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A Glimpse at the Shearing -- Part I

Saturday morning we woke to a new dusting of snow. Hooray! No mud! And the people came... Good thing we live on a not-busy gravel road.


The shearer started his work. He had 116 sheep to shear, and no time to waste.


Here he was sharpening his blades so they cut the wool better. In the foreground of the photo, you can see our skirting table. We laid each fleece out to pick off the dirtiest wool before putting the rest in a large bag.


The Farmer talked with those who came, answering their questions, and administered vaccinations. We had a great crew of helpers. Wally answered questions and made sure folks got out of the way when each finished sheep came through. John and John herded the sheep up the chute. Sara and Kami helped with skirting the wool, herding the just-shorn sheep back to their pens, showing off the lambs, sweeping the floor and answering questions. Tom swept off the shearing stand between sheep.


The Polypay sheep were shorn on Saturday. But the Suffolk sheep have been having their lambs all along (see sidebar graph).

Part of the fun was looking at the baby lambs.

Here are some comments we received afterwards:

"We were at your farm on Saturday and my twin 6-year old sons LOVED it. Thanks so much for opening up your farm to everyone."

"My little girls have talked non stop about the experience since we got home! They got to see the shearing, see newborn lambs and feed the mamma sheep..."

It was a great day, and we're so thankful for folks who come out and bring their kids and grandkids. More tomorrow on what was going on in the shop...
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Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 1, 2011 at 5:39 AM

    It looks like you made a great day out the shearing chores. We are 'late lambers' so we will shear toward the end of the month. Lambing will start about mid-April when our pastures start greening up. Love your 'Lamb Count Graph'!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shower Treat SoapMarch 1, 2011 at 7:27 AM

    Can't wait to attend a sheep shearing, sounds like such fun!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownMarch 2, 2011 at 1:15 PM

    I had no idea that sheep were shorn so early! Interesting!

    ReplyDelete

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