Monday, March 26, 2007

Coated cuties

I have to admit that deciding to coat my girls was an aesthetic sacrifice, for I LOVE looking at my Shetlands in all their fleecy splendor. But it's no sacrifice to coat them right after shearing, because that is when they look their, well, most odd. (If I could find the time to do some clean-up trimming, they would look less like aliens....) Here they are on Sunday morning, wearing their Rocky Sheep Suits. (Can you see how soiled Bella's is already, after only two days?)
They were quite amusing when turned out to pasture for the first time after being sheared and coated. As they jumped and bucked, it dawned on me that they were acting less like frolicking sheep and more like young horses just saddled and girthed for the first time. I do think they were trying to rid themselves of their wraps!

Yesterday we worked on finishing the fence in the bottom lot, which is basically a patch of woodland. Don't know yet if we will use it for sheep or horses; there is a lot of fern to dig up before we can use it for the girls. In addition to the wildflowers (from top to bottom, below: Oregon grape, a close-up of an unidentified little blossom, and the native maple's flowers), we saw quite a bit of poison oak. (It's coming back after the previous property owner's goats cleaned it out; I hope the sheep will do the same.) After working around it I washed all our clothes and we scrubbed up good in the shower; so far, no one has a rash.


That's it for now at . . .

2 comments:

Tammy said...

Hi Michelle,
There is no poison ivy left around here where the sheep have access to. They love the stuff. However you have to be really careful not to give sheep hugs after they've been eating it---it will guareentee you a nasty case of posion ivy! :-) I think you know how I know that! ;-)
Tammy

Kathy said...

When I was a kid, I always used to get poison oak/sumac/ivy on the palms of my hands. We finally figured out that my dad's setter would run through the woods picking up the oils, then I pet the dog...well, you get the rest. Just be careful, like Tammy says. :)
The girls look great in their suits. I took Colin's off today as his was causing a nasty wear on the inside of one back leg. Poor guy! I will have to get him into a "C". I took Skit's off too, as his was just too tight on him. Oh, well! :)