Getting Ready to Shear the Sheep

This weekend is the big sheep shearing day. Saturday all the sheep get shorn and I'll have a bunch more wool to skirt and get ready to sell. We had hoped the shop would be done so the wool can go upstairs in the new skirting area but it's not going to happen. I'll be storing the boxes of wool under the hay barn until the shop is done then move it up there for skirting.

First step is every year we re-build the shearing sweep and setup. We set up under the hay barn so we can't have it set up until most of the hay is fed out. Each year it's a bit different as we try to improve the flow of sheep from pens, to getting coats off, to shearing, to back into the pens. It's hard to see but this year we are doing the entire system with wire jug panels. Shearing will happen on the plywood floor and I'll do a preliminary skirting of the fleece off the shearing floor. I just hope I can keep up with Eifion shearing. I'll probably never be as good as the wool handlers we saw competing in Wales in 2006 but I am using many of the techniques they used.



We try to have extra help on shearing day. Our regular helpers can't come this year so we are trying some new folks. It should be ok but it's going to be interesting teaching new people how to do all the various jobs.