Shearing Day!
April 5, 2024
Shearing day is almost here! I’m not sure who will be happier to see it come and go, me or the sheep.
First thing Sunday morning we’ll corral all the sheep in an outside holding pen. As the day progresses, we’ll move a few at a time into the barn where they will be “on deck” waiting for the shearer. When the shearer is ready, I’ll escort/coerce a sheep onto the “shearing floor.” As the shearer takes the sheep from me, she’ll place her leg behind the sheep while placing the sheep’s butt on the floor and tucking one hoof behind her own leg. The shearer’s well-choreographed movement is reminiscent of something between a tango, and a well-orchestrated wrestling match.
Once the sheep is seated and all 4 hooves are off the ground it instantly stops struggling - simultaneously accepting the fact that the shearer is in total control and that fighting her is useless. The yearlings who have never been shorn before struggle a bit more, but even they soon relax once they realize they are safe, and that getting shorn actually kind of feels good!
The shearing takes 5-10 minutes per sheep and includes trimming the hooves. This year, with the damp soggy pastures their hooves are a mess. Usually, our shearer comments on how great the hooves look “just a bit of trimming to tidy them up” but this year I know they are terrible.
When the shearer is done, she helps the sheep stand up. With all 4 hooves once again on solid ground and totally free to leave, it’s no longer in such a hurry. It’ll shake itself off, smell its fleece laying on the shearing floor, and then saunter out the barn door without a care in the world. The most frightening thing for a sheep is to be separated from the others - they don’t mind the shearing nearly as much as they do being singled out.
Once the fleece is shorn, it’s put on the skirting table. Skirting is the tedious process of hand picking through the fleece to pull out anything that might not come out in the washing process, and removing any pieces of wool, like the belly wool, that are substandard and should just be composted. Skirting can take up to half an hour per fleece and this year we’ll be short staffed, so we’ll bag and tag everything and sort through it later.
We already have 17 lambs this spring and we need to keep track of them while their moms are getting shorn, so along with Anne and I, my two sisters will be helping out. (Thank you!). Also, in addition to our shearer in the sheep pen, this year we’ll have “Team Fido” a “sheep to shawl team.” They’ll be demonstrating how the wool goes from (you guessed it) sheep to shawl.
Some of the freshly shorn wool will be handed off to Team Fido which will process it by carding the fibers into roving and then spinning the roving into yarn. As soon as the yarn is spun, it’ll be woven into the shawl. The entire process will take place in the shearing pen, while the sheep are being led in and out and getting shorn. What could possibly go wrong? It’ll undoubtably be a very chaotic but happy day.
Join us! It’s a celebration of spring, of farming, and of the seasonal rhythms of agrarian life. It’s a day of widely varied skillsets and teamwork – working together to weave the fabric of an all but forgotten life.
