I wrote three blog posts (the latest) about the sheep grazing the alfalfa field across the road. They moved out in December. I had talked to the owner about the possibility of buying his wool so I would have another locally grown yarn here. When I contacted him a couple of weeks ago he said the timing was just right because they were going to shear that week. Unfortunately the sheep he thought would be best for my purpose were grazing a vineyard in Santa Barbara County. Fortunately I have a good friend in Santa Barbara AND I had three days with no commitments. I drove to Santa Barbara on a Thursday, getting there after dark.

Friday morning we drove about 40 minutes to the vineyard where the sheep were grazing. The corrals and shearing shed (to the left, out of this photo) had been set up the day before. This is a lot of infrastructure to move from place to place, but how they make it work.

The first group of sheep was brought down from the vineyard. That’s their LGD (livestock guardian dog) leading the way.

This group includes Merino and Corriedale sheep. The owner, Cole, has separate flocks that he delivers to different jobs. I think that part of the planning is how to make the most of the trucking and deliver a full load. When he grazed the alfalfa in Solano County he had groups of 180 to 200 ewes with lambs and that filled a truck. This group is 400 ewes with single lambs.

The lambs were born in October which is why they look almost as big as the ewes.

It took an hour or so to sort the lambs away from the ewes so that didn’t have to happen as the ewes were going into the shearing shed. The shearing shed is temporary panels with the green tarp. The red panel is the chute where lambs were sorted. This view is of the lambs after being separated. The ewes are in the corrals.

This view is the opposite of the last one. That bumper of the white truck near the tree is seen in the photo above this one. The ewes are now being sent group by group into the shearing shed.

There are ten shearers working here. The floor is sheets of plywood. The green panels behind the shearers are tarps hung on metal frames. The tarps can be moved easily after the sheep is shorn and exits to the back. This was quite a noisy operation with all ten shearers working. They brought music with them. I heard Spanish music at one end of the shed and Classic Rock at the other.

The shearers have a short break as another group of sheep enters the shed. This story will be continued in another post. One more photo below.

I didn’t want to start with this photo because it’s not what the post is about. However, I snapped this screenshot while I was on the road to Santa Barbara. I was getting worried about gas and I asked Siri for the next gas station. Notice the answer: 6833 miles. Fortunately I found one closer than that.

To be continued…