It's done. All the shearing is done and the fleeces are bagged for cleaning. Ahhhhhhhh. Give me a minute while I enjoy some major shepherd relief. Nothing could have gone any better, from surviving the rain on sheep shearing day, to me learning how to successfully drag a trailer.
And the fiber is, easily, our best ever. Here's Joseph without his amazing technicolor dream coat. Cute spots, eh?
Here's his coat coming off in velvety waves. Every bit as yummy as we had hoped.
The pasture is now populated with pipe cleaner animals. They look like cartoon characters to me, freshly shorn.
And they match the nekkid sheep at the other end of the property. Everyone is ready for the 80+ degree temperatures we're supposed to see, beginning tomorrow. Whew. Just in time.
Now, comes the big job of getting the fiber clean and ready to send to the mill. We've been streamlining and perfecting our systems, so as soon as the last of last year's fiber is finished, we'll bang this stuff out. And enjoy every minute.
It's done. All the shearing is done and the fleeces are bagged for cleaning. Ahhhhhhhh. Give me a minute while I enjoy some major shepherd relief. Nothing could have gone any better, from surviving the rain on sheep shearing day, to me learning how to successfully drag a trailer.
And the fiber is, easily, our best ever. Here's Joseph without his amazing technicolor dream coat. Cute spots, eh?
Here's his coat coming off in velvety waves. Every bit as yummy as we had hoped.
The pasture is now populated with pipe cleaner animals. They look like cartoon characters to me, freshly shorn.
And they match the nekkid sheep at the other end of the property. Everyone is ready for the 80+ degree temperatures we're supposed to see, beginning tomorrow. Whew. Just in time.
Now, comes the big job of getting the fiber clean and ready to send to the mill. We've been streamlining and perfecting our systems, so as soon as the last of last year's fiber is finished, we'll bang this stuff out. And enjoy every minute.
Since it only comes once a year, it sure feels like Christmas. We trailer our boys up to my friends Amy and Arlin McCrosky's amazing ranch in Greenville, and we get to be part of a couple of days of assembly line shearing magic.
Everyone has a job, and the collective works like a Swiss watch. After four years, I've finally found my place in the machine, collecting the fiber into bags - one for the prime blanket fiber and the other bag for the leg and neck fiber. The bags are labeled with the animal's name, date of birth and other background information. We twist the two bags for each animal together and set them aside. The floor mats are swept and blown off with an air compressor between each animal to keep the fibers from mixing.
After several hours, we take a break. This is Mark Loffhagen, the shearer with the golden blades. I've talked about Mark before... he's the same as ever, an Americanized Kiwi with a rye sense of humor.
We were all ready to take a load off for a bit after about a third of our animals were sheared. Our lunch break came after about another third of the 'pacas were done. All told, I think I heard that we did 74 animals. Tomorrow we'll probably do about that many again.
Fun sights around the barn - this is a female boarding at Amy's place who has the cutest face ever. Can you believe that silly smile? And her dark eyes, and black snip on her nose! She is a doll.
This is part of the group of ladies that occupy the barn where the shearing takes place. It's quite a crowd - very good looking...
And then here came Amy's star herd sire: Abundance. Wow - he is really amazing. So much fleece coverage on his face that he can barely see. The rest of his body is just packed with fiber as well. They don't call him Abundance for nothing.
Hi buddy!
...And... the "after" shot. He's still a big guy without it, but the fleece is just enormous.
Every time I go there, I am amazed at Amy's fabulous barn. This much hay would last me for years! But with all the mouths she feeds, it lasts significantly less time.
She has a cool way of keeping her fleeces contained - we toss them into a big dog run. They stack high, rather than taking up all the floor space. Nice.
So, we got home without incident (and me pulling my very first trailer all by myself!) and the three shorn boys had to make friends all over with the still-fluffy boys. They literally don't recognize each other without their fleeces, just like the sheep a couple of weeks ago. Here's Boaz - a mere shadow of his former self.
And Moonstruck and Levi, together for comparison. Not a fair comparison - Moonie is a big piggy boy, and Levi is the tiniest thing we have in the pasture. But you get the idea.
And the payoff for the day's work: pretty, pretty fleece. This is Boaz's fleece. We made an interesting discovery. He's not a white alpaca with an apricot cast, he's a bona fide FAWN alpaca. Amy says our good herd nutrition did that for his fleece, and that it's a very good thing. Yay!
Levi's huacaya fleece is really, really soft and white, but what you can't see in this shot of the butt ends of the fibers is the outside of his fleece, which is a MESS. Mud, spit, and who knows what else, got all over him, and it's going to be a job to get it clean.
And then our little Suri superstar, Micah. Again Amy drooled over his fleece, which we have noticed has a lovely light silver cast to it. We're considering whether Micah may have a new career path ahead of him, besides growing the softest, densest fleece we've had here to date. (That may change once we get Joseph sheared.) More news if it develops.
It was a really great day, and I learned more cool things about alpacas, shearing, fiber, and our own boys. And the news is all good. We have some really nice fiber on our farm. Hallelujah!
And now I have an ice pack on my back and I've taken some Ibuprophen, so I'll be able to do all this again tomorrow, when I trailer the Boys of Color (black, fawn and gray) back up to Greenville for another day of shearing fun.
To wrap up, here's a video about how Amy "harvests" fleeces she may use later in competition. "Show fleeces" get special attention, and must be handled differently from your regular, run of the mill amazing fleece. The process is called "noodling," though no noodles are used. Crazy. Enjoy:
We're all a little wiped out after yesterday's excitement - the sheep were sheared in spite of the rain, and we got a lot of other big jobs out of the way in the face of those intermittent rain showers.
Ruthie finished her breakfast this morning and then proceeded to start her morning nap, using my boot as a pillow. It was hard to step away from all that sweet puppy love, so I took some time out for a scritch session.
Of course, you can't have a doggy scritch session and not expect every dog in the field to come running, so we made a little room for Vanni. Love, love, love.
That set the tone for my morning - the rain has somehow decided to go around us, so I had time to just be with my babies... to go through the motions and tasks slowly and deliberately. Check out my new wagon -- I treated myself since I had nearly worn out my first one. This new wagon is the bee's knees: has a huge carrying capacity and nice new tires that roll like a dream. It may not seem like much to a casual observer, but it makes my daily life soooo much nicer.
I got a chance to check out the sheep a little more closely, without their fleeces. Everybody seems to be in great shape, weight wise - even without any grain supplement this year. Considering the drought, I'm very happy to see this. Hay prices are astronomical, but we're managing. I didn't even have to worm this year. The Gulf Coast sheep are super parasite-resistant, and have done beautifully, even without as much pasture rotation as I would have liked. The real proof of the pudding is the quality of the wool, and we did amazing in that department this year. I'm still just shaking my head.
It's forecast to be a rainy weekend, but with shearing behind us, and warmer temperatures ahead, I say, bring it on. Got my new boots broken in, and I'm invincible.
The Gregg Salvia tells me spring is here for good, and it's time to put this crazy winter behind us.
Gene Kelly's got nothing on us - we got it done. All the wool is off! We started with the Jacobs, who were very unhappy about being penned up in their stall overnight.
Samson lost a lot of his attitude ("ramitude") once he was on his butt with four feet in the air.
Despite the weather, a really nice crowd came out to cheer Danny on... Michaela was in charge of the CDT syringes, Jake kept the fleece bags at the ready...
Israel is trying to figure out how to make a break for it, now that he's smaller and lighter without his winter jammies on.
Next we moved to the big shed in the north pasture where eight boys were waiting. Itzhak takes his turn getting peeled of the lovely fiber, leaving his pink skin exposed to the fresh air again.
The kids were fascinated. Heck, we all were. Who gets tired of this?
The whirring blades and cutters glide over the sheep's skin, and the wool falls away, blow after blow. It's like a knife through warm butter...
By the time we were finishing up with the ewes and lambs in the blue shelter, the rain began to pelt in earnest. And still, the crowd hung with us. It was so worth it.
The lambs' fleeces are even nicer than I expected. The first shearing is often nicer than subsequent years, but if these little guys hold on to even half of their fineness and crimp, they will be stars in our wool flock. What a blessed surprise they were, and continue to be.
Here's just a portion of the year's clip - I'm very, very happy with what came off our sheep this year.
I'm so grateful to this year's group of helpers! Thank you Danny, for another job well done, Mickey, for the refreshments, Michaela and Jake for your helping hands, Mike for hauling the plywood around, and everybody, for bringing your umbrellas and enjoying the show in the rain! I'm going to take just a day or so and enjoy the fact that the job is done, but then, it's time to start WASHING WOOL!
Sheep shearing's all set for tomorrow here, rain or shine, looks like. Danny says if need be, he can cover the motor of his shearing machine with a garbage bag! That news has seriously relieved me about the weather, over which, I have no control. If you're coming tomorrow to hang out with us and watch, do dress for wetness.
Today I trotted over to my neighbors' house to help them with the shearing of their beautiful Jacob sheep, as sort of a warm up. Danny has sheared for them for two years now, and it's been a great boon. I will be bringing several of those lovely fleeces home - I'll share some with our shareholders, though I could easily spin it all up by myself, it's so beautiful. It was my first breed of sheep wool to hand process and spin, and I'll always love it best.
I love hanging out with sheep people - we have so much to talk about, and I always learn a ton. I'm finally starting to feel like a real shepherd, and my silly questions are getting less silly. Can't wait to learn even more ...
Besides shearing sheep, Danny is a skilled woodworker, and knows how to spin on his own drop spindles. I'll have some of his drop spindles, antler buttons, and shawl pins available in the LRB after shearing - they're beautifully made and reasonably priced. After we get finished with the sheep tomorrow, I'd love to show them to you, if you can come by.
As we speak, our sheep are shut up in their shelters, trying to stay out of this off-and-on mist. They say it will probably turn to full fledged rain overnight. I'm still praying for a sky-parting miracle tomorrow between 8 AM and 9 AM, until all our babies are wool-less, and then it can turn loose!
Got the call this morning from Danny the Shearer - we're on his calendar for Thursday morning, March 8th. He'll come by bright and early, and have all 15 of our sheep separated from their wool in about an hour. Be here by 8 AM or you could miss it altogether... Danny doesn't dilly-dally.
You're invited -- bring the kids, if you can!
We always have such a great time on Shearing Day - if you can be with us for the fun, you'll love it. As usual, we'll have the skirting table up and the coffee pot on Once the fleeces come off, we'll skirt them and get them ready to wash. This year, my goal is to have the wool washed before the alpaca fleeces get sheared. Our routines are becoming more streamlined and efficient, so we can handle more gorgeous fiber for our shareholders.
Posted onNovember 24, 2011bymuffinista|Comments Off on sheep shearing, or where the hell have i been lately? part two
part of my bio says i’m a ‘wannabe shepherdess.’ since sheep are currently not legal in NYC and since chez farm’s square footage wouldn’t support sheep anyway, i have to get my shepherding jollies away from home. i visit my friend shepherd susie at juniper moon farm as often as i can and i never miss a shearing celebration.
i went to sheep shearing school last spring (to learn how to shear sheep, natch). shepherd susie has a professional shearer, but she’s usually kind enough to let me shear a sheep or two so i can get experience.
sheep shearing is hard work, but great for your triceps and hamstrings. and abs. and back.
not to mention – good for the sheep. i’m looking for more sheep-shearing opportunities.
all photos except the last one were taken by farmer woob with her iphone camera. the last photo was taken by my friend amy, aka wooly mama of merry magpie farm.
Comments Off on sheep shearing, or where the hell have i been lately? part two
