On March 15th the weather was glorious and we were able to shear not only the Shetland ewes that are normally with us, but also two groups of Dorset rams. In all, about 100 sheep were shorn. The whole operation was run by just four people, two people wrangling the sheep and getting them in to the chute and two people shearing. Everything is portable; the fencing, the chutes, the shearing platform, and all the tools were brought on site a day or two earlier and were gone shortly after the job was done. As much as we think of sheep as docile, they do not line up as obediently as 1st graders heading to lunch. It took a little wrangling to entice the sheep and rams to go in the chute and oftentimes they were picked up off the ground to be put in position. It’s very impressive to see. The operation was complicated just a bit by the new lambs who wanted to follow their moms in to the pen and who had to be briefly separated for a few minutes before being reunited.  You know there will be more on them later…