9am-2pm (5hrs)
As you may be able to tell from my ridiculous number of photographs and total inability to narrow them down, I think sheering is fascinating. Also, this seems to be the time of year when every weekend is filled with sheering. Again, if you click on the slide show thing, it should show you the rest.
Rolly was up at 5am getting all those beautiful coats off the sheep and in the washer for their annual cleaning, building the smallest pen possible and cramming an amazing number of sheep in there, and doing everything else needed to be ready for sheering. Rolly has had sheep for somewhere around 30 years - she's gone through the entire alphabet with a different letter of names each year and had some accidental A's a year or two ago as well - so she had a pretty smooth and simple set up. All the sheep were corralled in the barn right next to where they would be sheered (with the boys in a pen ten feet away and with at least three fences in between).
The sheep came out, got sheered, then went into a pen between where they were and where the ram pen is where all their nice clean coats were freshly laundered and numbered and sorted by size. We dressed them, then opened the gate for them to run back into their pasture.
Meanwhile the fleece was carefully picked up and carried a couple feet to the door of the barn where the skirting table was and anyone coming by to watch was put to work skirting fleeces.
Rolly and I had made up a stack of cards with each sheep's name and today's date, and Rolly had put them in color/sheering order in a stack on the corner of the skirting table. On some of the cards things were written like "SOLD" or "NOT FOR SALE" and a little "$" in the corner of the nicest fleeces cards so it was clear to anyone looking at the fleeces what was up. The fleeces were rolled up and put in bags with the cards.
A few people came by during the sheering and bought fleeces, so by the time the sheering was done, the cost of sheering was already pretty much paid for.
We also took some time to admire the fiber. This is a very fine wool. The fibers were like spiderwebs. Rolly says not to run this through a carder because it will ruin it and it should instead be combed.
Rolly said this is the perfect crimp.
Rolly's sheep are mostly, but not all Romneys. Here are some pictures I particularly liked of the shearing. You can see the skirting table in the background of this one, and there is someone ready to sweep. Rolly's husband also did a little skirting during the sheering which helped things go smoothly and quickly as well.
The highlight for me was definitely getting to sheer the sheep myself. I got to help sheer two ewes and one three-hundred pound ram. I heard Rolly and the man sheering say my name and when I came over I heard that they were saying I should sheer a sheep. I was delighted. The man sheering was a good teacher and it was fun and exiting to sheer. I was so afraid I would cut the sheep, but after seeing how much second cuts I left on the first sheep, I wasn't so worried and did a much better job digging in for the next two.
That purple stuff on the floor is from nicking the sheep and having to put this incredibly purple spray on them to help stop the bleeding.
We finished the ewes and moved on to the rams. Rolly only has three, thank goodness, but they are a much more complected to deal with. Rolly says that she tries to keep the ram she is holding between her and any other rams when she is in the pen with them. To get them out to be sheered, we had a teem of people surround the ram. Once it was on the platform, my job was to crawl underneath and grab its far legs and pull as everyone else pushed the ram over. I little bit scary, but no rams fell on top of me or kicked me in the face which was nice.
This is probably my favorite of Rolly's rams and the one I helped sheer!
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