Revived 17 April 2010

Friday night I come home exhausted. It's not so much the job as it is dealing with the public. Especially this time of the year. I'm speaking of prom and bridal season. Yes teenage girls are excited to be going to the prom, and yes, they look beautiful, BUT there is only so much teenage excitement I can handle in a day. Day after day of keyed up emotions are wearing.

I can hear it now. Yes, I'm female and I was once a teenage girl, however I didn't think the prom was so wonderful. No I didn't go, at that point I preferred to stay home and go hiking or riding. Long party dresses and high heeled shoes just weren't my thing. They still aren't, but I can understand why it is important to some.

When I started into this business, alterations, some twenty years ago I worked on nothing but wedding dresses, prom dresses and fancy formal dresses. I realized this week that I know longer find it challenging or exciting. I'm not that twenty five year old college student anymore. Give me pants to hem, dog beds to make or socks to mend, but I think my days of sewing formal wear are coming to a end. Don't get me wrong, I still love to sew, but prom season has just started and I'm burnt out already. Normally by the end of the season I'm bunt out, but by fall when the hospital balls start I'm ready. I won't be this year.

So Sat. is my day of rest. The day I revive. No, I don't sit and read a book or do anything like that. I have my livestock to tend, my housework to catch up and the barn to clean. Today was shearing day.

Sarah was the first to get a new do. She is my white Navajo Angora goat, that just means she is old style stock and she doesn't have the mohair on her legs and face like the new "improved" ones do. I think the reason they started calling them Navajo Angoras was because the first unimproved ones came from the Navajo reservation. Anyhow she had lice . . . not a unusual finding, but more then I've had a problem with before. I treat for it each time I shear, but with such unusually wet weather last fall and such a cold snowy winter I'm sure keeping them in the barn more contributed to the problem. So now she looks like a white horned dairy goat, but she's cool, lice free and happy.

Second in to the beauty parlor was Ruthie. Ruthie is my brown yearling Shetland ewe lamb. I was able to roo her. Shetland sheep are a primitive breed and retain some of the primitive sheep characteristics. One of those traits is the ability to still shed part of their wool in the spring. Rooing is pulling that loose wool off the sheep. I was able to completely remove Ruthie's fleece without using a pair of clippers. I just rolled it back on itself and pulled it off. Rooing is one of the traits I'm breeding for. I won't know for another couple of years if she will roo to this degree each spring or not. I'm hoping she does.

The third beauty was Joanie. Joanie is the matriarch of the flock. She was my first ewe and is Ruthie's grand mom. She doesn't roo so I sheared her. She looks very naked now, but is cool and happy.

Tomorrow I hope I can finish this group up. I have 3 more to roo and one that will need shearing. Next weekend I have 5 new arrivals coming and I'm given to understand they will need a day in the beauty parlor when they get here. I will shear, delouse, trim feet and worm them when they arrive. My girls got their pedicures today.

So although I sit here exhausted I'm revived. My mind is at peace and my body is thoroughly exhausted. Life is good.

Reviews

[patricia]

I could empathise about the sewing prom stuff being a bore after a while. The best part of this story for me was the interest snippets you wrote about rooing, I love to learn that kind of stuff. Nice write. Enjoyed.