Tag: shearing

Rainy Day Shearing

denisemor 0 March 27, 2016

Yesterday was beautiful. So sunny I think I got a little bit of a burn.
Today not so much.

But the icky weather did provide me with an opportunity to get some shearing done. The boys were hanging in the shed to get out of the heavy rain, and I jumped at the chance to relieve them of their fleeces!

Frank and Griff were not exactly thrilled to be getting the beautyshop treatment (even with lots of rubs), but were pretty cooperative once I got the halter on them.

Felix was kind of a bugger, and the quality of his haircut reflects that. He just wouldn’t let me get that last bit of scraggly wool off his rear end. So he gets to walk around looking really silly and unkempt for a bit.

Felix and Frank were quite felted again. But Griff’s was awesome. Crimpy and fluffy and massive. Man, that boy grows a lot of wool!
Here is the wool take (after skirting out the positiveley not useable stuff) drying in the shop.

And Friday I got to help out with shearing over at Schoonover Farm. It is always so neat to see Eifion Morgan work, and I brought home a lovely little fleece from Wynette, a sweet little Gotland/Finn/Shetland girl. Here she is being sheared-

and here is the woolly goodness.

Part white, part black, part steely grey. Fine and soft, with a bit of Gotland sheen. Going to be so fun to play with!

Chicken Playpen

denisemor 0 March 20, 2016

This weekend the little chigs graduated from their box in the shop to a playpen under the eaves of our big old dilapidated chicken house.

It’s a pretty sweet little setup, with lot of room for them to run around and flap and hop, all securely closed up with chicken wire, and bedded with pine shavings.

They still have a big box with their heat lamp to come home to and stay toasty, and it seems that they are getting acclimated to the new surroundings pretty quickly. And when it gets dark, it looks like there’s a party going on in there! (I put a big chunk of gnarly wood there on the left, just because they like jumping on top of stuff)

In sheepy news, I got a little more Edgar shearing done- I’m back to his hips now 🙂

The rest of the boys seemed kind of curious about getting sheared, milling about at the entrance to the shed-

But of the remaining four, I was only able to convince Chone to let me clean up around his neck a little.

Now he can get good neck rubs. That’s all he really cares about

Have a great week!

Walk-ins Welcome

denisemor 0 March 6, 2016

Scenes from the beautyshop

Shearing Edgar is always fun.
I sit on a rock, and he casually saunters over.
I let him sniff the shears and ask him if he wants a little off the top.
I usually start right behind the ears, carefully opening up a pathway through his lovely lanolin-y wool.

Once I’ve got the back of his neck uncovered, I give him a little massage.
I think the massage is why he likes getting sheared so much- that and feeling the spring air on his skin for the first time in many months.

I slowly work my way back over his shoulders and down around his chest. (more massage)
He occasionally gets fidgety and needs to take a little break, so I try to not have too much wool hanging off of him at any point. I pull it off and collect it in my muck-bucket as I go.

We always and up doing the haircut in stages. Stage one is the Mullet.
Business in the front, Party in the back.
His nicest wool is on the front end, so I’m fine with letting him hang out for a while in Mullet Mode.

None of the other guys are quite so eager for me to take the shears to them, so they’ll need to be haltered.
But it’s always nice kick off shearing season with my buddy Edgar.

I also wanted to mention the the ChickieCam is back!
Chicks are just over a week old now and getting some of their big-girl feathers in. Super cute.

Shearing

denisemor 0 November 2, 2013

The boys are shorn in the spring using old-fashioned hand shears in the spring, and sometimes again in the fall. I take it slow and and try hard to keep the guys comfortable and stress-free.Sometimes this means letting someone walk around around half-shorn for a while if they get antsy and uncooperative.