Sheep Shearing

Last Friday, we helped out at a friend's sheep farm on shearing day.



(Direct link to video) Here's a one-minute video. We started by bringing in the sheep from their pastures. After they were shorn, we did the "skirting." Skirting a fleece means removing the short, dirty, or matted fibers.

I drew a couple of portraits of the Icelandic sheep using watercolor, watercolor pencils, and gouache in a watercolor notebook.

Then we went into the farmhouse for a feast of chicken soup, homemade bread, potato salad, sandwiches, and peach/berry cobbler.


I kept thinking of the 1880 painting called "Shearing the Rams" by Tom Roberts of Australia.
------
For information about purchasing sheep, fiber, or pasture-raised lamb, visit the website for the Dancing Lamb Farm in Earlton, New York.

Check out my other videos or subscribe to the James Gurney YouTube channel.
Music on the video is by Kevin MacLeod.
-----
Sheep shearing on Wikipedia

Skirting a fleece
Previously on GJ: Shearing Day, 2008