It feels so good to be done with shearing! We feel so accomplished. We figure this must be how it feels to finish a full marathon. The sheep have all been shorn, vaccinated, and had their hooves trimmed. They are... Continue Reading →
It's been an interesting shearing season! We've sheared in the cold, after the rain, in high humidity, in extreme heat, and surrounded by cats. The cats were there to annoy us every step on the way. They love the smell... Continue Reading →
We started shearing, but it has been really dreary, cold, and rainy. We took a couple of days off to let the sheep dry and now it's sprinkling again... The weather just doesn't want to cooperate this year. Sunday was... Continue Reading →
Oh my, I never thought we'd shear that last sheep, but we've finally finished! This is the most sheep we've ever sheared in a season. We've got a pretty good system down now: we team shear, trim hooves, vaccinate, and... Continue Reading →
The shearing is done, the ewes and lambs have been turned out onto spring and summer pasture, and I don't have to feed hay anymore! Yay! If you are interested in fleece, let me know!
My husband sheared a couple of hoggets by himself, but he ended up doing adaptive shearing with me where he would tip and shear belly wool and get legs started, and then stand them up, and I would finish shearing the rest of the sheep from a sitting position while he held them. It was definitely a team sport.
I'm so excited - the shearing is all done! Yay! And now I have a mountain of fleece in my storeroom....
Some shepherds hire a shearing team, and others do it themselves. Well, I'm definitely a DIY kind of girl. This year I have 14 sheep to shear!
The best part of this whole saga is that my husband's PTSD from the 2016 shearing season has been replaced with comments ranging from "okay, you can keep the sheep" to. . .
