Hej ovine fans!

It has been a while, but finally I have returned. It took me a lot less time to get over my ear infection than it took the old bearded guy to fix his foot. But I have not been idle. Rather, I have been busy with a very big literary project. I am not quite ready to spill the beans in that regard but there will be some big news in the near future.

Right now I figured that I had better get everyone caught up on the current state of the flock, because lots has been going on and there is more to come. First off, we all got sheared just a while ago. This is a picture of me, taken by Queso, the flock photographer. This is what I looked like just before I was sheared.

I must admit that I was looking pretty good there, but am I ever glad to get rid of all this wool. The weather is already starting to get warmer and it will be nice to be comfortable! It took just under two days for the shearer and the crew to get all of us clipped up nicely. I waited until close to the end for my turn. This is just the beginning of “good bye fleece”.

Once I graciously parted with my wool, the nicely lady and her friend, MJ, did a good job of skirting it so that only the best parts remained. The nice lady has been spending a lot of time ever since shearing doing further skirtings on all of our fleeces. She tells me that she hopes to have them all ready to sell in about a month. I hope she can keep up with that pace because she is going to be busy with other things very soon!

The old shepherd guy’s brother was here to help with shearing. He is the one who set Queso up with her camera. He took this picture of Queso for her, before she was sheared. Obviously she was in no position to take any pictures at that moment. He even managed to get a picture of her with the old grumpy shepherd guy (he was starting to look pretty tired by then!)

That is him, with the dirty red hat; Queso is the one who could hardly see at that point (a bit of a problem for a photographer!). She is now looking quite chic.

Life is about to get even busier in the barn. The pregnant girls are nearing the end of their five months. There are quite a few of them who are due in just a couple of days. This is my first year for being on holiday. It is kind of nice just standing back and watching all the action without being a major part of the craziness. Today the shepherds re-installed the baby monitor so that they can listen in on us. (We have to be a bit more circumspect with what we say as we never know who may be listening in on us. For all I know the neighbors may be picking us up on their TV or radio.) The shepherd also set up the first couple of pens for the new moms (they call them “jugs”).

I really doubt that the old shepherd guy will get the job done spreading the news. In case he does not, Queso and I will make sure that the world gets regular updates as the lambs arrive. That’s it for now!