Yesterday was our first shearing day with our new Romney and Corriedale sheep. We only sheared the 31 pregnant ewes (25 East Friesians, 3 Romneys and 3 Corriedales); we like to shear them a month before lambing. The rest of the flock will be sheared in March when it is a bit warmer. Rain was forecast for yesterday, so we kept the girls in the barn Sunday night to be sure they were nice and dry for shearing. And they didn’t get any breakfast, because they are more comfortable during shearing if their rumens are empty (try explaining that to a room full of hungry ewes!).
John brought his 5-month-old half beagle half fox-terrier puppy, Oakley, who was a big hit.
The Corriedales had their coats removed and were pretty skittery but Lolo managed to hang onto them.
The Romneys were a bit more stoic. Beautiful Celeste, our oldest Romney ewe at 6 years old, was a bit embarrassed to lose her fleece. What a change! We could hardly recognize her!
Jackie Post and her friends Mary, Dona and Colleen came to help with the fleeces (how did I manage to get no photos of them??). The fiber gals were really enthusiastic about the beautiful Romney and Corriedale fleeces, and Jackie bought 94 pounds of East Friesian fleeces for her felting business. Dona bought the fleece from our 4-year-old Romney named Maureen. The Corriedale fleeces are elegant and the gals thought they would sell well (a bit challenging to photograph because they are so black!). The Romney fleeces are stunningly beautiful.
Stay tuned for new pages on my web site where I will post the Romney and Corriedale fleeces for sale, as well as some stunning East Friesian lambskins, and breeding stock once they are born!
