Shearing, YAY!

Well, over the past weekend we sheared our little sheep. It wasn't as bad as we were afraid it would be. Last year we used 'Hand Shears', the big Scissors! UHG. The sheep freaked out, we nicked Gilli once or twice, and they bled for a couple minutes, and it took DAYS to get half of her sheared before we gave up because she was getting wilder and wilder and I assume it was because we were stressed, having nicked her and causing her to bleed. That was one of the more awful things.. eew.

So this year we opted to buy our own set of "Clippers", the electric shears that are the same concept as Barber clippers or something. Since I grew up with dogs ALL around, I got to be pretty good with clippers so I was pretty confident in my abilities to shear a sheep with a set! And Jon is good at most whatever he sets his mind to, so no worries! Although they look pretty mean, I had thought. But as I'm showing Mom (whose taking the pic) the points are actually dull and just act as a 'spreader' to help the wool feed through the blade easier.. so they're actually very safe.

First we got the into the old barn, set up with water and hay to calm them down (the dogs ran them a little harder then I would have liked--still working on that!). We set up and got to work and soon found that with Jon's hurt knee, and their small size, it was going to be difficult to 'set them down' the way you would a larger sheep to do the shearing (pro shearers set sheep on their tails and sort of shift them and scoot them around with their legs and feet). So we decided to try whatever was comfy for us and the sheep. You'll see in some of the pics that the sheep are laying on their sides, backs, or standing with their head held or put between the knees. All these positions seemed alot more stable and relaxing then when we tried to 'set them down'.. they really seemed to get agitated when we put them on their tails and with the size it really wasn't working at all.
Here's Gilli.. talk about wide.














We had meant to shear ON the tarp, but as you can see, it didn't work out that way.. here's to picking straw/hay out of the wool!








I get the feeling that Jack isn't impressed with us at this point! ^



I didn't get any good shots of Gilli during shearing other then this one... isn't her wool great looking! It's so soft and white, I just want to crawl into a pile and nap! :)


And here we go, almost done! Still needs cleaned up, but I think at this point the 'tagging' as Dad calls it, is done. That's where you clip their 'nether parts', eeww... that was not fun.. it was the only bit I didn't like.


YAY! We're going to have a baby~! (she's 'bagged up')










Celebratory smooch!








And here they are, all done! (Calling for the Goats, whom they've become quite attached to).

BTW With these clippers, I nicked one of them (I forget which tho) just a tad, a spot on a neck fold that was about the size of a pimple (just a little pink dot) so I'm VERY pleased!! No actual CUTS, no blood, nothing negative. YES! And of course, smarty pants Jon didn't nick anyone :op