Shearing day extraordinaire!

Finally, finally, finally!

SkyLines snowy driveway to the sheep barn

I have been wanting to write about our most spectacular experience at SkyLines Farms down in Harvard, Idaho. My first excuse was that I didn't have any photos (yes, it's true I forgot my camera and my darling husband is still using a 35 mm, and when he got his photos developed he didn't get a photo CD!!) then dear Melissa, owner and shepherdess at  SkyLines emailed me some, and then work got the best of me and then the dog ate my homework... oh wait, that's an excuse for a different time.  So here it is, at last.


As you can see it was still snowy, snowy when we ventured down.  In fact, we almost canceled as we had blizzard conditions the week before.  Our original plan was for me to take Friday off of work so that we could drive down and spend the night and be up bright and early for Saturday's shearing.  Well, the only part of the plan that didn't change was that I took Friday off of work...  Instead of spending a leisurely day driving, we spent the entire day pulling 24 inches (that's 2 feet!) of fresh wet snow off our less snow-worthy outbuildings.  I called and told Melissa not to expect us that night and then we both passed out on the couch, with big plans of getting up early to drive down (you know like in school where you tell yourself, I'll just go to bed now and get up extra early tomorrow and finish that report). Well to be there at 8am for the start of shearing, we had to leave about 4:30 am, which we did (I know, I know you are all shocked, yet impressed).


It's 4 am, the alarm goes off.  We wander outside with flashlights and blurry eyes, throwing hay at confused animals who are wondering why their crazy humans are out there in the middle of the night.

Driving commenced.  In the dark.  and little snow flakes started to fall. and then more, and more.  Suffice it to say we got about 25 miles from home to a cool little place called Hope, (honest it is called Hope) and we were, well, beyond hope. It was snowing so hard that Brian could barely see the road and when we stopped and opened the door to look out, ours were the only tracks.  It seemed ridiculous to drive 4 hours in a blizzard, work hard outside all day, and then turn around and drive 4 hours back home. We waited.  We conferred.  We decided to turn back and go home.  yes, we did.  We drove about 21 of the 25 miles back home and the snow stopped.  Completely. Well, guess what?  yes, we did, again.  We turned around and drove the 4 hours and boy am I glad we did!!  Super fun day with super fun people.  okay, okay!! here are some more photos:

The "men-folk" working hard

The "women folk" actually working :)!

 Although I poke fun at the men here, shearing is hard, hard work.  Melissa has a great set up, indoors with a small pen to section off the current group of sheep waiting to be sheared and then a big covered area where we did the skirting (taking undesirable, unmentionables off the otherwise beautiful fleece- as Melissa told us, the lady in uptown Manhattan, opening the box containing her long awaited fleece does NOT want to pull out a clump of sticky, wet sheep poop!)  If you have never been to a shearing, I highly recommend it.  The only thing I can compare the actual shearing to is a magic show.  


The fuzzy, unshorn sheep mill around baaahing and looking nervous.  One of the helpers grabs up the next candidate and escorts them to the shearing platform (aka a plywood sheet). Martin, the shearer (or Magician, depending on your perspective), deftly takes control of the sheep which instantly relaxes.  Using a tool that looks like something you could easily use to cut off your toe, Martin whisks off a year's worth of beautiful, luxurious wool.

The fleece, miraculously still all in one piece, is then carefully picked up and brought to the skirting table.  Melissa made the coolest skirting tables out of 2 x 4s and PVC- portable, so she can use them wherever they are needed.

Yes, Hartsong Ranch will be having one of these soon!

The fleece is then tossed onto the table, shorn side down, and the meticulous picking, pulling and general inspection begins.

Here Melissa is giving direction to one of the skirters.

Second cuts (the teeny short bits of fleece produced when a section of sheep is clipped twice) generally fall through the slats as the fleece is picked up, shook and dropped down. As skirters, we attempted to find the neck and corresponding butt ends, so that when we folded and rolled them we could do it in the proper order.  Then all the "icky" bits (dirty, matted, full of VM- a.k.a. vegetable matter) were pulled off and put in the scrap pile under the table.  Melissa composts the dirty wool- which is quite a pile because she wants her fleeces to go out to her customers as clean as possible!

Dixie with the skirting pile

The skirted fleeces are then folded, rolled and bagged.  The responsible sheep's name is put on the bag and the bag is piled in the truck bed with all the other bags!  Martin sheared and we skirted and bagged 47 sheep fleeces!  The bags are then transported to Melissa's wool shed, where they are weighed and then sent to their lucky new owners.  


We had a fantastic lunch and awesome conversation all day.  Such a fun, interesting, worthwhile day.  And, to top it off, there was this:

Rainbow! a perfect end to a perfect day.

So, it took me a while to post this story, but it was worth the wait, wasn't it?  Just like participating in shearing day was worth braving the snow storm and making the drive!  The best things in life aren't always the easiest things in life.

HAPPY SPRING!!!  

Fleece skirting

I love getting together with a big group of women who all share a similar interest! Last night at the guild meeting it was so fun to see what everyone is working on and hear about what worked and what didn't. and the fleece skirting demonstration was wonderful! Who knew a sheep fleece was this big!
Emily showed us what to look for in a hand spinning fleece, how to check for second cuts, and what NOT to keep.
it was super fun! (and she knit the beautiful shawl she is wearing) She brought this freshly sheared fleece and another fleece that she had already cleaned (in her washing machine, with Dawn dish detergent!)

I didn't think to take photos of everyone's show and tell projects... maybe at the weaving study group next week!

Happy creating,
Lorie

Skirting a Fleece!

I am a member of the Sandpoint Fiberarts Guild, but I rarely go to the meetings, since it is almost an hour there and an hour back. but tonight, one of the members is going to demonstrate how to skirt a fleece! Yippee! The timing couldn't be better, as we are now the proud owners of 4 wooly wonders (sheep, in case you didn't get it...) and I am hoping to shear them myself this spring. Here is the description from the guild website:

Emily Faulkner will bring a freshly sheared, unskirted fleece for a skirting demonstration. Skirting is the process of determining which parts of a fleece to keep and which to discard, depending on intended use.

Well, I can't wait to learn about fleeces. I will try and take some photos to post tomorrow!

I feel like I should learn how to spin, since I love to weave and now we have sheep, but it has never really appealed to me. I did see this cool operation while scouting the web today. A foot powered spindle- it looks fun! it might make me want to spin it up.

Happy weaving!