7/17/2017
Lots has been happening here lately. We have sheared sheep and alpacas, sold our Shetland / Cormo cross sheep, obtained a new flock of purebred Shetland ewes, and been working on fencing designs to add about two acres of additional pasture for the ‘critters’.
Alpaca shearers are very busy people with lots of scheduling changes to deal with. It seems that somewhere in that hectic craziness, we were never put on the schedule to have our alpacas sheared. By the time the end of June and beginning of July rolled around here in NE Ohio, we were having some weather in the upper 80s, and the poor alpacas really needed to be freed of their fleeces.
After I was graciously given the opportunity to watch two different teams of shearers shear alpacas at two different farms, we decided to try to shear the alpacas on our own. I was able to find a used shearing hand-piece, and with a bit of innovation and improvisation, all 8 of our alpacas have now been sheared.
The girls suffered the worst haircuts as they were first:
And here are the boys:
In an effort to have a pure flock of Shetlands, the crossbred sheep that we had have now been relocated to a new home with a hand-spinner who I am sure will love them. The actual delivery of the sheep was quite an adventure that began with chasing sheep for an hour to get them all in the livestock trailer only to find out that some of the lights on the trailer were not working. After about an hour of laying in the gravel driveway, we managed to get all the lights working, and I was on my way. Unfortunately, their new pasture could not be reached with the truck so we had to push, pull and carry unwilling sheep to their new pasture in the 90-ish degree heat. Several sheep in, we decided to give them rides in the lawn trailer. We were ultimately able to get everyone settled in their new home.
A couple of weeks after this, I went to pick up my new flock of Shetland ewes. I ended up with 12 sheep, nine adults and three of this years lambs. Here are some of their pictures, they wouldn’t cooperate to get everyone in a single picture.
Hi Mandy,
I attended your wool processing class yesterday at the GLFF, I am looking to purchase a pair of combs, I purchased a Jacob fleece and will most likely stick with medium wools while learning processing. Can you recommend which Valkyrie combs are more all purpose? Thank you.
Jamie ( your glass was awesome!)
Hello Jamie,
If you are doing mostly medium fleeces, I would probably go with the valkyrie extra fine or a similar two row comb. If you go with fewer rows or wider spacing on the teeth, it would just require more passes back and forth.
Mandi