Shearing Done!

Shearing done for 2011.

Lots of sticky fleeces and hard shearing sheep. Not entirely sure of the issue. Some is probably weather, ours was not the only hard shearing flock, some is also coats. I ran out of larger size coats and so they were on too tight and I think that caused problems. Sticky means there are more second cuts than normal but they are still really nice wool. I may have some pictures later which I will add. I didn't take any but some of the people who were helping did.

Now comes the task of shipping out the pre-sold Ravelry fleeces and then getting the rest on the web site before lambing begins.

Black Sheep Power & Light

Black Sheep Power & Light, a photo by Oogie McGuire on Flickr.

One of the solar arrays providing sheep shade.

Spring Snow

Good thing the ditch got cleaned yesterday!


The snow had already started settling and melting by the time I took these pictures.

Spring Ditch Cleaning

Spring work has started.


We hired a trackhoe to clean the ditch that comes down into our property that carries our water. It hasn't been cleaned in years and required a bigger machine than our small backhoe.



Looking good!

March Wool Work

I needed some white wool for blending with our black for new rovings so I went over to one of the big range flock operations during shearing to buy some wool.


Getting the next batch of sheep in for shearing.




The big flocks hire large crews. This crew had 13 shearing stations and the sheep go up the inside, get shorn and the wool drops out the back and the sheep climb out the front. This particular flock was going to take 2 full days to get shorn. They have about 2500 ewes.