Shearing, Yet Again

My favorite part of farming are the cycles---the same thing happens every year, but each time, it happens a little differently. If you've read my entire blog (only recommended for extremely bored masochists), you'll notice shearing happens at the end of March...every year.

This year snow was expected two days before shearing---serious snow, like 6-8 inches. Even if we put our our sheep in the three-sided barn before a snowstorm, the snow blows in, which equals wet sheep, which equals postponed shearing. Can't shear wet sheep.

So this year, while I was out of town at a library conference, Melissa put up tarps all along the front of the barn. It was an incredible amount of work, and a great idea.


The snow never arrived.

Shearing day was sunny, windy, and about 35-40 degrees. We had 15 people to help, and it went so smoothly, and our help was enthusiastic and experienced. At one point Melissa and I found ourselves both back at the house on errands, and we realized shearing was going on just fine without us. Next year we're going to take in a movie, perhaps do some shopping.

Here are some sheep waiting to be shorn:





Here's Bonnie 'skirting' a fleece, which means she's picking out dried poop from the fleece. Few people would have the courage for this job, but she teaches high school, so very little frightens her.



Here's the black underside of that beautiful brown fleece. (Sorry, spinners, I'm keeping this fleece for myself!)


The fleece came from that now-naked black sheep.



Here's Drew (the shearer) taking a break, and Alex (the girl) keeping the next contestant (the sheep) steady until Drew's ready.



There isn't a bathroom in the barn, hence the foot traffic between barn and house.


Here's the puppy back at the house, stunned she wasn't the center of attention that day. She said, "I could help, really."



Then she said, "Am I not cuter than sheep? Forget those smelly things and focus on me. Look deep into my eyes. You are growing sleepy..."



The funniest part of the day happened when I didn't have my camera, but it involves this hay bale.



You'll need to use your imagination. About 10 sheep were left in this part of the barn, and someone went over to them, hoping to drive them into the shearing pen. When the sheep became alarmed and began running around the hay bale, the person backed off.

But the sheep kept running around the bale. Then, no longer afraid, they switched from running to walking around and around the bale. It looked like a sheep merry-go-round. Shearing action stopped as we all watched the sheep calmly going around and around the bale, not because they were afraid, but because they were having fun.

Well, okay, perhaps I'm anthropomorphizing here. Really, the funny show happened because each ewe was following the ewe in front of her, who was following the ewe in front of her, who was following the ewe in front of her... They are, after all, sheep....perhaps that's why I love them---not because they act like cows or dogs or cats or horses, but because they act very much like themselves: sheep.

Order Early, Order Often!

I know that's supposed to refer to voting, but I've stolen it for my own nefarious purposes.

Somehow, between chores and speaking engagements and eating and sleeping, I've managed to write another book. It was a difficult birth, but she's almost ready to face the world. I can't seem to make the above cover any larger, so here's the complete title: The Compassionate Carnivore: Or, How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old MacDonald's Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint, and Still Eat Meat.

The official release date is April 21, or May 1---I've seen both---but I think you could order your copy now, which would be HUGELY helpful to a writer such as myself. The bookstore owners/managers will say, "Wow, what's this book everyone is preordering? Mayhaps I should buy more copies for the store!" (I realize few bookstore owners/managers will say 'mayhaps,' but I'm currently writing a pirate novel and they talk weird.)

Where to order the book? Any brick and mortar bookstore would be great because it would get the book in a bookseller's hands, if only for a moment. But if you don't have one available, online is just as good. Advance sales send a strong message to my publisher as well, and he might be more likely to say, "Hmmm, mayhaps I should buy another manuscript from this Catherine Friend..."

So what's the book about? Here's what Marion Nestle, author of What To Eat, said: "At last, the perfect book for people who would like to eat meat but have moral, ethical, or health concerns about doing so. Catherine Friend loves animals but eats meat and gives a thoughtful, personal, clear-eyed perspective on how to do both, humanely and sustainably.”

Here's what Joan Gussow, author of This Organic Life, said: "A rich and enjoyable read...You have a great voice, and your repeated acknowledgment of the difficulty of changing the meat one eats in this insane food system--and your candor about your own inability to do so consistently--is great."

A reviewer contacted me directly, and said, "I am impressed at your extensive research, the catchy subtitles, the layman's terms for explaining intricate processes without sounding condescending, and how enjoyable this informative book is to read...You are so funny--I could listen to you talk all day." (Unfortunately, since I asked her to say that last line, we should probably take it with a grain of salt.)

I'm not anti-meat, anti-veggie, anti-farmer...I'm just pro-"paying more attention to the lives of meat animals." Hopefully the book will help people take small steps toward doing that, without going crazy. (Of course, if you're already crazy, please don't hold me responsible.)

More on book as the time nears...am thinking about starting a blog where compassionate carnivores can chat and exchange info, but Melissa looks at me as if I've grown a third head: "Two blogs?"

We'll see... The book has its own website: www.compassionatecarnivore.com

What's Cooking?

Our trip to Palm Springs was, of course, great. My subsequent writing retreat, also great.

Now I'm home again, and happy to be here. However, I've been gone for several weeks, which is long enough to lull me into thinking I lead a normal life just like all the other kids. But then the evidence begins to pile up around me. Despite my occasional whinings in this blog, I'm really not into self-pity, but...

Melissa ordered something through the mail and she'd opened the box and left the item on the counter. The tag read "Care of your Wetscraper/flesher."

Well, that's not something you read every day. Turns out it's a piece of metal sharpened along the long edge, used to scrape the bits of flesh off of a hide before one cures it.

Then I sit down on our living room couch for some quiet time, and the magazine on the top of the pile is open to an article about ram epididymitis ---"primarily a genital disease of rams"-- complete with a helpful photo of a ram's swollen testicles.

Then I realize that whatever Melissa was cooking in the oven that evening was still cooking, and in fact, she'd been cooking whatever it was for a few hours. I should say at this point that we believe it's good to use as much of an animal butchered as possible. Processing plants have figured this out, and sell every bit they can. We recently purchased at the pet store some 'bully' sticks for our puppy, the clever name disguising the fact that the stick is dried bull penis.

So when Melissa told me the item in the oven would be drying for the rest of the evening, my normally trusting nature turned into raving paranoia. "Please don't tell me you're drying out a ram penis in my oven."

"Okay," she said, and she walked away.

I closed my eyes, and allowed myself a flash of self-pity. One does not lead a normal life when there is a ram penis drying on a tray in one's oven.

The puppy, however, is in for a tasty treat.