Sign up to get free environmental news updates by email. Louise Wagenknecht, sheep farmer Louise Wagenknecht writes from Leadore, Idaho, where she juggles words, sheep, and a part-time job with the U.S. Forest Service. Her essays have appeared in High Country News, the American Nature Writing anthologies, and The River Reader . Low clouds cover the tops of the 11,000 foot Lemhi Range, five miles west of us. Making a definite appointment with a sheep shearer is just another way of bringing on some inconvenient form of precipitation.
Wet wool is almost impossible to shear.
He drives a truck for a feed co-op, and from February to May he shears sheep on his two days off. He usually shears alone or with one partner. He's a gentle, careful shearer and seldom cuts a sheep. Bob makes the coffee while I get the fire started in the big black Fisher stove. I sit cross-legged in front of the open doors for a few minutes, enjoying the sudden heat and cheerful crackling, before settling down for a few minutes with a cup of coffee and my current book, Big Trouble , by J. Anthony Lukas.