This is the biggest day of the farm year for me (and probably the sheep as well).  We contained the sheep in the barn yesterday when it was warm and sunny.  Naturally on shearing day the weather turned wet and cold.  Our shearer started early.  Warning:  there are lots of photos.

Denise is our wool gatherer.

We have to shear our old sheep too, even if their wool may no longer be valuable.

Here are the bags of wool starting to pile up.

Here are some of the shorn sheep.

Probably my favorite photo of the day.  My step dad Al was the photographer, and he did a great job.

Tom was the sheep catcher, and my mom picked the wool before shearing.

Here is most of the shearing crew minus Eliz, the sheep releaser, and Al, the photographer.

Diddley, our friendliest sheep, was trying to woo all the ladies of the crew.  We think he was trying to convince us that he really did not need a haircut.

But here he is being picked just before shearing.

And here he is being shorn.

And here is Eliz, our sheep releaser, in action.

The two Nigora goats were shorn last.  Unfortunately they both have felted so bad that I will just throw their fiber away.

Then we moved the wool bags out of the barn so the sheep could go back in, out of the cold rain.

We enjoyed a Welsh breakfast which I will describe in my next post.  Then I spread out 21 fleeces to be dried.

Now it is time to relax.