Sheep Shearing

I got to go sheep shearing a few weeks ago, which was quite epic

Not to mention it took place at a little farm in one of the most beautiful areas of montana, with a panoramic view of the Mission Mountains

beautiful huh?

Anyways, Will the shearer does this once a year, and it becomes a big event. He invites all his friends, and anyone willing to make the drive and get their hands dirty (or oily from the lanolin). It takes him all day to shear the 90 sheep waiting patiently in the barn, all huddled close.

groups of ten sheep are wrestled away into a separate pen, where they're then wrangled one at a time. Wrangling involves separating one Ewe from the rest, and pinning her close to the gate so Will can grab her, flip her over, and shear as quick and swift as possible.

When he finishes each Ewe, someone will grab the wool, in one big heap, and fling it onto a table for the "wool pickers" to remove any vegetable matter.

From there it's brought over to a big wooden box with a sack inside. Another happy helper will then stomp on all the fleeces in the sack, to condense them and fit in as much as possible.

Last thing to do before we can call it a day is feed all the newly bald sheep. (we throw pieces of hay off the truck as we drive through the field which is why they're all following us) 

Some interesting things I learned:

even though the wool is local, it has to be shipped to china to be processed in a wool mill. Apparently there are very few wool mills still operating in the States (I think Pendleton is one of the few so props to them) and most that are still operating here are too costly and lack up to date machinery. The cheapest mills are where there's cheap labor, and that's china as well as other countries with no child labor laws and terrible wages.

sheep are really interesting creatures. They hate being separated from the herd, wranglers have to be pretty strong. Although sheep don't really bite or kick or run, they are serious deadweight and when they don't want to budge, it takes a lot of effort to move them. However, despite their initial resistant, most didn't even put up a fight once Will had a hold of them. Despite all being pregnant, hardly any made a peep, and only a scarce few kicked.

sheep are an incredibly sustainable farm animal, just think of all they give you; wool, lanolin, milk, lambs

pretty sweet deal if you ask me

and lastly, here's some shearing humor;

Shrek, New Zealand's most famous sheep who was renowned for avoiding being shorn for years. Shrek evaded the annual shearing roundups seven years by hiding in caves on his farm on the South Island. When finally found in 2004, he was clad in an astonishing 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of wool. That's about five times a typically annual shearing from Shrek's breed, the Merino sheep prized for some of the softest wool.

NEW POSTS every Sunday!..... I mean we'll see...;)