I was really hoping that the mild weather we have been experiencing would carry over to today, but good old mother nature had other plans. I woke up to a chilly morning and was dreading shearing the rest of the ewes.
Here is Danica all bundled up, ready to go out to the barn with me. I’m sure there were a couple ewes that would have paid good money for her jacket 🙂
Luckily the sun came out and it feels good to have them all sheared.
There are a few that are looking very pregnant and some are starting to develop little bags, a definite sign that lambs will be here soon!
This is Rolling Hills Veronica, she is Reno’s mom. She has always been on the smaller side and I was shocked when I looked at her today because she seems to have grown this last summer. She is 3 years old. I haven’t paid attention to how long ewes grow. The rams definitely grow well into their 3rd year and it appears that the ewes do too.
I put them on a new pasture after shearing and Magoo decided that this man made concrete mountain was the perfect place to keep an eye on his charges. We have numerous concrete pads on our property from where the chicken barns were and my husband is slowly breaking them up and piling them to eventually haul off.
I am very thankful that Sheryl, my shearer, did such a fabulous job with my girls. They were all handled nicely and the fleeces are beautiful!
Stories from the Farm 
Well they all look so lovely. I have 2 questions though. First, how do you keep your llama’s fleece so lovely and clean and fluffy looking. Ours get all full of bits of straw and leaves and whatnot and end up looking a bit bedraggled. Do you brush him daily? Secondly, I am amazed at your ability to pick out your sheep by name. With our Nubians, there are 5 about the same and I only know who is who because of their coloured collars. And then the pygmy goats I can tell from their colours too, but that is comparing buff to black to grey, etc. Do you tell them by their spot patterns? I’m very impressed!
Cheryl did do a very good job, I don’t see any cut lines or uncut areas or purple spots from spraying anticeptic on the nicks. Your girls look great. I can sure spot Jeslyn with her super dark wool. Isn’t is nice to see how big those bellies really are under all the fleece. Very pretty indeed.
Claire – Thank you! My llama is quite the rock star and likes looking good 😉 I’m not sure what he does to stay looking so nice??? In his younger years, he was shown extensively and maybe he picked up some tips and tricks to looking good! I wish I had a better explanation for you! I guess I am lucky that both of my llamas stay looking nice and clean. I processed fiber from my other llama and it is a joy to spin. I shear my llamas every other year and that is about as much as I handle them. They have nice temperaments, but neither one really likes to be handled.
And as far as telling my sheep apart – that is the beautiful thing about jacob sheep. They each have a different spotting pattern and ratio of color, in addition to different style horns and different sized bodies. I have a couple that look similar to each other, but that doesn’t happen very often.
There wasn’t a single nick on any of them!!! I was so happy, I didn’t have to pull the blue coat out or cringe from the sight of blood. Plus she was really good about going back over little areas she missed and throwing the short fibers aside.