Shearing in July

After scheduling issues, and cancellations due to rain, we finally got Shearing Part Two underway. I'm reminded of my recent All's Well That Ends Well proclamation. One of my fired men tied one on Friday night and couldn't make it. Loren arrived suffering from the same problem but still functioning. I forgot to lock the sheep up the night before and they were spread all over the hillside. Got the sheep in and got the wormers and meds organized and thought I was doing okay, then Jim arrived at 8:45 instead of the anticipated 9:30. The sheep would not cooperate with being herded into a small space and the situation was tense. Shearers like to be fed a steady stream of sheep to work on, understandably, and I was not complying. I heard a door slam and there they were - Kim, Darryl and Kiddies read online that I was planning on shearing today and decided to "take a ride." Kim and Darryl were great. You can't have too many pairs of hands on shearing day. Matt, Darryl and Loren collected the sheep and goats, Loren held the critters while I did hooves, shots and worming, Kim scooped up the fiber from the platform and swept it off, and we had a well-oiled machine going. By two o'clock we had it licked. One ewe was left unshorned after she "fainted" from being run around in the heat by Loren, only to jump up and run off after we decided not to bother her with shearing. All in all the day was a success. I made my wonderful, faithful, dearest friends a pork chop-sausage-barbecue ribs dinner and said a grateful goodbye. The wrap-up meeting of the Bouckville Fiber Festival was Saturday night and I had to connect with my sheep friends in Pompey, an hour away.