On one of my trips in England I had the pleasure of driving up to Glasgow, Scotland, and I just love those rolling hills that looked down on Lock Ness which was a beautiful sight even on a dull day. At that time, I was staying on a sheep farm, what fun I had when I helped the family sheering and dipping the sheep, etc. This 2000 acre farm was at Millgavie, about 30 minutes out of Glasgow. And at the top on their land you could look down over Lock Ness.

Just before the sheep are sheered, it gets a bit tense around a sheep farm. It's a bit like 'when is it the best time to pick a crop'?. The wool has to be long enough to hold together when they are sheered, but the sheep need to be able to carry the weight of all this wool when it gets damp etc. So twice a day (as their wool is reaching it's heaviest length) the farmers have to walk hundreds of acres with their dogs looking for sheep that may have fallen down and can't get back up. They were called a "cowpea" if they fell, the sheep that is :-)) If the fallen sheep wasn't found soon enough it's stomach would fill with gas and actually explode.

They had several different types of sheep. Some are best used for rugs, rather than clothing. The owners of this farm did most of the work, but at sheering time they had a few extra hired hands. I was really a guest of the family, but still wanted to muck in. So when they threw these sheered bundles back, I would grab them, and roll them up as tight as I could without actually breaking apart the wool, as remember, these are sheered not skinned. Anyway, the lanolin just oozed out of the wool, so your hands ended up very oily. After the sheep were done they got led into another section where the poor male's had to be castrated....they have a ring put around their jewels. :-) which eventually fell off. Then onto the dipping trough, they walked into this trough and swam to the end where we used a U shaped hook, at the end of the trough, to force their head under the solution to get all the nasty bugs smothered with this solution. And off into the fields they went wagging their little tails.

Going to the farmers Auction was extremely interesting, couldn't understand a single word that they said.