Spring in Full Force

Before...

My oh my, have I been busy this week. Because spring has been so late, now that the weather has broke I've been going non-stop! The goats are sheared, and one rabbit down. Tomorrow, hopefully I can get Grommit sheared and then start cleaning the barn of the winter pile up. Yay?

After!

I'm so proud! I sheared the goats almost all by myself, and got through the shearing nick free!!! No triple anti-biotic for anyone!! Usually someone gets it, including me. I don't know if I'm getting more comfortable, or if the girls are getting used to being sheared, I think the biggest factor is that they're growing into all that wrinkled skin. Angora goats have loose wrinkled skin and it just loves to wedge itself between the shearing blades. When you shear, you can't pull the shorn wool back or you'll stretch the skin up and go into their flesh. Instead you have to pull the skin taught and run the clippers flat. The hard part is that the wool wants to come off all in one piece, like a pelt, so you need one hand to shear, one hand to smooth the skin, and another hand to move the mohair out of the way. Maybe the reason shearing was so easy was because I grew that third hand this year. No wait, that's not it.