I Sheared the Sheep......or not....

I went to shear the sheep. I meant to shear the sheep but didn't actually get to touch a sheep. Now before you feel sorry for me let me say after I watched my BIL do it I was not eagerly jumping in there.



BIL works on Ram with electric horse shears, Cherie holds the cord out of the way, DD2 watches, but where am I?

He started with the most desperate case, a 235 lb ram that had not been sheared in 2 years, poor thing. He looked like he was being choked by his own fleece. That is the way he recently came to BIL who keeps sheep for food, not fleece. He only shears them because it is humane to do so.

Who is that in the funky, painty pants and red sweat shirt standing by?

Even though he used the electric trimmers it still took about 20 mins. Why isn't there a professional doing this? There isn't one available. There used to be one in the area but he moved to New Zealand 2 years ago.



Oh ya, that's me.

Cherie could hardly wait to get the shears in her hand. BIL suggested not using the electric ones so we could get a longer fiber. This is the yearling. Her fleece is a lot cleaner than the rams.



Almost done. That is BIL holding her between his legs. Sheep cannot be on their side for too long. They have difficulty breathing in that position. BIL did manage to get the sheep in the proper shearing position , sitting up on their bums, but they didn't stay there. This is A LOT more difficult than it looks.

Cherie and BIL switched places to get the job done.









Hold on there sweety! Just a few more snips.










All Done! Back with baby.








Who's next? Actually we will be back in a week or two to finish the job. I promise I will be more proactive and get in there.






When all was said and done BIL fixed us a great supper of BBQ lamb chops and mutton steak. Thanks Cherie for pushing me into this learning experience. Maybe I should hold that thanks until I try cleaning the stinky fleece in the van. More to come .......anyone out there know how to clean a fleece? It's like talking to a wall.
It's official. I'm great at standing around while others work, but then you already knew that.

I can't believe what I am about to do!

SHEAR SHEEP!

Yes! I am going to my BIL on Sunday to shear his four sheep. I am excited and repulsed all at the same time. And no, I have never done this before. That's one of the sheep I'm going to shear.

Blame it on Cherie, my friend. She is my amazing knitting friend who knits mitts, socks, blankets....with NO pattern. And I'm not talking about simple, beginner patterns. Her mittens are beautiful with flared, intarsia cuffs. We have been saying for months we need to get together so she can show me how to dye wool.

Anyway, my DH mentioned to her one Sunday that his brother has sheep that need shearing. That's all she needed to hear. This something I would say I would like to do and then never get around to it. Not Cherie. She wants that fleece! She wants to clean it, card it, do whatever else needs to be done (we don't even know), dye it, weave it and, maybe, sell it. When I told her my BIL has the fleece from last year too she was exuberant!

"You are going to have wool coming out the yingyang!" I said. Her response?

"It's about time! My yingyang has been empty for a looong time!" Ah Cherie. She's so sweet.

Someone please help me! How do you shear a sheep? What do you do with the fleece once you have it? How do you clean it? Process it?

Who am I kidding. No one is going to be reading this that will be able to help me. In fact I would be surprised if anyone reads this at all.


Scream as loud as you like! No one is close by to hear your cries! CACKLE, CACKLE!

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!