Woody the Sheep

Here is the story of Woody, the sheep.

Every fall we cull the lambs, removing the male lambs. They "go away," probably to someone's freezer. Last fall Katelyn insisted that we had missed a male, but we could not find him so we believed we had all females. Winter came and went - the sheep were bred. Some were obviously great with child, but others had not "taken." One was a sheep that was very fleet of foot and an excellent jumper. She jumped like a deer, clearing every fence. To eliminate the problem, we put a dog collar on her, attached a piece of chain to the collar and attached a long piece of 2x4 wood to the chain. This provided enough of an obstacle that jumping was rather difficult. The sheep was then christened "Woody."

Lambing came and went. Woody did not have a lamb.

The sheep shearer came. The kids and I were on hand to assist with the process. Basically the procedure goes like this - all sheep are herded into the barn. The kids (Matthew and Katelyn) catch a ewe and drag her over the shearer. He then shears her like cutting a coat off, not like a boy's haircut. Following the shearing the fleece is gathered up and put into a bag (Alyssa's job). Katelyn also stood on hand to spray a disinfectant on the sheep where they get cut because the clippers are very sharp and there is usually a nick here and there.

We started with the first sheep. All went well. The second sheep caught was Woody. I removed her collar (with chain and wood) and turned her over to the shearer. The shearer starts on the underside (the belly) and works up to the neck. Well, the first cut was made and "OH NO, WOODY IS A BOY!" To quote Katelyn, "he shaved Woody's pee-er off!!!" Then, to add insult to injury, Katelyn began spraying disinfectant on the wounded area. Poor Woody. Grandpa was informed that Katelyn had, indeed, been correct about there being one male lamb left and how we had made this discovery.

Woody (the name not at all reflecting his male status, but rather the board around his neck) limped for about a week recovering from the trauma. He then proceeded to jump the fences with the board and chain. Perhaps showing us that no matter we would do, we couldn't keep him down! After about three weeks of this, Woody was sold to a neighbor of my Mom and Dad's. I guess he tastes quite good, but I just can't bring myself to accept the dinner invitation.