Shearing and Lambing are Just-Around-The-Corner

      As the "doldrums" of January drag on, shearing and lambing seem far off in the distant future.  The reality, though, is that they're not.  Because lambs are due the first week of April, that means shearing needs to occur the middle of March.  I actually searched the National Sheep Industry site for Iowa shearers, and sent an email to about eight of them - two weeks ago - and not one has responded.  That is a "panic moment" thought! While I did get the sheep sheared last year, and the shearer was a very nice man, he didn't do a "harvesting fleece" type of shearing.  He did a "get-it-off-quickly" shearing - hence, he entirely ruined my ram's fleece.  Korinth, whose fleece is a beautiful moorit colored, soft, nice handled product was sheared off in strips and tossed aside by the shearer.  I was quite rather shocked when I saw it! Needless-to-say, that fleece is still in its original sheet, unskirted, in the attic.  I haven't been able to bring myself to do more - it almost brings tears to my eyes, whenever I see it.

      Shearing vs. harvesting, is a concept older shearers don't get.  Because most of them raised sheep of their own for market, the wool has been just a side product, not the end result.  I raise sheep only for the fleece - and need my fleece harvested, not merely separated from the body of the sheep. 

      So, I am, again, scrambling, and trying to locate a fleece harvester.  Much goes into raising our fleece.  The sheep are coated year-round and require regular and frequent coat changes.  This ensures a top-quality very clean fleece.  At the time of harvesting, shots are administered to the ewes. So, a fleece harvesting day consists of:  1) a patient and experienced fleece harvester, aka, shearer; 2) piles of clean sheets to put the fleece in; 3) name cards with each sheeps name on it, to be tied up in the sheet with their fleece; 4) smaller coats put back on the ewes; 5) administer shot and release. 

      We will have ten sheep this year - Korinth will be done at the same time as the ewes, which will require an equipment relocation - which most shearers don't like, or charge you $20.00 extra - to move the shearing apparatus about 50 feet.  Crazy, I know, but, if you find a keeper, you pay.

      Step 6, then, is to carry all of the fleece into the house, spread each fleece out on the dining room table and begin the skirting process. Skirting would be step 7, which means the dirty edges are separated from the prime fleece, which is then bagged and set aside for showing, and ultimately sold.

      Within two weeks of the fleece harvesting, lambing will begin.  We bred ewes for later deliveries this year.  We did this so more lambs can be born outdoors, where there is more room for the delivery and less chance of other ewes/lambs bumping into delivering ewes. I have many sleepless nights during this phase.  I sleep with my bedroom window open - no matter the temperature outside.  I get up and make frequent middle-of-the-night visits to the barn and pasture, to check the girls.

      So, in the realm of preparing for the next season's crop of lambs and hopefully, prize-winning fleece producers, there is much to do in the next couple of months.  I suppose I should be enjoying, then, instead of complaining, about the slow and lazier days which the next couple of weeks will bring.