For two weekends in a row, we removed about 20 cubic yards of bedding out of the barns. I honestly did not think we had that much bedding down. After it gets compact over a year and then is pulled back up, it expands. Who knew? Anyway, the farms around us mainly use chemicals on their fields and nobody really wanted to deal with spreading it. So, we rented some dumpsters and off they went. We had a small group of kids from a local church to help us out. We did not finish but got a very good start.
An empty 20 cubic yard dumpsterA full 20 cubic yard dumpster
A full 20 cubic yard dumpster
All the while we were cleaning barns, the sheep shearer arrived. Over the weekend, she sheared about 30 sheep. The wool clip this spring turned out to be better then expected in terms of quality and quantity. We had increased our hay quality over the winter and it appears to be paying benefits this spring.
Now we get to skirt all that wool and get it ready to go to the processor. I know we are going to have a queen size quilt batt made. That’s going to be one warm quilt.
In other news, we are now on Facebook. You can find us either by looking for our June 13 event in Marshall, Michigan or by our festival name: Fiber Arts & Animals Festival.
Lambing starts in another couple of weeks. To be ready for lambing, we need to at least finish most of the barn cleaning. This is going to involve a bit more shovel work for us and without the extra help (probably). Once we get a quarter of the barn all done, we can put down new bedding and setup the lambing pens. We are expecting 10 - 20 lambs this year.
