Very gross farm stuff ahead. The squeemish should stop reading now. No pictures…that would just be reader abuse.

Just spent the last hour outside with the sheep. I noticed Brio (Icelandic) was looking more unicorn than sheep. Closer inspection revealed that he had partially tore off one of his horns. Now he doesn’t have what most would consider ‘real’ horns. The Shetlands, Loki and Ash, have those nice curl around the face mountain sheep horns…but that’s only because we didn’t castrate them until after they had grown. The poor Icelandics were banded at a few days old, so Brio ended up with some pathetic, deformed, wonky nubs that are more nuisance than anything. They usually grow about two or three inches before he knocks the tips off, bleeds a little, and repeats the process a few times a year. Holstein is the same way. WHY the breeder did not go ahead and cauterize the nubs, I don’t know? (is that what they call it?…I don’t breed lambs) Anyway, I think it burns the horn stem so they won’t grown. Now I know that sounds abusive and painful…but you know, so does circumcision but we still do it to little boys. That said, knowing that Icelandics are a horned breed, and that castrating them as babies stunts their horns, she should have at least finished the job. If she had, then I wouldn’t have had to spend the rest of the night trying to forget the last hour.

This year, Brio’s horns grew a bit more than usual. About 6-8 inches long, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter at the base, and twisted around like some knarly tree root. And sometime over the past day or so he’s knocked one almost completely off at the base. It’s hanging by about 1/4″ of horn and a sizable chunk of skin (told you it would get nasty…stop reading now if you’re sensitive to this stuff) So, we chased him down and caught him. That wasn’t too hard, since he’s as fat as a barrel. The plan had been to just pour some peroxide on the wound and see if we could ‘encourage’ the rest of the horn to come off. No luck, it is still too attached to come off, but not connected to the horn stump on his head. Not good.

So, Jim poked around a bit and decided he could probably cut it off with some surgical scissors. He goes to the house. I stand there thinking, “OMG.” Brio, of course is looking at me and also thinking “OMG.” Long story short…it wasn’t going to be that easy. There was going to be a lot more blood than we were comfortable with, the flesh inside the horn is rotting so it reeks to all heaven…AND he still couldn’t get it off before he had to go stand in the paddock retching, getting light-headed and nearly passing out from the smell.

These are the times, when you really do think “What the hell am I doing this for?” “Why don’t I have a normal hobby…like scuba diving or making clocks.” This isn’t fun. This is an animal with an abscessed head, a puking husband, tons of flies and gnats, and I had no earthly idea of what to do next. It SUCKS!

The good news is that I don’t think he’s in any immediate danger. It isn’t infected, just disgusting. So tomorrow I’m going to call the vet. Maybe he has some sharper scissors (or a saw), some antibiotics, something protective to keep the flies off, and a stronger stomach than us. I don’t know what it’ll cost, but it doesn’t really matter. He’s mine to care for.

I have succumbed to peer pressure and joined Twitter. And for those who may not know exactly what that means…essentially it’s like a mini pictureless blog you can update in 140 characters or less. People can sign up to get updates (like RSS updates) of everything you post. Yes, it’s a bit ego-ccentric…but fun. You can see what all the fuss is about at http://twitter.com and my posts are at http://twitter.com/houndscroft

On the fiber front, here are pictures from last week’s sheep shearing. Check out how HUGE Holstein’s (one of our Icelandic sheep) fleece is all spread out!! Too cool. When I shear, the wool is all in little clumps. This is the first time I’ve ever had the fleeces all come off in one piece like a rug. It made skirting the wool really easy…still very dirty…but easier than I thought it would be.

For the past 3 years I have sheared my own sheep (with varying degrees of success). It’s hard work. The sun is always hot, the lanolin is sticky and since I am not a professional it takes FOREVER. After about 18 to 20 hours (spread over several weekends) I always have beautiful scissor clipped fleeces…but the sheep would look like they had been subjected to haircut by weed eater and I would have bruises, cuts and sore muscles all over my body. But not this year. Sometime back in November a nice guy called and offered to shear my sheep. At first I wasn’t sure, but after talking to him awhile, I thought “Why not. At least try it once.” So we made plans for this spring.

Well today was the day. Martin drove down from Indiana (about 70 miles one way) and arrived just after 9:00am. We already had the sheep in the barn, so after just 15 minutes of set up time he was already working on the first sheep. Jim and I stood by and put the fleeces in bags as he finished. By 11:30am he was done. By noon, he was gone and headed to another farm. He had an appointment to do another 18, and then a pair of llamas before heading back home. Amazing.

So here are the pictures. Despite their embarrassment at being on their backs, I think the sheep definitely prefer the neat 10 minute clip to my 2 hour hack job that leaves them looking like they have some molting disease. I know I definitely do! And they didn’t seem the least bit traumatized…as soon as they were released they had that “whatever” look on their face and within seconds were back to grazing.

Here is everyone waiting patiently in the barn.

Martin shearing Erec.

The gang all sheared and enjoying a nice afternoon breeze.

“I should know better.”

1. I just realized that I paid for my 2009 Selvedge subscription TWICE. Wrote a check in September, then forgot about it. Got a renewal email and paid by credit card. Got two receipts this month. Uh oh. Hopefully the nice folks over in London will forgive my stupidity and fix this…otherwise I will have to tell the husband my fiber magazines just cost more than the mortgage payment on our first house. Not good.

2. I totally underestimated the amount of hay three Wensleydale sheep can eat. It’s January. I only have enough hay to feed the flock until next month. That will still be 6-8 weeks before the grass starts growing around here. Will they starve? No. Will they start costing me a fortune in corn and sheep feed? Yes.

I love these! The ultimate in recycling. They may be old news in the art world since they have been around for awhile, but I still think they’re wonderful. He captured the poses perfectly.

Telephone Sheep by Jean-Luc Cornec. Made of telephones & telephone cable. On display at the Museum for Communications in Frankfurt Main, Germany.

“Granny Aching had been an expert on sheep, even though she called them ‘just bags of bones, eyeballs and teeth look’in for new ways to die.’ ”
–Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men