The shearer is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, and I think the sheep will appreciate giving up their winter wool sweaters. When I was at the field today it was fairly warm, they were all lethargic and mostly stood around panting.We people will venture into a new part of our sheep ownership, learning what to do with the fleece. Here's what I know-as soon as it comes off the sheep, we'll "skirt" it. This means pulling off the cruddy wool that is found on the underside of the sheep and around it's face. Then it will go into bags. I think we can send it in that condition to a fiber mill for cleaning and such, but we could also attempt to clean it ourselves, card it and spin it. I think it would be cool for all the kids in the project to knit their own scarves out of their sheep's wool.
As for Cusco... He's hopefully going to get sheared tomorrow too, but not all sheep shearers shear camelids. As you can see from the picture, he's kind of a messy guy, although he poops in one spot in the field, which is apparently common for llamas.
