Ahhh! Spring At Last

Yesterday was the first day of spring... yes, yes, yes. I know that first day of spring turned over on the calendar a few weeks ago but the actual first day of spring weather wise was yesterday. We were out in the barn yesterday morning quite early because Fanny, my Shetland/merino x had her twin babies at about 8:45 a.m. The contractor showed up at about the same time to drop off a load of lumber and insulation at the same time. Fanny did a great job bringing her two lambs into the world. It was a textbook delivery. She's a good little mom and everything went perfectly. She is in the barn keeping her little lambs happy. We will let her out into the paddock today and her little ones can get used to Palmer. Our two new lambs names are Quip and Quill. Quip is an all black female and Quill is a black female with white markings on her face and head. It was a beautiful day to be born. Sunny and warm all day with blue skies and snow and ice melting underfoot.

Such a day made Hubby and I think of shearing and so we started in on Kracker, who is one of Fanny's last year lambs. It was quite something to see Hubby and me struggle with her as we attempted to remove her wool. It took us a good half hour to remove what a professional would do in minutes. She went limp as she was supposed to do when you have her in the right position but from there on it was a fiasco. We managed to get her wool off in one piece more or less but it looked like a bear had done it instead of a human. She looks rather ragged today but she is at least bare of all her wool. We did nick her a couple of times and I do say we because it was like a relay team shearing. When Hubby couldn't reach a certain spot he would pass over the shears to me and I would shear an area. Then when I couldn't reach a certain area then I would pass over the shears to him. We certainly wouldn't take any medals for our work. We then went on and shear Kracker's sister Krunch. This time it was harder to shear her wool but we didn't have as many nicks... just lots of second cuts.

I've already sold two fleeces. I am not selling them for great amounts because I know that the quality of shearing is not great. $5.00 a lb is what I am asking. I am seriously thinking of bringing in a Teeswater Ewe and a Teeswater ram and starting the first and only flock of Teeswaters in Canada. I would like to have a pure bred Teeswater flock. But there is a lot involved in bringing in animals across the border. Anyway it is all something to think about in the future.

I am soooo glad that it is finally spring at last. the weather just begs me to be out doing stuff. This is good in some ways but bad in others since I still have three questions to finish in my level 2 homework. The contractor will be here on Tuesday to start work and so I need to get hopping. Almost done. Navajo spindling here I come....