purplequeenvt - Ivy Knoll Farm

[purplequeenvt]

I think that she did love the home births (she did it for her last 4 kids, so she must have!). It was special for the other kids too because she always wanted us involved. I got to see all of my younger siblings be born. When I have kids (someday, hopefully) I would like to have home births as well. I don't like hospitals......

 

[purplequeenvt]

The Sheeps are getting sheared today! The shearer is coming at noon. I will have my camera out with me and hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures. We were going to be a set of hands short due to my mom being away, but one of my best friends is coming and my little sister's "munchkin" (a young girl that she is helping get into the sheep world) and possibly my sister and brother-in-law. He said they might stop by after church to help. So I just might be able to take pictures.

My dad and brother went to the early service at church this morning, but they very kindly let me sleep. I was sick yesterday and really needed the sleep.

 

[purplequeenvt]

There are now 41 naked sheep running around out there! We started shearing around 12 and we were done by 3 and it wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it was going to be.

And now for the pictures! I was able to take some, but not a lot.

All the sheep, ready and waiting. Everybody was very laid back and calm.

This is what happens when you cross a Border Leicester/Dorper with a Shetland/Friesian/Texel.......

Naked boys....oops, that sounds bad.

Eugene!!!

He knows he's cute

Nom, nom...

My friend helping skirt fleeces.

40 fleeces

Wide load

Pretty Rosa

 

[greenbean]

Your sheep are so cute! I love the black spotted one

 

[RemudaOne]

Wow! Look at you go! Nice job and that's a LOT of fleece

 

[Southern by choice]

Love the pictures..especially "wide load"!

Amazing with the amount of fleece. The colors too.

I was watching the NZ method of shearing online yesterday! Very cool.

Eugene looks like he could be a house pet.. too ridiculously cute!


I hope you are feeling better!

 

[Queen Mum]

Really quite interesting. What does skirting fleeces entail? I know nothing about the process.

Looks like a tremendous amount of work, but you all did an amazing job.

Those sheep look so beautiful all Naked like that.

 

[Bridgemoof]

wow LOVE the pics! You guys did all of those sheep fast, too. It takes us 1/2 hour to shear one sheep, but we're beginners. Eugene is so adorable! I also love the BLD FST mix!

SO, big question, what do you guys do with all of your wool? That is so much wool. SO much wooL!

And I'd like to hear how you skirt them, too!

 

[purplequeenvt]

Our shearer, Gwen, sheared in NZ for a year or 2. She isn't as fast as those guys are, but she is still pretty quick! Her dad was our shearer for years, but he suddenly passed away a few years ago and she started shearing for most of his clients.

The spotted girl is Anita. She was on my keep list when she was first born (I can't resist those spots!), but then I decided to get rid of her because I didn't like how she was growing out, too much dairy and not enough meat. I changed my mind again last week. She has filled out very nicely during the last few months and again....those spots!

"Wide Load" sheep is Galadriel. She is 8 and this will be her 7th and probably final lambing season (although she might get another year if she holds together). She has had triplets twice and looks like she might do it again.

Eugene is everyone's favorite. He is very sweet with people, but he is extremely pushy with the other rams. Maybe being a 1/4 of their size has something to do with it??

Skirting is what we do to get rid of all the dirty parts. What we did yesterday was a very basic skirting. We pulled out the poop tags and the dirty britch area. My mom is usually in charge of that part and she is much more thorough and gets out a lot of the vegetable matter too. She'll go back over them later and clean them up better. This year we spread the wool out on tables to skirt, but we have a skirting table that has slats, so the dirt can fall, but it is very heavy and it is in the basement covered with more wool.

We've done lots of things with our wool. We send some of to be processed into roving, yarn, or blankets. My mom spins some of it. We had some made into large pieces of felt that we then cut out for warm insoles. We haven't done much with the wool in a number of years though. A huge family health crisis and a move will do that. :/

 

[SheepGirl]

Love the pictures!!

I can't wait until my sheep get sheared in April--shearer hasn't given me an exact date yet, she just said 'April' lol.