I volunteered to write a blog post to be published on May 29th.  I thought this would work out perfectly because I could take pictures and talk about the shearing process of my flock that was to take place on the 19th of May.  I would have 10 days to pull it together.  What could go wrong… right?  Wrong!  The Spring winds in the high desert of New Mexico can be very strong and brutal and this year is no exception.  At least we do not have tornados like they do East of us.  Kerry ( the shearer) had to cancel because of the high winds that day.  Given that he was blown over and had his ribs broken last year, who can blame him.  Also, the fleece gets blown away when it comes off the sheep.  He had an opening two days later on Thurday afternoon and I thought I could get some pictures taken then to post.  Once again the winds did not cooperate.  Kerry is one of the few shearers in the state and is highly sought after for his time.  We are now scheduled for June.  That definitely does not fit into my posting schedule so, I thought I would post what I have from past shears and some odds and ends of the life of a wool producer.

In preparation for the shear, the week prior, I trick my sheep into the pen where they will be sheared.  I back my UTV with their food in it into the pen and they rush in to get their breakfast.   

The sad part is, they should not eat before they are sheared.  The position they are in to be sheared makes it very uncomfortable for them if they have food in their stomachs.  On the day of the shear, my husband will accompany me up there and will keep them in before they are fed and close the gate fast as I pull out of the pen.  And no, that is not my husband in the UTV.  Charlie dog has to stay in the cab or he will chase the sheep and not in a good way!

 

Once the sheep get penned up, Kerry uses his shepherds hook to hook a leg, while they are running, and then grab that leg and bring them down.  This is no easy task.

I get the flock into the barn for the vet and she brings a couple of young techs with her and they chase them down in that small area and  just grab their backs so she can innoculate them.  We let them out of the barn when she’s done and whittle down the flock that way.  Or, they can be wrangled like my son and daughter did in this picture.😂🤣  I tried to coat the Wensleydales and they grew out of them too fast and we were attempting to remove them.

Here is Kerry at last year’s shearing.  He does everything with hand held shears.  It looks back breaking, doesn’t it?  Notice the garbage can in the picture below.  We throw away a lot of the already icky fleece from their underside and bottoms.

 

Here is another picture of the shearing with Stella looking on after her haircut. After the shearing I take the bags and bags of fleece into our steel storage building.                                

   From here I do a light skirting of the fleece and then throw it in parts into the tumbler.  Here are a couple of  pictures of the tumbler.     

There is a lot of dirt that comes out from it being tumbled but I still pick quite a bit of hay from it by hand and then it is ready for a scour.  I use very hot water and Unicorn Power Scour wool wash being very careful not to felt it.  The water from the scour turns into mud so I scour a couple of times before rinsing.  I think I saw in one of Jan’s posts how good the dirty water is for your garden and she is not wrong.  It is not good to go down the drain with all that lanolin to clog your septic system.

That is what the shearing process is about.  Now, I have to keep my fingers crossed for cooperative weather for the next scheduled date but I do see thunderstorms in the forecast for the afternoon of the 2nd.  In the meantime, those Wensleydale locks just keep getting longer.

I thought I would close with a bit of “cuteness factor”.  Last Fall, a friend of mine took  a Wensleydale ewe home with her to keep.  She then bred her with one of her Merino rams and here are the results.

 

I can’t wait to see that resulting fleece!