

Brrrr - it's a cold week to do that Mr. Shepherd

Anyhow, I'm sitting up here out of the way of the vishus sheeps and the man with the clippers - I wouldn't like to have him get any ideas...although The Shepherd said something about Bella needing a haircut...


The guy with the clippers (Mummy said he's actually called a "Shearer") name is Zander. This is the second year that he's cut our sheeps furs and The Shepherd seemed pretty happy with how things came out.

They always do the boy sheeps first - (they are the most vishus you know) and besides that, Vern, (the big guy) has handles. He was very well behaved this year and didn't squirm around much.








Mummy sat outside in a yard chair and watched and took pictures - it took two hours - she got kind of cold.










After shearing off all the sheeps furs, they all got a pedicure. But no hot stones or pink nail polish. What good is a pedicure with no pink nail polish?

Mummy tried a new thing - she took a movie so you could see how it went -










Mummy here - Here are seven of the ten fleeces that we got this year - The shepherd was pretty pleased and so was Zander, as although we thought they were starting to "roo" (or shed) it didn't seem like he was shearing in the rise - the fleeces came off really easily. I think they will all be for sale, except the pretty brown one in the front.

Back to you Gracie -

Well - it's a good thing that Mummy took all these pictures for you, because the shearer man's clippers made so much noise I was scared away and went and took a nap on the big bed.

I don't know how much Mummy will post this week because she has a really bad hacky coughy snotty cold! She even spent the whole day at home in bed on Friday and I heard her say that hardly ever happens - Oh well, we just got a little more snuggle time in with her.

See ya next week! XOX Gracie

Shearing Day!

We had the sheep sheared last week.

It begins with an intricate dance of getting everyone into separate catch pens.

Vern & Galloway have to be "babysat" because Vern (the ram) occasionally takes umbrage to being shut up in a small pen with his brother -




"Maybe if I just twist it one more time...."










Thankfully The Shepherd did some halter training with Vern when he was younger, so he is very good about being on a lead, because that's were he went after his attempt at a jail break.

Our shearer, Zander, was due anytime between 11:30 and noon - so he had about 15 minutes on the lead.











While the girls and Wicket were all penned up in the barn

Keep these fluffy girls in your memory bank...











Vern, in a "look how handsome I am" pose.










He does have quite nice wool, don't you think? It is very soft for a ram fleece.

I think The Shepherd will be taking this to Black Sheep next summer.








Zander arrived right after noon and got straight down to business.

He had very good control of the sheep - even Vern didn't wiggle around. The Shepherd and I were speechless!

The fleeces came off in beautiful straight clips - I was concerned that they had started to "roo" (where the fleece of Shetland sheep comes off naturally with the warming of the spring weather - not all breeds of sheep will roo - mostly only the primitive breeds) Rooing makes it harder for the shearer to get a good clip and often the sheep will look like "lumpy Lizzies" afterwards because it is hard for the clippers to get through the fleece.





And here is Luna's baby bump....Not quite Natalie Portman, but it will do for us.















After each shearing the fleece is laid out and then folded and rolled.










Then they are all put on a tarp in the greenhouse to cool down.

The Shepherd has already skirted out Galloway and has started on Vern. Vern's fleece completely covers his 4 x 8 skirting table!








Everybody got pedicures and worming medicine.











Remember all those fluffy sheep from before? Well - here they are after their haircuts - trying to figure out who is who - there was quite a bit of head butting going on for a while.

The four "little girls" (our yearling ewes) were just that after shearing -little! Zander seemed very amused that he could just pick them up and tuck them under his arm to return them to the barn -

So, the temps were not as bitterly cold (in the teens and 20's that they were the week before - mostly hung out around 40-45 degrees - so The Shepherd took pity on the ladies and put the heat lamp on for them for a couple of days - it is supposed to get below freezing tonight, so I think he shut the barn door and turned it on tonight too.

Lambing is next - probably a couple or three weeks to go. "Christmas time" for The Shepherd.

Shearing - part two

The day dawned clear and a little chilly but NO RAIN - over night, or in sight. A perfect day for a shearing.



A shepherd is no different from any other farmer - tending his "crop" all year long - making sure the best is available - food, care, etc. But also planning years in advance - planning what ram to use, which ewe to breed - how the personalities of each sheep fits into the flock.




He also looks for the best tools to tend his flock - in this case The Shepherd and Marcia our shearer delux are discussing the new shepherd's crook that "Santa" brought this year. It prooved invaluable in catching a couple of the more skitterish little girls and I heard mutterings of "should have gotten one of these long ago..."







The "sweeper" in the picture above is our friend Margot. She brought her two children, William and Emily to watch the shearing. They were incredibly good and, altho they look just a teentsy bit bored in this picture, they asked some very good questions and it was reported later that they actually had a great time.







Moni's fleece is jet black - no white threads at all save a "leetle bitty white spot" on her neck. We'll just skirt that bit out, don't you think?









We had very high hopes of taking Luna's fleece to the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene this next summer, but what is that old adage - something about pride going before the fall? A marauding neighborhood cat (we are POSITIVE it was neither Neelix or Sinda) got into the greenhouse in the night before it could be bagged up and sprayed on it! The Shepherd was just sick. It will, of course be okay to process, as the dratted pee will come out - but any hope of this being a blue ribbon fleece went out the window.




So, here is this year's harvest - actually I think there were two more fleeces on the potting bench, but it's on the other side of the greenhouse and my camera doesn't take panoramic pictures...

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of our farm life. Now that I am spinning more, I look at the fleeces with a more propriatory nature - but, they belong to The Shepherd. Hopefully he'll share one or two of them with me this year. (Like Arlo's and Moni's and Luna's and .......)