Sheep shearing

In a remote area of Maine, the Wakeman family maintains the traditions of island shepherding, the cycles of which have been largely unchanged for centuries.

Oh, Monday: A coupla weekends ago, I dug some dresses out of my closet that I had never worn. Some were holey, too summery or just a pinch too tight. I forced myself to try them all on and see if they should be sold, kept or donated. I always thought this one was too tight but a lil Spanx came to the rescue. dress: vintage, thrifted; brown tights: Target; sparkle fishnets: TJMaxx; booties and belt: Anthropologie Well, kids, I finally got my wish: I scored a Snow Day this past Friday! How…

Thursday and Friday of last week I spent several hours at Rising Meadow Farm in Grays Chapel, North Carolina, watching sheep being sheared during the farm's annual shearing weekend. It was a new experience for me, for while I was raised on a cattle farm and I am familiar with pigs and goats as well, I have never been around sheep and had never actually witnessed one being sheared. What made the experience even more fascinating was the folks doing the shearing were doing it with hand powered…

One of the wonderful things about the British countryside is that the public has free access to most of it. It means we can walk right through farms (try that in the US!) among the sheep and cows. As we walked between buildings on the public right-of-way through this sheep farm we were treated to a close up view of sheep shearing (notice the rolls of wool just outside the paddock). The sheep must have been pleased because it was a very warm day (by UK standards).

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Our sheep get their "annual haircuts" this Memorial Day weekend and OSV historians show the whole textile process – scouring and carding the wool, and spinning, knitting, and weaving. Sheep-shearing will be done throughout the weekend, and sheep herding demos are set for Sat. May 25. Details at www.osv.org. Do you know how much wool each OSV sheep produces? And why shearing sheep is good for farmers' hands?

Many shows around the country require market lambs to be shown in a fleece no longer than one-fourth inch and uniform in length over the entire body, with the exception of the lower legs (below the hocks and knees) and the top of the head and face, which may be longer. The main reason for…

Photo about old sheep shearing scissors isolated on a white background. Image of shearer, tool, background - 9359092

Aww, cripes. I didn't know I'd have to write a description. How many words is that so far, like a hundred? Soooo, yeah. Mildly interesting stuff....

Most know for his aerial landscape photos, "YAB" has been immortalized humans and animals