Shearing Day 2025 – Part 2

Posted on January 26, 2025 by Robin

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.

Shearing Day 2025 – Part 1

Posted on January 23, 2025 by Robin

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!

Shearing at Timm Ranch 2024

Posted on April 30, 2024 by Robin

If you do a search in either of the blog locations (WordPress that you’re reading now, or the one on my website that I don’t use much now) you can find Timm Ranch shearing posts from other years. I could probably substitute photos because the sheep look the same, the shearing location looks the same, our skirting set up looks the same, and some of the Farm Club members are the same–but not all of them. I just searched the WordPress blog and see 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. After that I think I started with my website blog. So here is a view of 2024.

The sheep are a blend of Rambouillet, Polypay, and Targhee. Once in awhile a new ram is brought in, but the Timm family mostly raises their own replacements so the blend of breeds has stayed the same.

This year they sheared about 120 ewes.

We set up two canopies and two skirting tables.

The shearing team started with one shearer but eventually there were two working.

As the fleeces came off the sheep we piled some of them nearby. We were slower than a professional crew would be, but that is because I want to be careful about what I send to one of our small local mills. I knew there would be plenty of wool so I can be picky with what I take. What we don’t take goes into the bale that the Timm Ranch will sell or to my neighbor, Charlene, to be made into Integrity’s Wool Pellets (formerly Gardener’s Gold).

Three lambs got through the fence and wandered around while we were working. (Thanks to Sue G for the previous three photos.)

Another view of shearing.

Ewes after shearing.

We checked staple strength and length and skirted away manure and felted areas.

This is the 130 pounds that I kept. It will go to Mendocino Wool and Fiber for spinning. Yarn from 2022 is here and some of the TR yarn that I have dyed is here. Most of the blankets I weave use TR yarn for warp and sometimes for weft. The painted warp V-Shawls are all TR. You can see a variety of those pieces on this page.

It was a beautiful day at Timm Ranch. Blue sky and green hills just starting to turn gold. Thanks to Farm Club for all their help!

Shearing Day 2024 – More Photos

Posted on January 25, 2024 by Robin

I shared the first batch of photos from Shearing Day last night. Here are more.

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 2024

Posted on January 24, 2024 by Robin

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.

Thanks to everyone! There will be another post.

Shearing Day…for One Sheep

Posted on January 24, 2024 by Robin

Sunrise with gray clouds above green grass.

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.

Five women sitting in a circle, each spinning on a different type of spinning wheel.

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.

Summer Shearing

Posted on July 12, 2018 by Robin

I’ve written two blog posts about acquiring 12 Jacob sheep in what became something of a rescue operation. The sheep were healthy and well-fed, but had not been shorn for three years we think.

This was shearing day for these sheep. The photos in this blog post were all taken by Farm Club members, Dona and Gynna. Thanks!!

John is the Rock Star.

We checked teeth to try and figure out the ages of the sheep. This sheep had a 13 pound fleece. The average for Jacob sheep is 3-6 pounds. It was a multi-person operation to stuff some of these fleeces into plastic bags. The usual suspects were there to watch and cheer John on. Not a bad looking group of ewes after shearing. The two rams. After shearing we looked at all the fleeces. The longer fleeces have a break about 4″ in from the outside, but the rest of the fleece seems sound. It will take some time to work through it all.

As we pulled out staples from some of the fleeces I thought it would be a good idea to get a photo. Susan and Gynna worked on this while we opened up and re-rolled the fleeces. Note the measurements marked on the sides and down the middles. Weights are below. This was a fun day for all of us and a good day for these sheep.

Sheep Adventure Follow-up

Posted on July 4, 2018 by Robin

Monday’s Sheep Adventure started because someone had asked for help in selling Jacob sheep that his parents couldn’t take care of. I didn’t consider it a rescue operation although I didn’t know this person and I don’t need anymore sheep, at least sheep of unknown background, and I didn’t really have a plan for what to do with them other than try to sell them. When he called again last week things were a bit more desperate because his mom was in the hospital and the family had no clue of what to do with the sheep…other than to get someone else to deal with them. That’s when I said I’d get them.

Dona and Rick were up for the adventure but we didn’t know what to expect. What we found: Sheep that really are Jacob sheep–there are a lot out there that people think are Jacob because of horns or spots, but they are not; Sheep in relatively good health EXCEPT for in desperate need of shearing. So the Sheep Adventure turned into a Sheep Rescue of sorts.

Yesterday I took time to look at each sheep more closely. Now that I’m spending time with them, the group is kind of growing on me. “I don’t need more sheep. I don’t need more sheep. I don’t need more sheep….” Ewe 2-2 This is a ewe they called Athena. Ewe 2-1 Ewe 2-4 I think that this is at least a 3-year fleece. Ewe 4-1 I love the markings on this ewe’s body. I don’t have any information about her. Ewe 5-2 This is a ewe they called Caliope. She is pretty wild.

A ewe called Dimitria. The wool is very pretty, but its as long as my elbow to my thumb.

Ewe 9-1 Markela, one of the original ewes purchased by this family. Ewe 10-1 No idea about this ewe… Ewe-4-4 …or this one. Don’t you love her horns? Ewe 11-1 Paniota…

Ewe 11-2 …and her fleece. Ewe-8-lamb The lamb named Easter because that is when she was born. New temporary quarters. Stay tuned for a Shearing Day post. Rams Let’s not forget the rams. Tikes on the left and Costa on the right. I think they are yearlings.

Shearing at the Timm Ranch

Posted on April 22, 2018 by Robin

Last weekend I spent a day skirting fleeces with some of the Farm club members. We were at the Timm Ranch not far from here. After a rainy and overcast week the sunny day was a welcome change and the ranch was a beautiful place to spend the day.

The sheep were in pens when we got there. We helped to move them toward the lane into the barn. Most of the lambs were born much earlier but there were a few late lambs too.

The sheep are a ranch blend that were originally bred from Targhee, Polypay, and Rambouillet sheep The shearer works in the old barn where there are signs of what shearing would have been like in the “old days” when there would have been hundreds of sheep to shear in the day.

We brought each fleece to the skirting tables… …and inspected them for strength, length, and VM (vegetable matter)

My goal was to get at least 200 pounds, the minimum weight to send it to the mill I am using for this wool.

I ended up with 270 pounds of beautiful fleece.

We dragged it on a tarp over to the baler… …where the shearer baled it. This is our 270 pound bale in the truck. I am grateful to Farm Club members for helping out on this day. It not only made the work easier, but it was fun to spend time together.

A link to last year’s Timm Ranch yarn is here.

Shearing Day

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Robin

We sheared on February 3, almost exactly a year from shearing in 2017. This is such a fun day. Farm Club members are there to get their fleeces from the year, but they also do all the work!

Shearing-GB-198-3 Our fabulous shearer is John Sanchez. We started with the rams. This is Peyton, the new BFL. His fleece sold right away. 15078 Catalyst-4 Next was the 2 year old lilac ram, Catalyst. Here he is afterwards and… Catalyst fleece-1 …here is his fleece. Catalyst fleece-2 A staple of Catalyst’s fleece. Catalyst’s son, Cayenne, after shearing. You can see what he looked like before shearing near the end of this post.

Shearing-DS-198-5 One of the shearing day jobs is weighing and recording fleeces. Kathleen and Lisa did that job.

Shearing-DS-198-4 We had two skirting tables set up this year. Farm Club members skirted their fleeces and helped others skirt and sort.

Shearing-DS-198-2 I set up the GoPro for some shearing video. That will be coming later. Roy and Gina worked in the sheep pen. So did Deborah and Shelby. They all made sure that John never ran out of sheep. Kathleen, Lisa, and Dona. Dona is our “official” Farm Club photographer because I’m always too busy to take photos on our Farm Days. She took some of the photos here. 17054-Jolene-Fleece-1 This is what a fleece looks like when you take the coat off the sheep.

Here is that same fleece after shearing. Locks from Jolene’s fleece. 17050-Jillian-fleece Another beautiful fleece on the table. Doris made Jacob sheep cookies for us.

These sheep won’t be around long enough to need shearing.

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