Ok, so I’ve got about 25 trash bags of fleece that is unacceptable to most hand spinners. It’s not enough to send to the “co-op” as you really need at least 100 times that amount.

The chickens are all comfy in their wool-lined nests and won’t need new wool for many months.

Experiment time!

I’ve heard about wool being used for erosion control when you need to soak up (or divert) moisture as there is a company in Oregon who is making such a product. They’re also making dog beds with 75% wool and 25% cedar chips (odor control).

Here on the desert, we rarely need “moisture control” aside from when the snow melts too fast, or we get a rare summer deluge. What we need more often is a way to keep our sand from going to the neighbor’s, and another neighbor’s sand from coming to visit our acreage.

Believe me, it’s not a pretty sight. You can’t breathe when sand is blowing all around, including into your house!

My thesis: Lay down raw wool on high erosion areas after clearing the area of any small vegetation. Weigh it down temporarily until adjacent blowing sand can impregnate the air around the fibers. In theory, the trapped sand will be unable to escape. That includes any sand trapped by the fibers as well as the sand underneath the wool.

I’ve read a number of studies out of eastern Canada and the United Kingdom regarding the use of “wool waste” for soil amendments, so perhaps we can get an additional benefit. With virtually no way to irrigate our acreage, whatever is eventually planted will need a relatively rich soil, with awesome moisture storage ability.

What I don’t really know is how long it will take for the wool to break down. I do know it’s pretty slow to decompose, however, I’m counting on UV degradation, as our sheep always have “sun-bleached tips”. I’m also thinking the abrasion from the sand will have some effect. If it takes a couple of years, and holds our sand in place, then that’s a good deal.

Ever since we sheared the sheep, and I put up the “Our Fleeces” page, we’ve been struggling with negative feedback regarding the staple length. What’s a girl to do, ‘cept more research!

I called folks all over Utah, and finally found some nice “sheep people” in both Oregon and California who were able to provide detailed information on what kind of sheep we have, and what we’ll need to do to improve our little flock.

Now, I’m the one who is most adamant about our “hobbies” providing some kind of return whenever possible.

The chickens provide us eggs, which we sometimes sell. Of course, since that’s Mom’s hobby, she gets to keep any egg money for her own use.

The horses are strictly for our own enjoyment. Besides, I’ve met few horses that ever paid for their own keep, let alone their own feed.

The sheep, though… they’re a “cash crop” in my eyes. We breed them. They produce lambs to both increase our flock size and to sell for meat. I also expect them to provide some wool to sell… and that’s where we’re having an issue.

These sheep were represented as black “Merino” sheep by the person who sold them to us. I believe her as she was led to believe they were “Merino”. Only one small problem… their fleece isn’t as “fine feeling” as the Polypay, and that’s not right.

Shortly after I got here (Dec 2006) we bought a ram, who was represented as 3/4 Merino x 1/4 Suffolk. He’s a big boy and over the past winter, developed a rather nasty attitude.

After much searching around, I believe what we really have are a type (not sure of the breed) of sheep called “marker sheep”. They are the one’s large sheep stations use to help them count their sheep. By maintaining about 1 black sheep per 100 white ones, they can easily count the black one’s and know if they have the whole flock in sight.

What’s all this mean?

Well, it means the fleeces we have for sale, are no longer for sale to spinners, as there’s no way they can meet the quality standards. It also means the ram we have is not the right ram for us. He can’t improve the fleece, and with his attitude, he’s really too dangerous for we women.

Now, this has caused a bit of consternation around here, as I pretty much did the research, presented the “bad news”, and set forth to make corrections without much input from anyone else… not the best decision I’ve ever made.

I am making the fleece available for alternative uses.

For example, we use it to line our chicken nests. The girls love it! They snuggle down in it and when they lay eggs, they are so nice and clean. With the cost of straw, our fleece is very cost effective.

You can also use fleece (wool) as insulation, or even as a permanent mulch as it will “felt” in time.

I know, I made sure you knew about our fleeces before I showed you how we got from “on the sheep” to “off the sheep”.

Because we have a very small flock, and virtually no shade for the shearer, we agreed to move our flock to the neighbor’s, where there is shade and a little better “catch” facility.

Last Monday afternoon, Bev picked up a borrowed 4-horse trailer in preparation for the “mini-roundup” and move.

The plan was to simply park the truck and trailer next to the sheep pen gate, open the gate, and stand there with some panels. One of us (most likely me) would shake the corn can and get the girls to follow me up and into the trailer.

That worked with one ewe for about 30 seconds! No, there are no pictures as we are about to get VERY busy.

With the corn can bait not working, Cindy left her panel and went for some hay. That was before I could close the gate, and yeppers… first “Merino’ followed Cindy to the hay stack, and then two more… Not good news as we don’t have our acreage fenced.

For the next 30 minutes or so, we coaxed, herded, backed off, headed off, and tried every trick we could think of to get the girls back into their pen. Clyde, our neighbor showed up to help bring order to circus.

Finally, with all the girls back in the pen, we once again tried to load everyone. Now, the plan was to take the lambs along as we figured they’d run right into the trailer to be with their Mama’s.

Never, ever let anyone tell you sheep are dumb. They do think, and they think pretty fast. They’re also curious, can be fooled once, maybe twice, but after that, it’s “sheep 1 - humans 0″.

The girls finally found the hay in the trailer completely irresistible, but the lambs weren’t convinced. With only 3 of the 10 lambs in the trailer, we changed directions and removed the 3 lambs, leaving them home. As they’re 60 days old, the separation wasn’t as traumatic as we’d expected.

Off to Clyde’s, just a short 1/2 mile jaunt. Off loading was much less stressful, as all we had to do was convince the gals this was a good place to be. After all, one of the matriarch’s offspring from last year is here, as is our ram.

Bruno, the Boxer thinks he’s a sheep dog, and is trying to help with this herding process. A few months ago, we were feeding Clyde’s sheep and found one of his little lambs out. I’m sure that had it not been for Bruno’s herding ability, we’d still be chasing that lamb.

Phillip, or “Flip” as he’s known locally is our shearer. He also owns several pretty good-sized commercial flocks and runs the crew that does virtually all the commercial shearing in SW Utah and eastern Nevada.

Because there are only 21 sheep between us, Flip takes his time with each animal. He even takes time to comment on our quality and the difference between what our animals looked like last year, compared to this year. Rather than rip through the sheep at 2 minute intervals, he takes between 4 and 5 minutes per animal.

As each of our sheep are sheared, we load them back into the trailer for the short trip home. Even Algernon, our ram, is coming home. “Freezer” a yearling wether becomes payment for the shearing. Flip notes he can almost taste his chops!

With our flock done, we turn our attention to moving Clyde’s flock from their pasture to the catch pen. The plan this time is to move all the ewes and their lambs. We’ll shear the ewes, leaving them in the catch chute, and then drive them back to their pen, leaving the lambs in the catch pen.

Clyde’s girls seem to know the process and we need only worry about any of them wanting to take a side trip into the garden (tasty morsels there, ya’ know). Moving Clyde’s flock is a snap compared to our flock.

By about noon, we finish with the shearing, and get everyone back in their places. Yes, Clyde’s lambs are putting up a bit of a fuss, since they’re now permanently separated from their mothers. Our girls arrive home and you should see the lambs trying to figure out what happened. Without their huge fleeces, our ewes aren’t much bigger than some of their offspring, and they still have a month until weaning.

Oh, and just who is that great big guy behind that fence? The lambs meet their daddy for the first time through the fence.

We deliver “Freezer” to Flip’s “mutton pen” where he’s the only black sheep, take the trailer home and give a huge sigh of relief. That’s one job we won’t have to do again until next year.

This past Tuesday was “shearing day” and we now have some awesome fleece for those of you who spin wool. I’ve created a new page calledOur Fleeces.

As I get each fleece ready for sale, I’ll post the animal’s story as well as pictures. To make it easy to purchase, I’ve included a PayPal button. Prices include shipping. If you find you want multiple fleeces, leave a comment and I’ll adjust the shipping charges and provide an alternate PayPal link for you.

~~Notice~~

After receiving considerable feedback, and doing extensive research, we are no longer offering these fleeces for sale to hand spinners.

What we believed were Merino appear not be so, and we don’t care or want to misrepresent a product.

That said, I have approximately 150 lbs of fleece (ranging from white Polypay to our black “feels more like Suffolk”) which is available for $0.50 per lb plus shipping.

This fleece has been lightly skirted. That means I have removed manure tags, sweat tags, and obvious large pieces of debris (vegetative matter).

Suggested uses:

• Chicken nest liners
• Rabbit nest liners (when your doe doesn’t pull enough fur)
• Permanent mulch in garden paths
• Insulation between walls (won’t provide a high”r factor” but is an alternative to fiberglass) in “barn areas”.

To order fleece send an email to fleece2008 @ gmail.com. I’m sure you can see I’ve left spaces that you need to close for the address to work. That generally fools the “spam bots”.