Last Saturday our longtime sheep shearer—who thankfully hasn't retired yet—arrived at the farm about 9am and sheared 33 of our 42 sheep, 20 of whom are pregnant. Lambing season will start around the first of March, and you can learn why we now shear the sheep before lambing season here.
Ten-year-old Silly, the oldest member of our flock (all my really old pet sheep have died), didn't need the stress of being sheared in the middle of winter (we'll shear her ourselves in a few months), and the other eight are Katahdin hair sheep, which don't need to be sheared. You can read more about how and why we added Katahdins to our flock four years ago here.
The shearer left about four hours later with payment of $6 per sheep, plus a tip and half a batch of Nigella's big chocolate chip cookies. Despite this being the earliest we've ever sheared (we were his first sheep of the year!), we lucked out and only had to reschedule once. We'd planned to shear Friday, but the sheep weren't dry from Wednesday's rain, and you can't shear wet sheep.
Lots more below. . .
