Drivers travelling along 75th Avenue near the Vashon Golf & Swim Club Monday morning were in for a surprise as, around 11 a.m., 19 sheep ran across the road.

With a bucket full of grain jostling, Sun Island Farm farmer Celina Yarkin headed up the flock, running to stay ahead of it. Her husband, Joe Yarkin, and farm intern Chris Ianazoni ran with them and herded the sheep into a pen set up at the golf club next to the parking lot.

The hand-painted sign created by Celina, that stands outside the makeshift pen explained it all: “Sheep at work. Mayor Noodle’s Mowing Company.”

For the past few weeks, the Yarkin family’s flock has been supplementing its diet with grass from the steep areas around the golf course and helping the country club to reduce its carbon footprint. By having sheep take care of the areas that facilities staff normally have to mow with a weed eater, the club can use less gasoline, lower its emissions and save money on labor. The three areas currently being mowed by sheep add up to about half of an acre and aren’t on the actual golf course.

“It’s been fantastic,” the country club’s Golf Course Supervisor Jay Griswold said. “They’ve already started taking it (the grass) down. It’s been hard to get to some places, especially with the rain.”

The idea to use Mayor Noodle’s Mowing Company (Noodle is the name of one of the Yarkin sheep who ran for unofficial mayor last year and has become the defacto leader of the flock) came about after seven sheep, which live at the Yarkin family farm just across 75th Avenue, wandered onto the club’s property in February.

“I got a photo from the office manager,” Griswold said. “They were on a steep slope that we normally have to do by hand with a weed eater.”

A call to Joe led to the current partnership. Now, the sheep come onto the property roughly three days per week, free of charge, take care of one of the areas and then go back to the farm.

“They just love it,” Joe Yarkin said Monday. “It was getting late in the day today, and I think Noodle was wondering when they would go. He was pawing at the gate.”

Griswold noted the uniqueness of the experience and said that in Scotland, where golf originated, many of the actual golf courses are maintained by sheep.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever get to that point, but we would love to expand eventually,” Griswold said. “The members just love it.”

The country club will have a traditional running of the sheep event accompanied by the Yarkin’s daughters playing bagpipes at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, May 27. The public can come watch the sheep run onto the property and do their work.