A sunny day brought families with eager children to the Petaluma Adobe for our annual Sheep Shearing event. A veteran sheep shearer from Flat Broke Farm, a farm animal rescue organization, won the respect of the audience with his masterful handling of sheep. Selection, quick flip and then running the electric shears first on its belly and rear quarters and then working up the front and sides so that the full coat collected in a pile.

Questions were answered: No, the sheep wasn’t in pain or discomfort; as long as he kept the sheep’s feet off the ground it couldn’t resist him; generally, sheep are shorn once a year, in the spring; for commercial shearing he shears about 160 sheep in an hour.

Crafts demonstrators were also present. Visitors could try their hand at carding and spinning carded wool into yarn.