Massey or Ferguson?

We drove up to Open Bay Farm bright and early,  as the weather forecast was calling rain, to shear Mimi's sheep. The sheep were out on the field, we got the genorator in the truck and headed over.  Noah decided to start out with the purebreed cotswold ram, Lewis. He is a good size and Noah got a nice morning jog catching him.  

Lewis realizing the oats were just a hoax  

navigating through the nettle patches 

Lyra quickly got bored, as sheep shearing has been the norm this week and she can't be very involved. So she went off and found a new friend, Emma, who was in the kitchen making crepes for all their company coming from Vancouver that morning. Thank you Emma for being so great and involving  Lyra and giving her a job. 

 Half way through shearing the first sheep Noah looked up to realize that a few mini vans of Vancouverites were watching him with camera's set. I think we should have passed around a hat afterwards for the rural experience.  Noah sheared five sheep by the early afternoon.

Mimi and Noah inspect Lewis's silver lined fleece

you can find Mimi's blog @ http://openbayfarm.blogspot.ca/2011/01/open-bay-farm.html

Later that afternoon we headed south to Disco Thistle Ranch to help plan the Fall Fair Float for the Mayday parade this weekend. I'm not giving away any surprises, you'll have to come on on Saturday morning to the parade. I couldn't help photographing the Disco Thistle piglets.  They a Tamworth, Brerkshire cross and  a very nice and tasty pig. We raised a few over the winter and I have to say they were the healthiest pigs we have ever raised and it's great they are now available right here on Quadra Island. 

Heading even further south, Noah picked up on acquired piece of broken farm machinery... The Baler! Noah is so excited about this piece of farm equipment,  I'm really hoping I don't have to talk him out of naming our next child massey or ferguson in honour of this machine. (after  reading him this blog entry his reply was "Ferguson is cool") Help.

     And Disco Thistle Poppy just because