It is customary now when a new person or worker appears to enter the Bedlam Farm Lexicon, that they get their portrait taken. For awhile, people were startled or suspicious. Now, everyone seems to expect it. And I love doing it. Portraiture for me is about capturing a soul, not just a face, and some amazing people come through my life and the life of the farm.

Liz is 31, the lives near our former shearer Jim McRae in Vermont, and she started learning sheep shearing from him when she was 12. She is very good at it, she handles the sheep efficiently and calmly and humanely. She is as good as anyone I have seen shear sheep, and I’ve been seeing it for 15 years.

She charges about $9.50 per sheep plus $30 of gas money and we pay her more than that, because she is worth more than that. She often works alone, as she did today, and is very strong and confident with the sheep. She shears the wool in long sheets so it can be preserved for cleaning and sold, as is the case with Maria.

She loves having Red in the pen with her, and she fell in love with Fate, who was very excited and simultanously useless but charming.

Liz is returning to shear the sheep again during out Columbus Day Weekend Open House. She doesn’t sing and dance like Jim did sometimes, but she will talk about shearing and how it works.

We very much enjoyed getting to know her this morning, she already feels like a member of the family.