Shearing Day 2012

Shearing is about to get underway. The barn is swept, the sheep are (finally) dry, and storage sheets are labeled and ordered. This will be the first year I'll be helping the shearers solo, so I had to make sure everything was in order to keep the sheep moving and the wool bagged.

We woke up this morning to temperatures hovering around zero degrees, which is not the most ideal weather for taking off the wool. Luckily the sun is out and the temperature has warmed to near 30, just warm enough to get the sheep out of their winter coats.

Pictures will come soon. (12:30 pm)

The ladies loafing before the shearers arrived.

The fleece is off! (4:30)

After 2 hours of shearing all 17 sheep were free of their wooly coats and getting reacquainted, and the fleece was bagged for skirting. The bred ewes spent most of the evening ramming each other until ear tags were bloodied while the yearling ewe lambs played ring-around-Lwaxana in their stall.

The bred ewes vie for dominance and reestablish the flock's hierarchy.

Here is the first set of lamb belly pictures:

Poa

Maggie

Wynona

Mocha

Kira

Crystal

Clover

The ewe lambs look so little and cute without their big fluffy coats.

Claire, Madeleine, and Annie

Claire without her golden locks.

Otto smiles for the camera while Buckwheat and Mac look on.

Robbie seems to be saying, "Hey! Don't forget about me."

Now the lambing date predictions begin. For the next month I'll be monitoring the ewes closely for any indication that lambs are on the way. While the first possible lambing date isn't until March 30th, I'll be taking lots of pictures and posting the usual gratuitous udder shots for record-keeping purposes.