Preparing for Shearing

Tomorrow Jim and Liz will be here late morning to shear the sheep. We’re very excited. There are just a few things we’ve had to do to get ready.

First, we’ll need two tables. After a fleece is off the sheep, it is gathered up and tossed on a table. Ideally, the table has slats so that the hay and other garbage that is caught in the fleece can be picked out and dropped below. Fortunately, the house came with two gates in the basement – they once were attached to the railings of the main and master bedroom decks of the house – that will work perfectly. All I needed to do was build four sawhorses to support the two gates/tables.

Second, we’ll need bags. Once the fleeces have been picked as clean as we can do (they won’t be perfect), we’ll put each fleece into its own bag. Peg also is thinking of combining the “skirtings” (the dirtiest part of the fleece around the belly) of all the sheep to see what she can do with it. It will need a lot of cleaning.

The bags have been an interesting story. Last summer we heard that burlap sacks are excellent – they let air circulate around the stored fleece and if they are at all wet or damp, they can dry out in the bag. We also heard that Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in Waterbury gives away the coffee bean sacks after they’ve been cut open and dumped of beans.

Peg called GMCR and got connected to a recorded voice indicating where at the plant the sacks can be found and also explaining that they are available on a first come, first served basis. Waterbury is a little more than an hour’s drive from the farm. It would be a shame to make a two hour trip and come back empty-handed.

But I developed a plan to improve our odds. Last week, I emailed Duncan, a business colleague from years ago, who lives and works in Waterbury Center, about 15 minutes from the plant. He agreed to swing by the plant and try to pick up some sacks. My thinking – if Duncan scores, I drive up, get the sacks, and take him to lunch. But if he doesn’t score, I’ll still drive up, try myself to get some sacks, and still take him to lunch, effectively doubling our odds. Duncan asked “how many?” and I replied, “as many as you can get.”

The week passed and we hadn’t heard anything from Duncan. We decided to hedge our bets and purchased 20 used coffee bean sacks from Amazon. Monday morning, Duncan emailed me he had gotten the bags – “around 30 or 40” – and we agreed to meet for the swap and lunch yesterday. On my way, I stopped by the plant and picked up around 20 or 30 sacks, just for the heck of it. There were two large covered containers on the loading dock, both full of sacks.

I arrived at Duncan’s at noon, met his staff at Children’s Literacy Foundation, tossed the sacks in the back of the car, and took him down for a sandwich in town.

Later, when I got back home, I took one sack out of the car and a handful of green coffee beans scattered on the garage floor. I decided to shake them out on the driveway and stack them in piles of ten. Duncan had fetched 90 sacks, and I had added another 30. With the 20 we purchased, we now have 140 burlap sacks – more than we’ll need for a long time even if we quickly grow the flock. So, I posted an email to the Vermont Sheep and Goat Association list serve letting others know, and offering some up if they wanted to come get them.

 

Less than 30 minutes after I posted that note, here is the first reply I received:

I just saw your post on the sheep breeders list and wanted to let you know that I don’t allow burlap bags (or cardboard boxes) in my mill.  Storing dry greasy wool in loosely-closed clear plastic bags is ideal and it is what I prefer.  Jute is a wool contaminant that is impossible to remove.  If you choose to use burlap, make sure the bags are in great condition and that they are not leaving fibers on your valuable wool and make sure you put the fleece in something else if you decide to bring them to my mill for processing.

That was from Michael Hampton, the owner of the mill we plan to use. Home Depot doesn’t have large clear plastic bags in their stores (at least my HD in West Lebanon doesn’t), but I was able to find a box of 50 on Amazon and get them delivered overnight. They better get here before the end of the day.

Now, what are we going to do with 140 burlap sacks?

Todd