YPSILANTI, MI - On a hillside at Riverside Park in Ypsilanti, there's been an unusual sight and sound: sheep.
They are a part of Project Mow, a business Yuko Frazier of Superior Township started last fall. The sheep are mowing the grass and foliage where it's hard for machines to reach, and they have the advantage of being much cuter.
The colorful Katahdin ewes and lambs are mowing parks in Ypsilanti after the city awarded Project Mow with a contract in November.
The idea didn't start as a business. Frazier bought the sheep from farms in Chelsea and Milan a year ago just because she wanted to have sheep.
"I had chickens. That's a gateway," she said.
Because she doesn't have space at home, she keeps them at the Dawn Farm co-op in Ypsilanti Township, where clients help look after them.
With a dry season last summer, she often needed to move the sheep to better grazing areas, and that's where she got the idea to have them go beyond the property at Dawn Farm.
Project Mow started last fall.
Frazier has a portable electric fence that she sets up and moves to keep the sheep, who stay at the site night and day until it's finished.
The cost of Project Mow is comparable to a traditional lawn service, but has the benefit of being eco-friendly and adorable.
Sheep will eat plants humans avoid such as poison ivy, Frazier said, and they produce manure that can be used as fertilizer.
The sheep will take about five days, eating throughout the day and night, to clear the hillsides on the Riverside Park of most of the brush and grass. After they finish at Riverside Park, they'll go to Frog Island Park.
While Frazier came out to tend the sheep on Saturday, May 27, people stopped during their walks and runs to take photos of the sheep and lambs.
That happens often, Frazier said.
"I enjoy talking to people about them," she said. "In the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti area, people see and get it. They think it's a great idea."
Katadhin sheep, a hardy American breed that originated in Maine, are a particularly good breed for mowing. They are hairless sheep rather than wool sheep, meaning Frazier doesn't need to shear them.
The sheep are also friendly. The ram will occasionally head butt people, but Frazier said he's OK as long as she watches where he is as she tends to him.
Frazier's ewes birthed 12 lambs this spring. She plans to sell the males and keep the ewes. With another ram, she could grow the herd and have sheep to mow multiple areas.
She's had some interest from prospective clients in both commercial and residential areas.
"I don't have to market them," she said. "They do a good job of that themselves."