Shearing Day Part One

I'm shearing late this year. Usually I try to shear in February but for what ever reason I tried to shear later this year to see if we could shear under the "rise" of the Shetlands fleece. Well it doesn't work! but the weather was right. Seems that once the "rise" begins that sticky part of the fleece keeps holding the new fiber down. Some of the sheep still have one inch of fiber left on them after shearing, stuck in a one quarter inch "mat" next to their skin. Not felted just stuck tight with lanolin and no way to save it.

Maybe if we shear in January? I know most Shetland people have this problem but is there a better way, a better time of the year to shear Shetlands? Any information would be appreciated.
Ladys awaiting to be herded into the barn. These lambs are learning some new tricks from the goats! 

All of the ewe's that were bred are being sheared today so that when they lamb in April I can watch them better. The lambs and the few ewe's not bred will be sheared in a week or two when David can get back here again.

The goats were caught in the mix of sheep so they will be witnessing their first sheep shearing. I want to catch up Ginger to remove her collar anyway.

My eight boys, four wethers and four rams, also were sheared to make our day of shearing 19 sheep. The two little guys looking at the camera are from my 2009 lambs. If you click on the picture to get a bigger version you can see the tremendous amount of horn growth they have which has all happened since this February!

Sailors turn, with Jeannette watching his side so he won't jump side ways off the stand as David shears. David does not usually shear sheep. His expertise comes from shearing and grooming his Llamas for show. So we shear on a sheep stand in two sections, one side at a time. Then he goes back and cleans up the short and dirty fleece left around the belly and rear end of each sheep.

Sailor all sheared with K.G.waiting in the background. K.G. or King George is from two registered Shetland sheep. He is a giant in my flock with a five pound fleece, long and silky, which sheared off clean down to the skin. Wish they all sheared so easily.

Megan and Ginger thought this whole shearing thing got to be a bit boring.

We Interrupt This Shetland Blog...

for a weekend of Alpaca shearing. This is my friend Jeannette Miller's place. As you can see she raises alpacas and has tons of them! Shearing started last Thursday and went till Sunday. I go to town and shop with my Mom on Thursdays and had a guild meeting on Saturday so only helped two days. Thank goodness I had a day off in between helping. After Friday from 8:30 am till 4:00 pm of bending over my legs were soooo sore!

These are some of the girls. We sheared mostly females and then the show fleeces on Sunday. When I first saw several years ago how they lay the animals out and pull their legs I wasn't sure shearing alpacas was so nice. Then when your dealing with the long legs and slender necks you get a better appreciation about the safety in this way of doing things. Three people hold the alpaca as she stands on the mats. David the shearer slips a noose on each leg then he pulls the ropes and we help her down slowly and stretch out her legs. Zack gets a towel and puts it under her head and sits there holding her head.

My job is to trim her feet and hold her hips if she begins to jump around. David shears the blanket off first (mid-body). Megan and Jeannette and/or I gather the fleece as it comes off. Then the seconds come off, leg and neck, and placed in a separate bag. Any fiber too short to keep is in the garbage.

Next picture is Prince in the back ground and his show fleece in front of him. Wow he is just over one year old and this is his tui fleece. (tui fleece is their first fleece like hogget fleece in sheep talk. You can see this is just the middle of his body and his legs and neck will be sheared next.

Shearing a show fleece takes twice as long. In the picture below Mystified is half way done with his show fleece. The first half is folded over like David is doing with the second part. It took two people to hold the first part and two people to roll Mystified over so we could keep the fleece from separating in the middle. The first half and Megan are sitting on a shower curtain. Once the second part is free of Mystified body we roll him back straighten out the fleece and it is folded and rolled in the shower curtain. Mystified has a few Grand champion ribbons for his past fleeces, even at the Alpaca Nationals, I believe it was last year.

Below is the last alpaca sheared. A not so happy older girl who hates shearing!! It was decided to let her stand, her fleece is not one to keep, very course, and she has a towel over her mouth because "not so happy" alpacas can scream, kick and SPIT green crap everywhere! She did not scream much nor did she kick but the towel was green and wet by the end of the shearing and we were happy the day was done! In four days David sheared 89 alpacas with 5 show fleeces.

Big job I'd say. This last stand up shearing was a big help from all the bending over.

Can't leave without showing you Apollo a future show 'paca sporting his new Lolly Pop cut.

February

February has been loaded with work, fun and excitement! The most thrilling thing is our new fence! You know the saying if life throws you lemons make lemonade, well here is my lemonade! 3000 feet of five foot no-climb horse fence. This encloses our 10 acre parcel next to us and the 4-5 acres at the top of our property we live on that was never fenced.

A big Thank You goes to Juan Padilla of "Juan's Lawn Service" for a job well done. We would have never done this, but when our Livestock Guardian Dog Jake was "arrested" for being a dangerous dog we went looking for money to hire a lawyer. When Bob's Mom passed away about 8 years ago and we sold her house bought this land and had a small annuity. Well "Wall Street" was spending the annuity for us so we took the money and invested in our own economy and built a fence. Jake has 21 acres to run and the peanut JoBeth can't even get out.

This property has loads of grasses brush and perennial plants to feed my flock all summer! There are also large Poplar trees on the land for shade in the summer and leaves to eat in the fall. The picture below is my new gate from the sheep pen to their new acreage.

Speaking of sheep on February 28, last Saturday there was a large flock reduction happening! David Armer sheared my shetland flock, reducing their size to about half! With the help of my friend Jeannette the three of us spent from 9 AM to 7 PM shearing 28 shetlands. David is a student at UNR and has been involved with llamas most of his young life. Jeannette raises alpaca so I was the only sheep person. We sheared them on a stand. It was slow going but no major cuts happened and they look wonderful.

These picture were taken today, one week later and the temperature is 25 degrees. We got a foot and a half of snow the other day and the sheep are all doing very well. They have straw in the barn and the sun is a blessing in the mornings.

Their little bodies are so darling!

Hattie, below, is just the cutest thing! She does stand square and her shoulders and butt are so broad. She is a coming two year old and should have a lamb or two in there somewhere.

Oma's straight top line broad stance and full of babies. She will be three and this is her second lambing.

This is Pepper like in Pepper Potts "Iron Man's" girl Friday. She is not bred and will be one year old this April.

Now meet Hazel. Also a yearly this April. I completely lost her hogget fleece. Well almost all. What happened? Poor David could not get his clippers threw most of the fleece so he sheared above this tangled mess. There is what looks like about a half inch of fleece that is stuck down to her body. If I sit and pull on it the fleece puffs up to about two inches. Now it is loosening up on its own somewhat. This is her hogget fleece and very soft. We don't get much rain and she was not coated. There is one other ewe, Kess a dark moorit, I have that had a bit of this happen. This is her second shearing.

When the weather warms up I'll need to give them a bath and re-cut their fleeces.

I have some new pullets. They came to live here about three weeks ago. Jeannette traded some of her Egyptian Geese for these young just starting to lay pullets. Five Barred Rocks and one black hen maybe a Black Australorp?

We've been getting two to four eggs per day, I share with Jeannette, and Sally the emu is still making a showing every third day!

Lastly I've been dyeing roving to sell on my new Etsy Store and I must say it is selling very well.

The "Feed the Flock Fund" paid for the shearing. Now with the new land to graze I'd like to be able to save enough money with the sales of my roving for next winters hay.