New Day Dawning.

So it has been a while since I have had time to write. Who would have thought that this whole farming thing could be so much work? Actually, truth be told the brunt of the work is done by Matt. I am still amazed a the amount of time he takes working out with the animals and garden.

We sheared the sheep in May. The shearer also went to our neighbors and sheared their sheep. Our neighbors do not use the wool so I was lucky enough to aquire 6 fleeces from sheep and 2 from their llamah's.
What an experiance scouring wool is. Just when I thought that this was the last time I would have to wash this last part, into the water it would go again. Either I am a very fussy spinner or, these fleeses are exceptionally dirty. I have tried every thing to shorten the cleaning time. Putting salt in the water did seem to help as we have very hard water, but, geeepers. After washing the fleese around 4 times I decided it was as clean as it would get and put it out to dry. Fluffing it up decreased drying time quite a bit. I have dorset sheep and the staple is about 3 to 4 inches. This was just one of the suprises. Just when I thought that this fleese could not get any cleaner, I put it on the drum carder and was amazed at the amount of stuff that was still in it.
Also, I have read almost every suggested book out there on spinning. The one picture that NONE of these books show is "What is a fleese suppose to look like after it has been scoured and dried." I do not have beautiful staples as shown, I have fluffy mounds of soft fuzzy stuff.
The one thing that I am very happy about this at this point is the drum carder that I have purchased. I really works well.