Yesterday was July 4th and we celebrated by not doing much of anything. The long holiday weekend had been pretty busy up to that point, though. On Saturday Erica Mennerick, one of Mom's grandchildren-by-choice, dropped by with her kids and new boyfriend for a brief visit on their way to his place in Cable (an hour or two north of here). I haven't seen Erica in ages, not since we went up to IL for her husband Skip's funeral almost 2 years ago, and it was great to see her under happier circumstances. Tom seems to be a really nice guy and the kids are just growing like weeds. Kiera is a shy and wiggly 4-year-old and Cole (who is now 6, I believe) is a smart and self-assured little guy. Skip would be proud of them both.
Just after they left, and before I had time to charge the battery in my camera, the sheep shearer called and asked if he could come by and get the sheep taken care of right away. Since they had been suffering from the day's 90+ degree heat and 80% humidity (our visitors from North Carolina, who had dropped by to remind us of why we left), I agreed that it would be a good day to be a naked sheep and rounded them up into their new stall. A far cry from last year, when we were still chasing them around the yard when the shearer showed up! It was too hot and sticky for shearing day to be much fun, but at least they obviously felt better the minute all that wool was gone. They're funny, though, when they've been sheared. They're really jumpy and stare at one another as though they'd never seen each other before. Bella was a hoot, too. As each sheep lay there bawling, she'd come stick her head over the top of the gate and nicker in
encouragement. A real mother hen.
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| Sheep Before Shearing |
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| Totally Naked Sheep |
:::cue dramatic music:::
The dreaded, hated, evil bugs from Hell, the No See 'Ems (Women scream, crowds panic, buildings topple)!
We hate these bugs more than all the other bugs in this pesticide-forsaken state put together. They really are so small as to be almost invisible, but when 2 or 3 billion of the little monsters swarm in through the window screens they make their presence known by biting the bejesus out of anything inside. We suffered through an onslaught of these horrors last year about this time (we both ended up sleeping in the living room since the ceilings of both bedrooms were black with the little suckers). I had just been wondering a couple of days ago when they'd show up this year, and then Mom discovered them covering the ceiling tiles in her room Saturday when she went to bed. This development put the heat and humidity in a better light, as the miserable conditions had saved us from a full-on assault: we had closed the windows downstairs and turned on the air conditioning (a luxury absent from most Cheesehead households as it's unnecessary for all but a couple of weeks a year) so they didn't have a chance to invade there. Unfortunately, Mom doesn't get much cool air upstairs (but does get great cross-ventilation) and so had left the windows open in her room. She spent Saturday and Sunday night downstairs sleeping in her chair, poor thing. As I write this, though, they seem to have all died off and she was able to sleep upstairs again last night.
On Sunday, Mom went back to her never-ending branch chopping chore and I dealt with the results of the shearing. We got "two bags full" of nice, silver-black wool from the sheep:
I spent Sunday afternoon "skirting" the wool, which is a nicer way of saying "cutting out the poopy parts":
The skirted wool was soaked overnight in soapy, cold water. Hot water and too much agitation will cause wool to felt up, ruining it for spinning, so I had to be careful with it. On Monday I rinsed it and spread it out to dry again.
In the past, we had sent wool out to be cleaned and machine carded (the process by which wool is combed out so all the fibers are running in the same direction, ready to be pulled out a few at a time and twisted together by the action of the spinning wheel), so this was a first for me. It may be a last, too--wet wool is REALLY heavy, and the process is quite difficult for someone with fibromyalgia. Took me hours. But it was fun, and the end result will be interesting to work with. The wool should still have much of its natural lanolin since I used cold water, and I will hand card it in small amounts before spinning. Spinning wool that still has its lanolin is called "spinning in the grease" and results in a water-resistant yarn that makes good, storm-proof sweaters.
Though we didn't go to see any fireworks last night--Janette is still laid up after her vicious reaction to the tick bite and we were pretty tired--we hope to attend next Saturday's Beef and Bison Barbecue/ Draft Horse Pull being held at the Pioneer Park in Ogema. Stay tuned!
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