Saturday, April 20, 2013

LONG day

Look at this pile of sheep. waiting to be sheared this morning. It was a beautiful day. Kind of cool, but beautiful. My friend came with her DIL about 10:30 and we grabbed Abraham, the ram. Well, her blades were not sharp. So they had to all the way to TS about 25 miles from here to get new ones. Thank goodness, they had some. So got started again about 1:00. She got Abraham sheared. He looks like a different ram now. All black, like he looked when he was little.

Then we got Darla. She just laid there and fell asleep while she was sheared. She was a happy lady! So glad to have all that heavy thick wool off her at last.

Then Leelah. She has looked like a viking for the past 2 years now and I wanted that nasty doat off her. She's Katahdin-Dorper, so she's a little more wooly that hair. And the wool had felted. So it was tough to get off. But she looks great now.

Then her son came and he sheared Adele, the wild one. She's Leelah's ewe lamb from last year. And she's the biggest one of the bunch. I think she might be pregnant, but not really sure. Not much of an udder yet if she is.

Then she sheared Annabelle. She's mostly Finn. Lucinda's daughter from last year. Lucinda died last year from Barber Pole parasites. Annabelle had some really nice wool.

So I'll only be able to use Abraham and Annabelle's wool for spinning. Maybe Adele's.

It was about 5 by then, so she'll come back next week to get Adalaide and Amarillo. I am so tired and all I did was hold them mostly. But sheep are strong buggars.






Here's Abraham. He was so good. And I think he is feeling better now, without all that heavy hot wool.


                                   This is Leelah, the viking ewe. She really looks good now.


                               This is Julie's son, shearing Adele. He did a great job. No nicks at all.



We also trimmed hooves. They were pretty bad on some, but not so on others. We've had such a wet winter. So muddy here. I'll take after pictures tomorrow. My camera was acting up and all the pictures were fuzzy.

So tomorrow, a few board members from the Main St. Market are coming for a farm visit. I still have a lot of mulching to do. So I hope they come later in the day. Didn't get too much done this morning. I so hope I get in at this market.

And I was a bit worried about my bees. Yesterday was rainy and cool and dark. I didn't see a single bee in the morning before I left. I was gone all day. Checked on them when I got home and didn't see but one bee. This morning, I saw bees all over the place! I was so happy to see them. I have a lot to learn about bees. They don't like it cold.

I hope y'all are having a great weekend so far.

2 comments:

Kristin said...

Shearing sheep seems so foreign to me! It's only wool sheep, not hair sheep, that need shearing?

I can't wait to see all that beautiful wool spun into yarn.

Kris said...

Well, we did shear Laalah too. She's Katahdin-Dorper and was a little felted. She'd had all this wool on her since last year and she never did shed it off. So she's looked like this messt viking ewe for so long, I couldn't stand it any longer. So she look much better. Since she is a cross, she is a little more wooly. Her sister, Fiona, is more wooly than she is but not so bad to need sheared. Now Gracie is full Katahdin and she's shedding like crazy right now. She's got patches all over where her hair is falling out. They look more like a goat with the fur than a sheep. I'll put before and after pictures up tomorrow. I'm going to bed right now.