Shearing at Timm Ranch - Part 2

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I had too many photos to include in one post, so I split up the photos for the 2022 Timm Ranch shearing. The first is here. Many of these photos were taken by Farm Club members. Thanks Janelle and Susan and Allan.

Sheep being shorn.

There is a shearing crew of two, but only one of them is shearing.

Carrying a freshly shorn fleece to the skirting table.

Allan carrying a freshly shorn fleece to the skirting table.

Skirting fleeces after shearing.

Siobhan at the skirting table.

Checking for fleece soundness at the skirting table.

Doris, on the right, discussing wool with Susan, the owner of this flock.

Flock owner standing in front of freshly shorn fleeces.

This is Susan and me with our pile behind us. This was early in the day. The pile will get larger.

Farm Club members at the skirting table.

Doris and Reba at the skirting table.

Allan and Susan near the baler. The wool was piled up there and baled at the end of the day.

Janelle with sheep behind her.

Farm Club members carrying fleece to skirting table.

Reba gets a fleece from the shearing crew to take to the skirting table.

Horse behind a fence.

We were accompanied for a few hours by Susan’s horses that came down from the hills to watch.

I mentioned in the previous post that there was a group with younger lambs. After the first group was finished we went to the upper barn to help bring those sheep down. Farm Club members went above the flock and become a human fence to guide the sheep to the shearing barn. I was given the newest lamb, born the night before, and got the mom to follow.

Moving sheep with lambs to the shearing shed.

Eventually the other sheep followed us to the shearing barn.

Pile of freshly shorn wool--225 pounds.

At the end of the day this was our pile of wool—close to 225 pounds. It took us way longer to skirt and sort fleeces than would be necessary if working with a commercial shearing operation. But our goal is different. We send our wool to one of three smaller scale mills for a specialty product. It is important for the fleeces to have minimal vegetable matter, be similar in length, and be sound.

Farm Club members pose with the wool they skirted at shearing.

Our crew at the end of the day. What a great day it was! We didn’t need to set up the canopies we brought because it never got too hot. The weather was perfect. The fleeces were clean and sound. The company and conversation was enjoyable. And we were handling beautiful wool! What more could you ask?

Freshly shorn fleece being put in the baler .

Wool in the baler. You can see that the bag is in the baler and the wool will be pressed down to make a 450 pound bale.

Wool being put into the baler to compress into a bale.

Although a bale can be as heavy as 450 pounds, we had about 225 pounds. The bale looks just as large and is still pretty firm.

Bale of wool

The mill helped make arrangements for a truck company to pick the bale up at our local feed store so I delivered it there yesterday. Now we just have to wait a few months to get yarn back here!