danrouth

Shadows and Lines

Architecture, Still Life

Old grainery (or granary) in Alamance County, North Carolina.

Roosting Time

Animals, Bird

Black buzzards roost on an old barn roof near my home in Grays Chapel, North Carolina.

An Early Glimpse of Spring

Flowers

Nature is messing with us in Grays Chapel, North Carolina. Even though there’s still a month of winter left, the first glimpses of Spring are starting to appear.

Sunday was the day they ran this year’s Daytona 500 race down in Florida. Fifteen or so years ago I might have been in Daytona Beach covering the race from the pits and the infield turns. It was fun to do, but that business went away. I did get to shoot some motorsports in Grays Chapel, however. Neighbor Brandon McMasters and his friends (Mike Routh above) got together on his dad’s farm and did a little rock crawling. Basically, take a four wheel drive vehicle with big tires for clearance and a very modified suspension and drive up a very big rock without destroying the truck or turning over. Gentlemen, start your engines.

Sometimes It’s in the Details.

Architecture

Back porch of an old Victorian house in Staley, North Carolina. Below, the front of the house.

’60 Impala

Automobile

1960 Chevy Impala.

Red Barn Study

Architecture, Farm

Traditionally, when most folks think of barn colors, they think red. In Randolph County, North Carolina, most of the older barns are unpainted. There are a few red ones, however, like this classic dairy barn just east of Ramseur.

Shearing at Rising Meadow Farm, Misc Images

Sheep

While watching Kevin Ford work was a definite pleasure, the shearing weekend was by no means a one-man job. Along with Kevin, top blade shearer Emily Chamelin from Maryland did her share of the shearing as did Joy Moore who was learning from two masters. Of course, Rising Meadow Farm owners Ann and Ron Fay were there moving sheep and inspecting, weighing and cleaning the fleeces with help from the Walls family.

Kevin Ford, Master Blade Shearer

Farm, Portraits, Sheep

Thursday and Friday of last week I spent several hours at Rising Meadow Farm in Grays Chapel, North Carolina, watching sheep being sheared during the farm’s annual shearing weekend. It was a new experience for me, for while I was raised on a cattle farm and I am familiar with pigs and goats as well, I have never been around sheep and had never actually witnessed one being sheared. What made the experience even more fascinating was the folks doing the shearing were doing it with hand powered shears or “blade shearing”. To top it off, the lead shearer was Kevin Ford, from Charlemont, Massachusetts, arguably the most experienced blade shearer in the United States and one of the top shearers in the world. Kevin has written “the” book on blade shearing, he gives workshops, and he competes in shearing contests in this country and internationally. He also shears commercially, traveling from Massachusetts south to North Carolina every year shearing flocks along the way.

Blade shearing is slower than shearing with electrical clippers, but it easier on the sheep and leaves a little more wool on the sheep for protection. There seems to be more control and finesse involved with hand blades, and it was fascinating watching Kevin work with a sheep. The control he had over the blade and the sheep was amazing. I felt very lucky to be able to watch a master at his profession work the first time I was witness to it and I am appreciative of Kevin and the folks at Rising Meadow Farm for letting me get close to the action and to answer all my questions.