1999 Shearing -- Hatchtown Farm

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We sheared this year on the last day of Feb -- about two weeks later than "planned". Weather and Pam having to make an emergency trip to Florida to visit with her Mom disrupted the "best laid plans".

Here's something to read while the photos download.
People are ALWAYS asking us why we shear our sheep in February -- potentionally the coldest month of the year here in northern New England. When the sheep need their wooly covering the most, we're taking it away!!

Well, the sheep don't seem to mind TOO much. After they're sheared, it takes a few days for extra lanolin to flow out into the short fleece that's not sheared away. This extra, oily coating seems to provide a good amount of insulation and protection from the cold, damp and wet. We are careful to keep them inside right after shearing if the weather is severely cold -- especially if it's raining and/or "blowing". And while their short fleece doesn't really need protection from "VM" (vegetable matter) or bleaching, we do put covers (a/k/a blankets) right back on them after shearing so they have the extra insulation.

Some of the real advantages of shearing when we do are:

• It makes it very easy for us to monitor the physical changes (udder swelling, etc) that the expectant moms go through as they approach their "due dates"== helps us to know when we might have to be there in case we're needed for the big event.
• Without their fleece, the ewes are more sensitive to the weather
  • == they're more likely to decide to have their lambs in the shed instead of outside in the dark behind one of the hay feeders where we might not find them all until morning.
  • == once they have their lambs, the moms are more likely to take shelter should it start to snow or rain. A sheep in full fleece will ignore the most horrendous weather for hours. And while it's "cute" to discover an adult sheep that's slept outside all night right through a heavy snow (they'll be completely covered over!), the lambs are born with only maybe a 1/2" of fleece. We don't want the itsy lambies spending the night out in the storm -- which they will do if their moms do.
• It's easier for the wobbly lambs to find their mom's nipples in those first important minutes and hours if the nipples are not hidden behind a thick curtain of dangling, wooly locks.
• Lambs climb all over their moms -- it's a game they love to play. Pam's much happier if their dirty little feet <G> aren't messing up "the product".
• April and May bring on what's known as "Black Fly Season" here in Maine ...and that's immediately followed by the arrival of the mosquitoes! We acquired six Suffolk ewes in June a few years ago. They hadn't been sheared in about 15 months so we had them sheared right away. Well, without the 3 months growth of fleece that all our other sheep had, those six girls suffered horribly. Usually the bugs can only harass a sheep around its face, ears and "hind parts" ...and that's enough! There were mosquitoes ALL OVER the Suffolks -- backs, sides, everywhere. It was VERY evident that the level of their distress was MANY magnitudes greater than that of the other sheep. I promised I'd try very hard to avoid putting any animals through that again!

If you've taken the time to read the above, I'm pretty sure that the pretty piccies below will all now be in place.

Fleece is what our flock of sheep is all about. This makes shearing an important event -- our equivalent of "the harvest".

It's sort of like the fiber does not really exist until it's safely off the animals, skirted and bagged up in an old sheet.

Pam's always on edge in the days before shearing. The sheep have to be dry so she has an eye on the weather report -- if any "precip"s predicted we may have to move everyone into the shed and barn as early as three days before shearer Lee Straw is due to arrive.

Lee and his neighbor, and our friend, Penny Sherman arrived together mid-morning, and we all got right to work.

After the fleece is off, Lee gives me the animal to put back in the pen with the others. He gathers up the fleece and throws it onto the skirting table so Pam can have something to do.

Pam did this year's skirting unassisted -- she mumbled something about her head being "too full" and not wanting to deal with too many people.

Lee's a talented shearer and doesn't have many "second cuts" -- any that do happen drop through the skirting table onto the ground or get "picked and tossed" by Pam.

Some of our chickens came to "visit" just before the lunch break.

At that point, Pam re-defined what "Jim's job" was. Along with catching the sheep in the pen, taking off their covers, handing them to Lee for shearing, helping Penny keep the shearing floor clean, putting the animals back into the pen after being sheared, keeping track of whose fleece was which, making sure that Pam had enough sheets for fleeces and Penny enough trash bags for tags and "junk" AND photo-documenting the whole process with the new digital camera ....I was NOW also responsible for the CHICKENS!! They had NOT been invited to the shearing and HAD TO GO!

We only have 4 white sheep. So, as the skies darkened, so did the "harvest".

Lee kept Pam pretty busy!

<VBG>

Lee and Penny did not leave until after dark.

It's amazing how much bigger the shed seems after the sheep each "lose" about 8" of fluffy padding!

Bountiful Harvest:
A little more than a half-day's labor resulted in 21 fleeces bundled up in old sheets -- it looked like laundry day at a college fraternity house!

Using our two garden carts, Pam and I managed to trudge all the fleeces up into her new "studio" -- finishing up JUST as it started to rain.

Footnote: During the day Pam saw me going through all sorts of gyrations trying to get pics of the shearing process without having Lee Straw's posterior centered prominently in every shot. She commented that Lee's butt must be one of the most-photographed butts in the country.

You see, Lee does 5 or 6 shearing demonstrations on each of the 3 days of MOFGA's "Common Ground Fair" each September (fair attendance = 50,000 +/-). AND he shears several thousand sheep every Spring at farms all over the state of Maine.

....that got me thinking ....Shearing's a tough way to earn a $buck. Why couldn't Lee steal a page from the pro tennis players whose shirts are embroidered with sponsors' names and logos ...and how about NASCAR!! .....those cars have so many decals plastered all over them, you can't hardly see what color they're painted.

SO .... I've been sending this postcard out to everyone I know who also knows Lee.
Reason?
.........Why, I just want to help him become a rich man.... of course.

Pssst! ..that's Penny in the background ...peeking out from behind Lee's butt!

And, as his advertising manager, it'd be fair if I received maybe 20% off the top ....right?
........ or would that really be off the bottom ??

<BG> !!

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