Elisa knew something was up... in the morning she kept her distance. A couple of times I tried to get close but even with a bucket of bread and some carrots she was very edgy. So Peter and I went for a walk in the forest had a cup of coffee and a sandwich and dscussed tactics. We agreed that curiosity always gets the better of them, so we decided to walk down to the lake (they love it down there, especially if we are around chopping wood or if the dogs are taking a swim) and sure enough they all followed. I sat on the grass and waited for Elisa to wander over. Which she did. And that was it. Peter took hold of her while I started clipping. Here, at the halfway "Mohican" stage, you can see how dark the "undercoat" is compared to the longer wool. Yesterday she was a shaggy brown ewe. Now she is back to black. She will be staying outdoors for another week or so. It freezes at night so we didn't give her a short back and sides. We should've done this 3-4 weeks ago, maybe even earlier, but it won't take long for the wool to grow again and she'll be indoors anyway. We had estimated anything between one and two hours. I think it took me just over an hour to shear her completely and then we clipped her hoofs. She was so calm, patient and gentle. She must've got seriously bored and hungry waiting for me to finish. Anyway, I'm sure she has her own opinion on how I rank as a sheep shearer... Of course, I didn't even attempt to get the fleece off in a single piece: I'll leave that to the pros. I think she quite enjoyed all the fuss and attention. She certainly makes less fuss about having her hoofs clipped than Zelda does when we clip her nails! The next morning, Sunday... ice on her nose from grazing in the frosty grass, it was -4C this morning. She seems happy enough and was pestering me for more carrots all morning. They also had some parsnips and the rest of the parsley from the garden.
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