The picture is of Fred DePaul shearing one of our ram lambs. Once again we enjoyed his visit. Shearing day is very labor intensive, but well worth the effort. The sheep are sheared, the fleeces are exceptional and it is time to get ready for breeding season.
Shearing day
Once again we had a great day to shear sheep! Spanky realizes she is naked and is trying to do a little "cover-up" with some hay.
skirting the fleece
Joanne kept busy by helping catch sheep and then skirting the fleeces as they came off from the sheep. This is the inital skirting and the idea is to remove all soiled and otherwise unwanted material from the fleece. The fleece will be skirted once again before processing the fleece to make sure that nothing was missed on the initial skirting.
waiting to be sheared
A year ago, we began looking for some sort of transportation for our sheep so that we could attend local events with them. My son, Ian devised something that he called the "EWE-HAUL". It is the box of a truck with a pull welded to the front that can fit on the ball of a truck or tractor. He put plywood sides on so that we had no escapees and cut vent holes in the front to provide some air to the sheep as they travelled. Walt and I gathered up sheep for shearing and decided it would be easier to take the sheep off the ewe-haul when it was their time to be sheared instead of penning them. We were all busy working and when we looked up we just had to laugh. It looks as though the sheep are on vacation behind one of the screens for picture taking. Spanky, Annabelle, and Oscar are peering out of the vent holes watching the shearing. I think for a winter project I'll paint some hair and hats around the holes for another photo-op next year!
