Getting Stitched on the Farm

Animal Anarchy

It has been a bit nuts here to say the least. Kevin Ford sheared for three days last week finally finishing the last sheep Saturday morning. While shearing is going on, it is chaos. The sheep have to be penned up and kept dry without food and water before they are shorn. They aren’t happy and they are very noisy. After each one’s turn, Mark takes the sheep from Kevin and pushes it through the gate to let it loose to find its other friends. Our fencing system becomes discombobulated because we don’t have enough lengths of fence to hold every one in different spots. By Saturday afternoon, it was bedlum. The goats were loose and enjoying my vegetable and flower garden, the bottle lambs decided they should come back in the house to visit where they grew up and Jeremy the guard llama decided he should visit the neighbors. When John called to tell me Jeremy was in his wife Joann’s flower garden, I told him “I’ll be right there as soon as I get this lamb out of the house.” And I wasn’t lying. I dragged the now grown and shorn bottle lamb out the door (that's her in the photo), cleaned up the pee and the poo, and Julia and I ran up the street to lure Jeremy back home with a pail of sweet feed. When lured, a llama can run very fast. He’s a little scary looking.

By Sunday evening, the animals were back in order. I like to keep my doors open in the summer to catch the breeze. I don’t have screen doors yet – I guess I probably should put that on the wish list.