Sheep News

MD Sheep & Wool Festival 2022

We had a great time at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this year and we sold three of our fleeces. We only have five of our 2021 fleeces left – check them out before they are all gone!

Please give us just a little more pellet! Sometimes just grazing isn’t enough.

Springtime

Spring is here! The girls are enjoying sunset grazing in the west field and lazy days in the sunshine.

Fun with Fiber

These merino fleeces take well to a variety of natural dyes. At my local CSA, Homefields Farm, my friend Matt and I experimented with different plants (left). From left to right we dyed with prepared, fermented Indigo, Coreopsis, and fresh Indigo. Using my dyed wool, including some dyed with onion skin, beet and avocado (right) I created felted soap for Christmas presents. I was quite pleased with how they turned out and hope to encourage less use of plastic soap bottles.

Measuring the Fibers

Today we spent the day examining and measuring the fibers from our fleeces. It was fun getting into the lab and doing something together. We are both trained microscopists and enjoy any excuse to use our microscopes, and with the camera and software we could capture images of our fibers. We were surprised to find that the diameter of fibers in any given fleece are variable so we measured multiple fibers and took the average. It was also interesting to note the differences in the various fleeces. For example, Ingrid’s fleece is large and very puffy, and she also has the thickest fibers.

Below are some of the photos we took. On the left is the stage micrometer at 200X magnification. Each tiny division represents 10 microns. The photo on the right shows some of Florence’s fibers at 40X magnification.

Memory Lane

Just came across some photos of the happy day when our girls arrived to Rock Hill Ranch. It was a beautiful April Day.

Snowballs

The sheep really enjoy a romp in the snow. After a snowstorm like this they are covered in the white fluffy flakes. They look even more like snowballs than ever.

Shearing Season

We shear our sheep every spring and it’s always a big day. Dale brings all the equipment and helps us round up the flock. The girls get shorn, wormed, and hooves clipped. I’m not sure the sheep are as excited about shearing as we are, but once they are on their back they become completely calm. Afterwards they look half their size and I think they are happy to have their heavy woolen coats off now that the warm weather is here.

Dyeing and Carding

I’m a scientist by training, so crafts and fiber arts are not exactly ‘in my blood’. Still, with all this wool around I might as well try my hand at it. I started with hand carders and decided to move up to this Ashford drum carder. I’m getting the hang of making nice fluffy batts. I’ve even been experimenting with some natural dyes. Shown here is a batt of the natural wool next to some batts of wool dyed with onion skin. I just love the bright yellow color! You’ll also note my picker in the background which I thought would be useful since our sheep are uncoated. I’m still getting the hang of the picker – it’s a handy device, but I need to work on a more delicate touch when working with fine merino wool.

Shearing in a Pandemic

Sheep don’t stop growing fleeces just because there’s a pandemic and everyone is in lock down. Dale was able to come and shear the sheep, but it’s just not as much fun when you’ve got to wear a mask.

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