Despite its late start, shearing went well today. No goats got more than a little nick, and no humans got smashed fingers. The shearer liked the general condition of my goats - healthy, good weights, etc. She liked how soft Goblin was, and was impressed at how well Jessie is holding onto her condition at her age. The little boys didn't have almost any lice at all, but the big boys had more of an issue. ::sigh:: Winter lice is such a pain.

Quixotic_Goat, Darkfyre_Muse, and GSH came out to help goat-wrangle. The shearing of the boys went relatively smoothly, all things considered. Loki was a pain in the everything, as is his habit. The girls were ok to shear, but we had some capture problems. Running around on the ice in that pasture was no fun either. Q_Goat slipped and went down pretty hard at one point, but he claimed not to be hurt. Sashimi required cornering and capture, and Mona and Dahlia escaped and required recapture. And so everyone is naked tonight, with plenty of hay and piles of fresh (put out this afternoon!) bedding to keep them warm.

It's well known among Angora breeders that shearing time is another excuse for smackdown among the goats. Everyone looks different, smells funny, and without all that hair padding them, someone might - just might! - be ripe for a set-down. So there was tail wagging and head tossing all over the yard this afternoon.

After watching the smackdown and Q_Goat taking pictures for a while, I snagged the camera and got a minute of video as well. So now you can see what happens when ALL of the big boys rumble. The commentary at the end is from Quixotic_Goat, of course.