All cry and no wool

 
At about this time of year, it`s time to shear our sheep, to transform them from balls of fluff, like Toto in the top pic, into slim, greyhound-like animals.... It`s a major task for us and we undertake it at a rate of one sheep per day. we have a set of proper electric clippers, given to us by a family who had retired from sheepkeeping although for the first year or so we used Kim`s dressmaking scissors.
   First, you have to catch your sheep. Luckily, ours are fairly tame and wear dog-collars, unusual in sheep circles. you offer them some grain in their usual pan and make a sudden grab. They soon become wary, though...As you can see from the shot of Kim dealing with Rosie, you then attach a lead to the collar and set to. My contribution is to hold the sheep still, not so easy as it sounds. Rosie and Toto have horns which act as convenient handles, Segoline, the matriarch, is hornless but of a more docile nature. Professional shearers upend the sheep onto its bum, we have never succeeded in this. Nevertheless, the sheep is gradually relieved of its fleece with the shearers, which are like a heavy electric clipper for humans, final tidying up and cutting round `ticklish bits` being carried out by the scissors. Finally, the animals are transformed into the slimline creatures in my later pics.  

  Indeed,Rosie`s transformation seemed to arouse feelings in Toto, the ram, which you would have thought safely suppressed by his castration a few years ago. He began to chase her `nude` form round and round the field, though what he would have done if he caught her remains problematical... On the other hand, when he was stripped in his turn, the two ewes looked at him with surprise and scorn, transformed from a lusty Rastafarian to a replica Labrador in a single morning!

  The shorn-off wool we just throw out, its full of grease, and not easy to transform into garments. If anyone fancies trying, let us know by next year, you would be welcome to it! we did try putting it on the veg plot, we were told it would rot down--it didn`t, just clogged the Rotivator blades...

  Bye for now, lunch-time...