Before and After

This is Ginseng above and below. This is Betty.

Esmerelda.

Lauren, one of last year's lambs, almost a yearling. The yearlings look a lot skinnier than the older ewes with no wool.

Jillian, another yearling.

Jerry, a wether.

Isabelle

Many Hands

More About Shearing Day

I've written a couple of posts about shearing day already, but I have so many photos to share. As John worked through the main flock I brought in the sheep from other areas. The two ewes with two-week old lambs were shorn (last post) and then the three Jacob rams.This is the yearling ram, Rotor.A good comparison of a lilac Jacob (Nash) and black & white (Rotor).This is Rotor's fleece.They aren't all spotted. This is one of the BFL-Jacob cross ewes.Lots of people help to make Shearing Day fun and easy for me. Kathleen weighed fleeces.Stephany and Gynna wrangled sheep all morning.Alison and many others helped at the skirting table.People are welcome to skirt their fleeces before buying or ask for advice about fleeces. It was a great day to stand in the sun with your hands in freshly shorn wool.One more ewe to be shorn and then it was Faulkner's turn.His buddy, Jerry looked on. Faulkner weighed in at 235 lbs (down about 30 pounds from what he sometimes weighs in the summer).Fresh Jacob fleece.Faulkner's fleece.While the shearing and wool sorting was going on, friends were helping buyers in the shop.Later we got everyone (almost) to the barn for a group photo. That's a lot of enthusiastic friends!

Shearing Day

We sheared on Sunday. What a gorgeous day for shearing (but hoping that the weather doesn't continue this way--winter shouldn't be over yet).The day before we were cleaning up the area around the barn and pushed the brush pile into the corral area where it's safer to burn. The sheep thought that there might be something worth eating......or scratching on. I didn't want them ruining a whole year of wool growth the night before being shorn so it was time to move them to the barn.I called the dogs in and Ginny got to help with the big group. Sunday: Farm Club members are ready for action.First sheep.Mary is ready to grab and bag the fleece.Wait a minute. These sheep don't look right.Cute, but not the right sheep.We started the day with 10 sheep from another farm.  We told John (shearer) that was his warm-up.We got underway with the Jacobs. Farm Club members did all the work. Visitors watched. and I changed gates and moved sheep while playing with my camera.Here John is shearing Dazzle......while Amy holds her lamb.I think this is my favorite photo of the day. Peggy and Caroline babysit twins while their mom is being shorn.

Itchy

In the last post I shared photos of sheep that were overdue for shearing. I'm pleased to say that most of the fleeces looked great when they came off today. There will be other blog posts, but this is a quick one with photos of shorn sheep with something in common.