Our Sheep Are Naked!

Alix taking the wool off a ewe

3 grown men vs. ram

 Here are some of our photos from shearing yesterday. It was such a wonderful day for it and not too many bugs. Of course the sheep now look really slim and bony without their thick winter coats.

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Tyrone our Cotswold Ram before his trim

It never fails. No matter how late we shear the sheep we're almost guaranteed a cool night or a wet one and last night was no exception with temperatures getting down to the freezing mark. Seems to be Murphy's Law. But they're sure happy to be able to scratch their skin and not be so hot in the afternoons. The lambs did look at them a little strangely though and Tyrone our ram decided it was a good time to try courting these new ladies which was less than acceptable to the girls, lol. They didn't take long to all calm down again though so everyone's happy. Although it was down to the freezing mark overnight it dawned sunny very early and it's already in the low teens now at 10am. so it's a perfect day for gardening. I plan on getting out there in a half hour once the dishes are washed. A couple of the kids are home today so I have some extra slave labour.

Tomorrow is another big day in our family. Jordan turns 16 so he'll be able to learn to drive and start dating if he wants to. I think that tonight we'll have a BBQ and cake because Steve will be home and then we'll let Jordan decide if he wants to do anything on the weekend with his friends. So we'll have 3 boys at home all able to drive soon. Scary!

I spent a good amount of time with my companion planting charts designing our vegetable rows for this year and I think I've got it all done now. So all that remains is to get planting. I've got to get my peas and beans in but I think it's still too cold for corn. I might try it and see how it goes though over a small area. If it doesn't sprout then I can just re-plant. But corn and beans really don't like cool soil. Cabbages, lettuce and peas of course like cooler weather so they're good. A garden always involves quite a lot of planning because so many factors affect them. Temperature, light requirements, and maturity dates. It really is worthwhile taking some time to plan your years growing and including your different successions as the seasons change. It helps with knowing when to start transplants and what plants will shade others in hot weather, which ones will take a lot of water and which will take a lot of fertility or put nitrogen back into the soil. Anything that helps you out is a blessing.

So now you know what we're doing this week I have to get going and get to work. Have a wonderful day!