Archives for shearing day

Wool Away!

"Wool Away!" is the command given by the shearer to the "fleece-o" to pick up the freshly shorn fleece after a shorn ewe exits the shearing board. In the lingo of a "down under" shearing shed, the "sheep-o" pulls sheep from the holding pen and walks her onto the shearing board; the shearer shears; the "broomie" sweeps away the fribs, dags and bellywool; and after the sheep is shorn, the fleece-o tosses the fleece pizza-dough style minus the spin – onto the skirting table. The skirters then get to work. Since we are a small operation, our "sheep-o" often doubles
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Ready, Set, Shear!

On Friday we rolled up our sleeves and got to work on one of my favorite days in annual cycle of yarn farming. Shearing day! This year we've divided the work of shearing our flock over three days, last Friday, next Friday and then Saturday April 6 – when our Sheep Shares yarn farm CSA members will join us and pitch in. Working at this pace gives me time to be hands on with both sheep and fleece and makes for a relaxed, more comfortable day for both humans and sheep. We started with a group of ewes, below. Followed
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Time to Shear Some Sheep

Our Monday looked like this.  and this . . .  as we tackle the spring rite of shearing sheep. When my flock was smaller than it is now, we couId accomplish shearing in one day. We now have too many sheep for that! So on Monday we started by shearing the biggest, wooliest sheep on the farm: the mighty rams and wethers. We had time before lunch so we de-fleeced 16 ewes as well. This group included our "grannies". This was Cocoa's 15th shearing! Next Wednesday we'll shear our bred ewes. And then on Saturday, April 7th, we'll host our
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Count Down to Shearing Day

Keeping dry – waiting for the shearer. Our week got off to a funky start. In the northeast we celebrated spring's arrival with a touch of winter: four inches of snow that's gone slushy since the temperatures are now just above freezing. Because we plan to shear the balance of the flock on Friday, this gave me a headache. Before the snow started at 9 Monday morning,  Mike and I scrambled to get four dozen sheep and two llamas under cover before their wool got soggy. The sheep were the easy part. A pan of grain was all we needed
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