He was waiting patiently (Graham-patiently that is ;-) for a haircut.
Marcel: "Please, mister. Can you hold him down for a little longer? A few of us have some stuff we want to, um, say to him."
Marcel ended up one of my favorite shears. Look how dark chocolate brown he was underneath all those sunbleached tips!
Pretty, pretty. The first picture is truer color - more brown than red.
Petunia, our other moorit, is a completely different type of brown (and fleece - see how loose the locks are compared to Marcel's?). She turned "oatmeal" after her first shearing several years ago and continues to be one of my favorite fleeces.
Petunia is one of the most laid back, easy going sheep on the farm...but she ain't so into shearing. I think she's been shorn four (or could it be five?) years now and there was only minimal improvement this time. Gavin spent some extra time with her, making sure she was more relaxed when they finished than when they started, even kissing her on the nose before he turned her loose.
"I don't care what you do. I don't like shearers and I HATE getting my hair cut!"
Keebs isn't much into it either.
"I just hope you don't mess my hair up like that one time!"
Pretty Mia. Pretty fleece. Pretty tough to shear as well. Sigh. Always tip your sheep shearer.
And I wish I'd gotten a better wide angle picture of this huge fleece (see it piled all the way to the wall?). Who's sitting there all pretty, behaving herself like a good sheep should?
Yep, that's Renny!
Renny looks like she lost about 100 pounds yesterday. And it's the prettiest shade of gray. Very long, not super soft, but with great character (sheep and fleece). The very best kind.
And yes, it was wrapped in her green sheet :-)
Marcel: "Please, mister. Can you hold him down for a little longer? A few of us have some stuff we want to, um, say to him."
Marcel ended up one of my favorite shears. Look how dark chocolate brown he was underneath all those sunbleached tips!
Pretty, pretty. The first picture is truer color - more brown than red.
Petunia, our other moorit, is a completely different type of brown (and fleece - see how loose the locks are compared to Marcel's?). She turned "oatmeal" after her first shearing several years ago and continues to be one of my favorite fleeces.
Petunia is one of the most laid back, easy going sheep on the farm...but she ain't so into shearing. I think she's been shorn four (or could it be five?) years now and there was only minimal improvement this time. Gavin spent some extra time with her, making sure she was more relaxed when they finished than when they started, even kissing her on the nose before he turned her loose.
"I don't care what you do. I don't like shearers and I HATE getting my hair cut!"
Keebs isn't much into it either.
"I just hope you don't mess my hair up like that one time!"
Pretty Mia. Pretty fleece. Pretty tough to shear as well. Sigh. Always tip your sheep shearer.
And I wish I'd gotten a better wide angle picture of this huge fleece (see it piled all the way to the wall?). Who's sitting there all pretty, behaving herself like a good sheep should?
Yep, that's Renny!
Renny looks like she lost about 100 pounds yesterday. And it's the prettiest shade of gray. Very long, not super soft, but with great character (sheep and fleece). The very best kind.
And yes, it was wrapped in her green sheet :-)
26 comments:
They must feel cold after being sheered! And in this crazy weather - sunburned!!
I loved this post! Informative and interesting and full of personalities. ...and beautiful fleece, of course.
Lovely lovely gray fleece! I would love to buy something knitted from Renny's hard work of fleece growing!
The only time I ever saw sheep shearing was at the Calgary Stampede, they had a guy doing a demo. It only took him a few minutes, I thought it was amazing how efficient his every move was.
Beautious! You are going to be busy. Loved the photos! I knew that was Renny.
Reny's fleece looks like it is quite long. Lovely colour!
Leah
This was a a wonderful post!
That green sheet is a special one..good thing you saved it. My back and shoulders ache looking at those photos of the shearers..they work hard:)
Good thing I didn’t bet a lotto ticket on that photo guess :-0
The wool looks luscious and smooshable and plentiful!
That picture of Marcel is wonderful. I do hear him. All the fleeces look super! Tomorrow's our shearing day. Wonder what Shasta's going to say.... - Maria
I love Petunia's fleece! And Renny's too! Do you have plans for your fleece (i.e. are you selling any to friends far away, like say, in ALASKA?)
Nice photos. Thanks for the post!
I love to look at shearing photos as much as I love to look at lamb photos!! I thought Renny's fleece would be brown?! They are all lovely.
It is so much more fun to look at someone else's shearing photos than to spend the day watching my poor sheep get sheared! I have to admit, shearing day was always one of the most stressful days of being a shepherd for me. I hated anything that 'stressed' the flock.
But, like you, I LOVE all that beautiful fleece when all is said and done! Which of your sheep would say has the softest fleece? Do you prefer a long or short staple length to work with? Do you spin from the lock or from roving?
I am drooling over those beautiful fleeces!
I would have never thought that Reny was that color under all of that. Beautiful!
They all look yummy and gorgeous...both fleece and sheep!
Amazing staple length on Renny! And great color, which BTW is light enough that you could overdye some to get great heathery colors. Your walnut husk experiments turned out so well, you should try some other things. Your sheep all look in great shape although Petunia's eye says she was NOT happy about being smooched. I"m glad Marcel stayed dark - now you have 1 of each shade.
all your fleeces look wonderful. love the color on Marcel and Renny. yum yum!
It's been so hot here - and no real relief in the upcoming forecast - that all the sheep are happy to be rid of their "wool sweaters". Crazy weather for sure.
Yes, some of the fleeces will be for sale. I'll post them on the website next week.
Ford probably has the softest fleece, although Petunia and several of the Jacobs are right there with him. Henrietta is one of my favorites, but she trashes her fleece as much as Boudreaux, another softie :-/.
I prefer to spin from roving. And I prefer to spin the medium to coarser fleeces. I'm torn on Renny and Sherman. I really should let them go...but I'd really like to spin them...but I really should let them go... ;-).
What great pictures today, but for some reason, I'm feeling a bit cold!! :-))
beautiful fleeces all! Bet your all glad to have that over with!
What beautiful fleece! I so enjoyed the pics, thanks for sharing! I think Petunia is my fav, when I do sheep on one of my art journal pages, I always call her Petunia. I have such admiration for the work you do, living on a farm is truly hard work. To be able to go from the shearing to making a sweater out of these beautiful sheep fleece has to be so rewarding!!
I konw how they feel, I got a sheared last week too..:-))
Bring on the naked sheep pics.:-)
Wow - these pictures are marvelous!
Such pretty fleeces!!! When you own jacobs, it is very important to tip your sheep shearer, very well! They always test to see just how well the shearer is holding on ;)
I love how the fleece is so different closer to the sheep's body. Renny looks completely different color! Bless her little pea-pickin' heart!
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