Tzatziki the Ram rules our micro-flock of  Gulf Coast Sheep, which is a heritage breed listed with a critical status by The Livestock Conservancy.  Tzatziki is the alpha ram here at Sandhill Flats.  He and his son, Coon, are the only intact rams that we have.  Tzatziki has the great horns, but it appears (at the age of 10 months) that Coon will only have scurs.  His other sons, the twin wethers, Fox and Dinner #1, also have scurs.

Tzatziki has a very long (4-6″), fine wool with serious crimp, which is shared by all of his offspring and most of his harem.

Tzatziki was the first sheep I ever sheared.  (I’m just learning, see.)  It didn’t go well because my combs and cutters were dull straight out of the box from the factory.  *grumble* I didn’t know any better and actually sheared all five sheep with my equipment in that condition thinking that it was merely my lack of technique and experience.  It was all of these factors combined that led my husband to threaten that I could not have any more lambs unless I learned how to shear quicker!  (He got tired of holding the sheep because I was taking so long.)  And I digress.  This is all a LONG story for ANOTHER post.

Want to see a poorly done shear-job?  Hahaha!  We all have to laugh at our trials and errors in retrospect.

Once Tzatziki was sheared, I made a decision to try to process his wool here at home.  I had never scoured wool before.  In the end, I don’t think I felted it very much.  However, I haven’t tried to pick and sort through it yet.  I’m just learning to process and spin wool.  (I started on the producer end of this fiber arts thing.)

Turns out Tzatziki is a blonde!  Ha!  I think I got several pounds of Floridian sand to come out of his wool during each soaking.  Thank you, Dawn dish soap.

Maybe some day I will figure out how to spin the wool and then I will crochet something to wear.  I really wanted to go from start to finish with Tzatziki’s wool – from his back to mine!  Time is always flying.