We had a great Shearing Day thanks to the dedicated Farm Club and our fabulous shearer, John.

The afternoon before shearing we picked up a friend’s Jacob sheep so they could be shorn while the shearer was here. She has 16 ewes and a ram.

Two of her ewes had lambed within the week and they went into their own pens in our barn. Another ewe was lambing when we picked up the sheep, so we left her behind and planned to get her the next day.

A couple of Farm Club members came Saturday afternoon so they could spend the night here before shearing day. We spent time in the barn that evening to get it cleaned up and ready for shearing in the morning. In organizing the name tag box, they found that I had five name tags!

The next morning when I went to the barn I found a new lamb in with the friend’s sheep. I put the ewe and lamb in another pen and while we were getting organized the ewe had a second.

John started with the ewes with lambs.

Farm Club members had the chance to cuddle lambs, even though my flock isn’t due for a month.

They kept the lambs out of the way while the ewes were being shorn.

After shearing those few ewes, we brought the rest of this flock to the shearing area.

John sheared the ram first so we could move him away from where we were going to be handling the ewes.

There is only one sheep left to shear in this photo. After shearing the group we moved them into the trailer and, after helping with my rams, Dan drove them home.

We started my flock with Patchwork Townes, a 4-horn lilac ram. (Lilac is that color pattern that is not black and white, but gray and white.)

Farm Club members have done this before, and they knew that it is important to keep the sheep moving into the shearing area so the shearer doesn’t have to stop. We have several new members now, but there were enough experienced members to know what to do and guide the new people. We use the green panels to crowd the sheep toward the gate.

This is the view from the other direction looking at the gate into the alley near where John was shearing.

Farm Club member, Ryan wearing his sweater, finished just the day before, that he knitted from Columbine’s fleece that he spun last year. I am in awe of this!

This is Columbine, the sheep who provided the wool for Ryan’s sweater in a photo last year.

More shearing and Farm Club photos to follow in the next post.