This also means that with Shearing day here ... 2013 Fleece is done growing and we are now working on 2014 Fleece. That also means 2014 Shares are on the General Store Page and up for sale... Don't miss out on these great products that seem to be on everyone's minds. And I will remind you that 2014 shares will include the fleece from the wonderful babies you have watched be born this birthing season ... That is right, you already are watching the crop grow.
So first the not so great news. Well, with shearing you get a chance to see all the fleece up close and really good. The truth is that the weather has been hard on alot of fleece. According to our shearer, Not just my fleece. He says that with it being 80 degrees in the day time and 30 degrees at night and the rain coming and going, it has caused Sheep to start losing fleece and even have some fleece start to felt on the animals. Needless to say this will not be our best crop ever but it will produce some decent products for shareholders.
The other issues that we found were health issues. First up, we found that Seneca is blind in both eyes. This really is a wonder as she not only cares for her own twins, Chicksaw and Quapaw, but she is raising Cheyenne too. She never bagged so all her babies are bottle babies but she doesn't care. Seneca is one of the southdown ewes and she probably isn't going to see many more years as she is already about 10. At this point we are scared to put her in the pasture for fear that she can't see danger so her and her "babies" are still penned until we figure out what we will do.
I will let you in on one more a little secret ... today didn't really go as we had planned. We were pushing to shear before the rain set in and we were actually running fleece to the barn to save it from the rain. We had to move into the shed to finish up and it was pretty hectic at times. But all in all it all worked out.
When Danny the Shearer left, we set out and cleaned up the Shed and two of the stalls we had sheep and lambs in for birthing. At this point we have just a select few head in the sheep pen and everything else is out on the pasture enjoying green grass. It is now time to rest those pens before breeding season comes around again this year.
So enjoy a few pictures to go along with a great Earth Day. And Happy shopping ...