Sheep Shearing, Creek, Get Together, Creek

It took a while for us to get out and get started but once going it took about an hour to get the two rams sheared. The first was the younger brown one who fought a little bit on the way to the tarp. I got him to lay down then had to work hard to get him sheared as he had gone far too long without. His wool was fairly matted and made the shearing a bit difficult. He didn't fight much though as the coolness of the lack of wool seemed to make him mellow, rightfully.

The sheep all have laid there pretty easily while I have sheared. The intense heat now and the thick layer of wool combined means they a desperate to get the wool off them. Dud just laid there on the tarp for a bit until we shewed him away. He rejoined the herd and they all gave him a solid once over inspection.

Our main ram was actually quite easy in comparison. He walked to the tarp much easier, then once laid down I was able to shear him rather quickly. It helped that he had been sheared a couple years ago so his wool was easier to cut. It wasn't all matted and the growth pattern of him meant there wasn't a lot of wool around his body, it was primarily on his sides and back.

After the shearing it was already over 90F. Both of us took showers then after eating lunch we went down to the creek to soak for a while. We cooled our cores down nicely and then headed back to the house and got ready to go to town.

We went to a potluck get together in the valley at once of the city parks. They have a splash pad with sprayers that the kids all spent time playing in. We hung out for a few hours, talked, ate, and caught up with a bunch of people we haven't seen for a while.

The boys had pop-sickles and made the smart choice to go sit in the shade while they ate them. It was 100F and the shade felt quite nice.

After the get together we stopped for groceries on the way home then shortly after we unloaded the car we got changed and made a bee line for the creek again. This is the first time this year we have hit the creek twice in a day and it won't be the last. The entire week is expected to be over 100F so likely the creek will be where we live for the next while.

I am trying to cool the house down this morning since it was almost 70F overnight and I want the a/c units to keep up during the day with it going to be 103F. We are going to be shearing 2 more sheep and the alpaca this morning which should be the last for the year. The other 2 sheep shed their wool on their own so I don't HAVE to shear them. I should have more squash to harvest now and the real fun is about to begin as the rows are starting to produce. We will be in the creek a lot today as well and I will likely be cooking dinner on the grill to keep any and all heat out of the house.