Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad Boys

Tuesday we finished shearing the flock.  The last group to be done were some older unbred ewes,  a few ewe lambs we retained from last year and The Boys - rams and wethers. 

The girls took it with good graces for the most part.  Daffodil is 10 this year and quickly resigned herself to the inevitable.  Although getting older she still puts out a nice fleece.

Ugh.  Just hurry up.

The boys were a different story.   The Cotswolds especially were bad, bad, bad, bad boys.  (Apologies to Miami Sound Machine).  There are no pictures of the guys getting shorn.   Rams never want to feel like they are vulnerable so they fight like crazy to get their feet back under themselves.  Fiddling around with a camera was out of the question as all hands were needed to pin them down.  They are just so large that it's impossible to hold them between your knees and bend over them to reach toward their butts on the floor.  As soon as they sensed that your grip was less than 100% they were squirming and flopping like fish on dry land.    Brian was able to get their bellies shorn clean, do heads and open up the neck and then we had to lay them down to shear one side then roll them totally over on their backs to the other side and shear that side.  Meanwhile one of us held their heads down and the other one kept hind legs from flailing and doing the shearer any damage.  We finally got everyone done with no blood letting or major bruises but we didn't break any speed records doing it.  Later we gave the rams their vaccinations too, so spring flock maintenance is done....except for hoof trimming.  And replacing a couple of lost ear tags.  And washing coats of course, and putting them back on the sheep not going to have lambs. 

But I'm going to say I'm done, for at least 24 hours.  Wow, that feels good!