Shearing Day was yesterday. I have far too many photos for one blog post. Starting with the beginning, the night before.
Lots of barn cleaning and organizing. One of the last things to set up is the shearing corner. This board has been in use for many years, labeled so that it never is cut up to use for something else.
The evening before shearing Dan and I went to Trish’s farm, a few miles away, to pick up her 24 Jacob sheep. With sheep in full fleece it took two trailer loads. After shearing they all fit in the trailer with room to spare. These are Trish’s three rams.
I put 10 or 11 ewes in each of two stalls for the night.
I recognize this ewe’s hairdo from when she was here last year.
John began with Trish’s rams.
As John was shearing the three rams we moved the ewes from a stall to the shearing corner. The shearer doesn’t want to stop once he starts, so we do our best to always have the next sheep ready.
I woke up early on Shearing Day so I could finish the prep for the day. One of the jobs was to get all of our rams into the shearing area before people got here. While John was shearing Trish’s sheep I worked on the rams, vaccinated and trimming hooves on all. That way I didn’t have to think about catching them later to deal with that.
After Trish’s sheep were loaded back into the trailer John started on our six rams and the wether.
In the meantime Farm club members started gathering our ewes. This photo shows what a fabulous day it was, after so many days of thick fog. We were really lucky, because that drippy wet fog was back today.
I am fortunate that I have such a willing and capable team of people.
Sheep are in the lambing area and this will be the next group to move in.
Thanks to Roy Clemes for sharing some of the photos I used here.
Shearing Day was a week ago. Here is the first post.
As we loaded Trish’s sheep into the trailer John kept shearing, starting with my rams…
…and then moving on to ewes.
Farm Club members kept the sheep coming so that John didn’t have to wait.
Farm Club members covered all the jobs. They moved sheep, bagged fleece, checked the ciipboard, swept between sheep and let sheep out as they finished. I have videos of shearing but haven’t had time to post them yet. Because I recorded 4 or 5 videos I can say that John shears a sheep in just over 2 minutes. It is amazing to watch.
We bedded the barn with straw knowing that would help with the cold at night.
The shorn sheep enjoyed the sun during the day.
Farm Club member, Kathleen, took over her annual job of weighing fleeces.
This is just some of the fleeces, bagged and labeled with sheep name and weight.
Farm Club members and other friends who purchased fleeces were able to skirt fleeces the selected.
This is our youngest Farm Club associate, son of a member. He wanted a job and spent most of the morning cleaning the barn with the help of Dad.
Shearing Day can be tiring. This is Oakley, John’s dog, in a pile of belly wool.
After shearing was over I called on three Farm Club members, who are now tagged as the Tech Team, to figure out why I couldn’t get the barn cameras to work after we made a big switch to a new internet service. I hadn’t been able to get them set up again. Farm Club members have links to those cameras. Success!
Shearing stats: We sheared 64 ewes, 12 rams, and a wether. That’s important to know because shearers charge more for rams. I guess it’s a good thing that they don’t charge more for horns. (Joke) Of those sheep 47 ewes, 9 rams, and the wether are mine. We didn’t shear 2 ewes who will be the subject of another blog post. Fleece weights range from 2.5 to 6 pounds. That’s typical for Jacob sheep.
I need to start skirting and sorting fleeces so I can get some on the website for sale and others to the mill for processing.
We were lucky on Shearing Day. It was cold in the early morning, but there was no threat of rain and the sun was out.
The day before we took our trailer to Trish’s farm a few miles away. We loaded 21 sheep to bring them to our place for shearing the next day. It turns out that one of the 21 was mine–I had forgotten about the ram lamb Trish borrowed in September to breed some of her ewes. So now I have 9 rams–that’s a few too many!
These are Trish’s sheep the next morning. I remember that ewe on the left from last year. See her photo below.
Her hair style makes her memorable.
John got here at 9 and we started with Trish’s sheep. This ram is Starthist Goldhill, sired by one of my 2-horn rams who is no longer here.
Farm Club members were on hand to help with all the jobs. They kept the shorn sheep out of John’s way while he worked.
After all 20 of Trish’s sheep were shorn we moved panels around to load them back in the trailer.
They fit better after shearing.
Then John started on my rams. This is Eli.
For those of you who may not have watched shearing, the shearer follows the same pattern on all the sheep.
I recorded video of shearing four or five sheep. I haven’t had time to edit and post those videos yet, but because of recording I know how long it took to shear those sheep. What do you think?
John is shearing each sheep in under 2-1/2 minutes. Some are close to 2 minutes!
John has been shearing for us for years. He is an excellent shearer and a nice person.
I recorded some of the sheep being shorn which I’ll share when I have time. When I record I can pay attention to time. Some of them are right at 2 minutes or maybe even a little faster.
There is no blood. The sheep are in good shape and the fleeces look great! What more can you ask for?
Farm Club members kept up with getting the sheep to John. I got outside and started to take photos of the sheep after shearing. This ewe is Sandie.
They sure look clean now! That won’t last.
Kathleen weighed all the fleeces.
We had two skirting tables available so that fleeces could be skirted before purchase.
This is just a portion of the fleeces that I need to skirt and put out for sale. Give me a little time to get to that. The sooner the better though.
Distraction…there was a lamb born tonight! Surprise! I guess the next post will be about lambing.
Shearing Day was Sunday, January 21. Rain was predicted all weekend. We need to shear dry sheep. For several years I have used the wool from my friend’s Jacob sheep. It’s easier to shear them here and we can be sure they’ll be dry. So I pay for that shearing and we bring her sheep here the day before.
This year we brought them two days ahead of time due to the weather and because of my Saturday activities. I had two extra stalls there was plenty of room when we split the group.
There were 16 ewes and one ram lamb.
We sheared those sheep first. This is the ram, first sheep of the day to be shorn.
John’s dog, Oakley, found a comfy place to settle down.
As soon as the neighbor’s sheep were shorn we loaded them in the trailer and Dan drove them home. They fit in the trailer much better after shearing than before.
First up for me was Peyton, the BFL ram. The BFL’s seem to gain weight very easily. He and the two crossbred ewes I have are probably a bit too heavy.
The Jacob rams were next. This is the ram lamb (almost yearling) Typhoon.
Here is the lilac ram, Horatio. Look at all that luscious fiber!
Ewes followed. I took recorded lots of video but haven’t had time to do anything with it yet.
Shaggy looking sheep.
This is the view of the main sheep area looking into the lambing area where there are pens, and beyond to shearing.
Shearing Day wouldn’t go as smoothly without all the Farm Club help. We crowd the sheep into the main barn with panels and move them through to the shearing area.
I’m grateful that so many Farm Club members have been here enough that they can just jump in and take over. There were several new members as well who are well on their way to learning about sheep handling.
Sheep in the lambing area moving to the pen on the top left near the shearer. That’s a goat on the right. The goat has to go in a pen or she gets in the way.
She got plenty of attention there.
Two or three people bring a few sheep at a time into this pen where they are moved through the gate to John.
Kathleen took her regular job of weighing fleeces.
Shearing Day was scheduled for January 21, but this was the day before. I was up before sunrise again (necessary if you want to get enough done in the day in the winter) and it’s nice when there is color to go with it.
I had a spinning class scheduled for the morning. Five people from five different cities came to learn about spinning. Most had a little bit of experience or at least an introduction to spinning so we started right in after I explained the different wheels and some basic terminology. They all had a chance to ply their yarns by the time we finished a little after noon.
Just as we were finishing Siobhan and Ivar got here. Siobhan is a Farm Club member who has been here often, either teaching a class or to farm sit, besides our regular Farm Days. She and her husband spent a few weeks in England on a belated honeymoon last year. While there they took a lesson on blade shearing and bought hand shears. Siobhan asked if she could shear a sheep for her Farm Club fleece for this year. I said “sure”.
She chose Harry, the offspring of one of our pet sheep, Hazel, who died last year). I had wethered Harry because he had become such a pet to Siobhan and my granddaughter, Kirby. Ivar did the actual shearing while Siobhan helped with sheep control.
I can’t believe that I didn’t get photos between the start and the finish. I was doing some other barn clean up but also helping with a bit of sheep management. In fact I took this photo while Ivar was finishing his last strokes from the front of the sheep where I had one hand (or maybe my knee at this point) on Harry’s head. Siobhan however has a great time-lapse video of the whole process.
I’ll bet it felt like longer to Ivar, but when I looked at the time on my photos I saw that between the first and last photo there was about 55 minutes. I’d say that’s pretty good for your first sheep and doing it with handshears…and the sheep has horns, which only adds to the difficulty.
The fleece looks good too and I can’t wait to see what Siobhan does with it. Great job, Ivar and Siobhan!
The next day we sheared 77 sheep, but John uses electric shears! Stay tuned for another post.
Although we had a cold start the weather for Shearing Day turned out great and a lot of people came out to watch and to buy fleeces. Ewes before shearing. Farm Club members handled all the jobs. I don’t have photos of all of them but FC photographer, Dona, will probably have some for me to add to another post. That’s Stephany and Gynna who wrangled sheep all morning. Alison and others helped skirt fleeces that people purchased. Here is a view from above. Carol and Amy are in place to sweep between sheep and to let the shorn sheep out the gate.
John Sanchez has been our shearer for several years. The fleeces are always beautiful and the sheep look great too. He’s prompt and he’s fast too. He finished everything in 3 hours.Looking at this photo I wish that I’d done a series of photos of footwear. There are a lot of stylish boots in our Farm Club.
Jackie kept track of names and cards…
…while Mary scooped the fleeces into bags. All Farm Club members rotated tasks and helped all day–answering dozens of questions from visitors and also helping in the shop. Thanks to everyone: Alene, Alison, Amy, Betty, Carol, Dona, Gynna, Jackie, Janis, Joy, Kathleen, Lisa, Mary, Peggy, Polly, and Stephany (and to Judy for joining us).Jimmy is one of two wethers (castrated male) who was well marked so that the shearer would be told to watch for different parts while shearing off the belly wool.
Amaryllis was probably glad that she wasn’t on the shearing list.
This is what Dan made out of the pressure tank we had to replace a couple of months ago. It provided a welcome place to warm hands. Maggie behaved admirably all day.Rusty kept watch.Ginny was in the barn with us but had her own pen to keep her out of trouble.
This is how I felt at the end of the day.
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