Shearing Day

Today is shearing day. I’ve arranged for the shearer to come out and shear Gary and give the girls a drench.

This morning went pretty well, I got the sheep into the pen without any problems. Over the past couple of weeks I have been feeding the sheep in the pen so that they would get used to it in there. I walked into the pen with the sheep behind me and they all came in and got their breakfast without a hitch.

Then I went on to feed the goats and the chickens. Still no problems.

Next, I had to go out to the sheep again to connect the power so that the shearer can power up his rig.

Hang on … only two sheep and one sheep bleating to be let back in!

Damn! So I have about half an hour before the shearer arrives and no way of getting the third sheep back into the pen by myself (I am just not very good at round up sheep, and the sheep know it).

Well … at least the sheep that needs to be sheared is in the pen, and one of the sheep can be drenched.

I’ll see how I go with getting Apricot into the pen before the shearer arrives … I don’t fancy my chances though, I expect that I will end up with three out and none in.

The shearer has come and gone now. Peaches got out of the pen before he arrived, so I ended up with just Gary in the pen. That was fine, he was the only one that needed shearing.

Now he is happily sheared again and ready for running around like a goose. He still has a dermatitis rash on his neck, but that’s something that I will need to treat with a cream. I’ll see how I go with that. Gary was very well behaved for the shearer.

For my money, get a local shearer around to shear your sheep, he was so good with the sheep and so knowledgeable about the animals. You really can’t do better than to support locals like this, and shearing is such an old and iconic skill.