So, that long-awaited day is nearly here. At the end of this month our beautiful brood ewes and lambs will be sheared of their coats in preparation for lambing this winter. This year, we will be announcing the date (closer to the time, but roughly the last week in November) so that people can come purchase their fleeces straight off the animal. If you’re a spinner you can take your fleece with you. If you would rather buy your fleece and have it spun by a mill, we can help connect you with some local choices! We have white and a range of natural colors. Ewes and lambs. Sign up to our mailing list to be the first to find out when shearing day is happening.
Oh, and I guess I should share that I went to Shearing School part of UCONN and CT Sheep Breeders’ Assoc a couple weeks ago. It was so exciting yet exactly as hard as I had expected. Physically throwing the sheep around is hard because, all going well you get the sheep to relax. Well, then you have 200lbs of dead weight leaning on you while you run the shears along, trying to learn where skin could be wrinkly and avoiding that so you don’t accidentally cut the sheep open. Like so many things, there is a learning curve and the only way to get better is to practice (and keep toning that core, because boy is it hard on your back!). I will not be shearing all the sheep yet because these fleeces are too nice for me to butcher but I plan to shear some of the naughty lambs that got into the weeds and have messed up their lovely fleeces already!