Fleece | Hatchtown Farm

Shearing Day(s)

By Pam, on March 23rd, 2010

Look at the lustre!!

Whew! Shearing for this year is done! We’re so lucky to have sheep that make such beautiful fiber and a “sheep whispering” shearer. Mother Nature smiled upon us and gave us the most gorgeous day on Saturday. She even brought on the sun just as we gathered to finish up on Sunday.

Thanks to all who came to help, everything went smoothly. The skirters — experienced and newbies alike — did an extraordinary job. One of our CSA shareholders came from Florida via NH and she even had her husband skirting before too long! I’m betting there’ll be very little for me to do when I get back into the fleeces. And we must not forget the sweeper who keeps the shearing floor clear of debris… and those who got down and dirty in the sheep pen. Without them the sheep wouldn’t make it to the shearing floor at all! And then there were all the folks to came to cheer us on…thanks everybody! What a fun day we all had!

Here are some photos. Jim was having flash issues so some are a little blurred but hope you enjoy them anyway.

Emily gets started on the first sheep and the skirting crew waits to get their hands into the nice warm fleece.

Penelope stands ready with her broom. That floor is so clean you could eat off...well, maybe not!

Little Minh has his broom and is ready to help Penelope.

Kathy became an expert fleece picker-upper/thrower. Here she dives right in! The skirters await her throw...

Our oldest visitor (80+) and one of our youngest look on as Emily shears.

Many hands at the skirting table make light work.

The skirters roll up a pretty grey fleece.

Serafina opens a sheet for the fleece to be wrapped in.

Emily, our "sheep whispering" shearer is calm and relaxed even after 5 hours of hugging sheep.

Only a few more to shear and the girls are starting to hint that they'd like their hay.

After the sheep are fed, we head to the kitchen for a well-deserved nosh.

See Spot's Spot?

By Pam, on March 17th, 2010

Oh my — time flies — not sure I’m having fun but I’m really looking forward to our shearing weekend. Jim and I have been busy getting the barn ready. You wouldn’t believe the amount of “stuff” (being polite here) that can accumulate in a big old barn during the winter months! There’s always more to do but I think we can shear without tripping over ourselves or each other now.

While I was cleaning around the skirting table today I found a tag from one of last year’s fleece bags on the floor. It read “Spot ??” I had to laugh! Spot is a sweet little white ewe with a lovely fleece…and a mystery.

Here’s a photo of Spot as a lamb…you can see why she’s called “Spot” —

Little lamb, Spot, shows her spot.

Here’s Spot after she was sheared last year…notice something missing?

After her first shearing...no spot!

I haven’t looked under her coat recently. Wouldn’t it be funny if her spot has reappeared? Well, even if it hasn’t, she’ll always been known as “Spot.”

There are many mysteries when it comes to raising sheep…and somehow there aren’t any less as we learn more. That’s because Mother Nature is involved… and she always has something new and interesting up her sleeve! I do think we learn to roll with the punches over time. And hopefully, we learn from all the punches and from each other. BUT…there’s always a “but”…genetics is another ball of wax entirely. We would have to file the mystery of the disappearing spot under “genetics”…and more specifically “color genetics.”

I know this is hard to believe but color genetics in sheep has just begun to be studied. That’s because for a bazillion years, all black (colored) lambs were “done in” before they could make more and usually the poor parents of the black lamb were also killed. It was all about white! I mean, what the heck were you to do with black wool? You couldn’t dye it or anything, right? (Wrong!) Of course, if the black sheep had been around long enough for its fleece to grey or silver out, those folks who were all about white would’ve discovered all the fabulous colors that could be had from overdyeing shades of grey. Oh well… at least they got to enjoy a lamb dinner now and then. Back in those days, you could lose your hands or tongue or something for eating anything other than a sheep that was no longer productive. No wonder mutton got a bad rap…

Anyway, I may just send these photos to someone who might know what happened to Spot’s spot …but I’ll wait until after shearing just in case it’s come back.

Shearing 2010

By Pam, on February 12th, 2010

Our shearing is scheduled for Saturday, March 20th — the first day of Spring!

When I made the date, I didn’t realize it was a “good karma” date. But what a nice day to celebrate our harvest. And if there are any fleecey sheep left in the pen when we call it a day, we’ll finish up on Sunday. Emily (our fabulous shearer) and I will firm things up a little closer to the date. As soon as I know real times, etc I’ll post them. (Usually Emily arrives about 9:30AM)

We hope you’ll come and get your hands into some wonderfully warm fleeces. Really…if you’ve never had your hands in a freshly shorn fleece…you need to do it! If you’ve never skirted a fleece, that’s OK… we’ll teach you. If you’re an old pro, lucky us! But if you just want to stand by and watch, that’s OK, too! Please leave a comment, email or call us if you’d like to come by so we can plan for refreshments.

Here are a couple of photos from last year —

Who wants to be next?

pretty grey fleece coming off -- thanks to ewe & Emily

We're Moving...

By Pam, on October 6th, 2009

BIG NEWS…Our booth at Rhinebeck (NY State Sheep & Wool Festival) will be in a new location…Building B. After many years in our lovely spot on the loft of the horticultural building (aka Bldg 22), the local fire marshalls decided it was too crowded to be safe and the festival organizers gave all of us on that side of the loft our marching orders.

Hatchtown Farm 2009 Booth at Rhinebeck

I don’t think any of us are really thrilled about the move but hey! what can we do… A majority of us from the loft will still be together in Building B and that’ll fun because we’ve been neighbors for such a long time. And there are a bunch of other vendors who’d been asking for larger booth spaces who will be moving in there, too. So be sure to come see us! Building B is the place to “B”!!!

Click on the map for a larger view.

Frolicking at the Fairgrounds

By Pam, on June 11th, 2009

We spent last weekend at the Maine Fiber Frolic. This is a really pleasant and more or less laid back festival for us because it’s so close to home — we actually come home every night. If we didn’t have chores to do, I think it’d be fun to stay at the fairgrounds and play with other vendors and organizers after hours.

Our fleeces did really really well at the Fleece Show on Saturday!! I entered Bandita’s pretty colored fleece and chose a handsome white one to show as well. The white was grown by Hatchtown ram Reese — it’s bright and begs to be touched…the hand is just amazing!…and the crimp is consistent overall. Both fleeces won 1st place longwool in their respective color classes. The judge, Joe Miller (who runs the fleece show at Rhinebeck) noted the consistancy of the crimp in Reese’s fleece and I think that’s probably what pushed his fleece to the top as there were quite a few really lovely fleeces in that division. Bandita’s fleece…well, it’s just wonderful and I guess Joe thought so, too, because he awarded it “Best in Show”! WooHoo!!! Very exciting!!