The Sheep Are Shorn

We got it done this morning - thank goodness! Last night we drove them to a friend's (Don and Margaret) place - they have a shearing shed and live about 1.5kms from us. So with the help of Nolan and his dog, Meg, plus bodies on bikes to stop them from veering into driveways, the little flock scurried along, and were shedded up for the night. About 8:00am this morning, young Danny from Feilding, arrived with his gear and the lambs were shorn first - not that there's a lot of wool on their backs, but the summer will be easier to bear.
Here's Alice awaiting her turn - she's our favourite. She comes when she's called and just loves to find bread or nuts in your pocket. She has twins and her wool is a grey/cream colour.
Here is Coco being shorn, she is our 'black' Romney - although her wool is very light brown on top now.
I have kept only Alice's, Coco's and Rosie's fleeces. These I will get washed and carded and eventually spin the wool - I will probably ply Coco's with a brown alpaca fleece I have.
While we were there, Don and Margaret had a baby Alpaca (cria) born. Here is the little sweetie (female) at 1 hour old.
After the sheep were drenched (all purpose worm) we 'drove' them home again - funny how they remembered and were keen to get back into their own paddock.
That's a great job done, but we won't get much for the wool because prices are down from last year :-(

Rosie is With the Flock

Rosie was becoming very much like a pet lamb - demanding, yet stand-offish. On Friday I tried enticing her with nuts to cross the little stream, through the paddock with my yearling bull named Biscuit, and up into the top paddock with the other sheep and lambs. But no. She wasn't going to get her feet wet! So, I had to wait until Sarah was home yesterday. This time Sarah did the enticing and I came in behind to encourage!
At last success! Rosie performed the hogget's Swan Lake - leapt the stream and ran jumping and baa-ing to the next fenceline. Oh, did I wish I had the video camera, it was a sight to behold.
Now to get into the next paddock! Alice decided that she was going to visit greener pastures (they aren't) so she was through the gate in a shot, lambs right behind. Introductions all round between Alice, Rosie and the twins - a butting of heads, leaping, almost a clicking of heels, I'm sure! Some of the flock wanted to see what all the excitement was about, and came running. Poor Sarah, there she was, acting like a Heading dog, rounding up ewes, lambs and Rosie. What a fantastic job she did too!
Rosie introduced herself to all the lambs - no baa-ing here - a head butt to let them know that she was boss!
Friday night, Derrick and I had to bury the ewe that had still-born twins. Fortunately the ground is not rock hard and he has great experience in digging holes, because this was a big hole to dig! We are now down to 10 ewes, 1 ram, 2 ewe hoggets and 13 lambs - still 2 ewes to produce yet.