Sheep Shearing

We arrived at Guenvez toward the end of Fall.  As we began to understand where we were and what was what and who was who, we noticed that the shepherd, whose sheep grazed Guenvez's fallow grain fields in the winter, sometimes brought two other people with him.  We first saw the trio from afar - a man moving sheep fencing while two quick darts ran to and fro, up and down trees, and in and out of holly bushes.

In pure joy, Nicolas ran over to meet the shepherd and Moisés to join the darts, who turned out to be 5- and 7-year-old brothers, Auguste and Octave, respectively.  Over the next few months, as the sheep needed to be herded from field to field and as they pushed through lambing season, Yohan and his boys would come around to either check on the sheep or see who could throw dirt clods the farthest, depending on their interests.  No matter what we were doing when we saw them arrive, Moisés would clatter out the door to join the frolicking of other boys his own age.

Octave and Auguste are in a bilingual French/Breton program, so with Moisés' English and Spanish there are four languages between the three buddies, with none in common.  Fortunately, "play" is a cross-cultural tongue and their fun never stops.

A few months in, I got to meet the mama, Amélie, who just so happens to speak fluent English.  :)  We consider this family a blessing and an answer to my hopeful prayer request to find an English-speaking mama with a child Moisés' age in France.  We have been on several adventures with Yohan, Amélie, and their boys, though between their animals and Nico's bakery apprenticeship, it's often hard to have all four members of both families present.  So far, the only time both papas, both mamas, and all four jumping beans have converged was for a Sunday evening sheep shearing in mid-May.

When the shearers communicated that they were on their way, Yohan hollered to the 100+ ewes and lambs and they ran towards him, at first just a few, then the rest of the timid creatures followed.  The sheep were lead through a bottle neck (to the left in this photo) between bushes and fencing, and down a passageway to a pen where they'd be held captive for the shearing.

Les brebis et leurs agneaux, the ewes and their lambs, cuddled together and bleeted such a racket that you'd think they didn't do this every year.

Yanni's purple wool hat and patterend wool coat don't quite fit in...

Nico helped Yohan separate all the lambs (temporarily!) from their mamas, since the young sheep wouldn't be sheared this time around.  As Nico and Yohan each found a lamb, they told Amélie if it was mâle or femelle before they set it across the fence, and she took the first inventory of their flock since lambing season.

Moisés, Octave, and Auguste helped crowd the mamas into one side of the pen to open up a space for the shearers to set up their clippers.

We ended up having to wait quite a while for the sheep shearers to arrive.  The boys found a handful of plastic yellow dog training collars in the truck, Yohan trains dogs in addition to animal husbandry, and by linking the collars together, the trio endlessly amused themselves while they waited.

Mathilde, a visitor at the Ark that week, joined us to the agrarian event.  Here she entertains Yanni with a French flower-petal-plucking rhyme, simliar to "he loves me, he loves me not".

The shearers finally arrived and everyone sprang into action!  These sheep were the third and final flock of the day for the father and two sons.

Nico leads a lamb to lie down in green pastures.  No, no.  Nico delivers it to slaughter.  No, no, no.  Nico carries a sheep to the next available shearer.  The nature of sheep really does provide amazing metaphors and insight to human nature!  We found bible jokes easily.

The "bosses" and the boys wait with the sheep for the next barber seat opening.

Elisabeth sorts the raw wool into large containers.  As quick as she can, she pulls the dirty-beyond-use sections from the workable fleece before another fluffy coat is tossed her way.

The family team sheared 70-80 sheep in a couple hours, racing the steadily setting sun.  We were impressed by how long they could hold their back-saving posture, bending forward from their hips, upside down over the sheep.

Yohan finds the final fluffy stragglers...

...and then they're free to return to their bawling lambs!
Lighter and cooler than before.

Four boys run back after chasing the last of the sheepish mamas down the passageway to their babies.