Shearing day at Great Lakes Fiber

                                  

It was sunny and brisk in northern Ohio today. Shearing at Great Lakes Fiber for the llamas and alpacas took place beginning at noon.

 

The girls were out in the corral and the boys were in the shed. As we waited for the shearing team to arrive, Ron and I strolled around the property and enjoyed seeing signs of spring.

 

Our attention turned back to the Marine style haircuts underway behind the barn. It was surprisingly quiet. Some were shorn in the chute and some were done on mats.

 

 

The girls look on as Blake gets a buzz cut. 

 

Meet Blake. He was quite stoic about the whole thing and happily bound out into the pasture after his cut. Amy gathered the fiber into carefully labels shopping bags marked neck and blanket with his name on the bag. In a few weeks, we're going to help sort the fiber for the mill. It take a lot of work before this fiber is ready to spin.

 

 

 

Dressed for the part, Ron participated by preparing injections for the animals.

 

Amy and Ron worked together for several years at Stein Hospice. Last summer we met Amy and her husband, Chris, during Ohio Bike Week at the Harley store.  Dressed in full Harley gear on their awesome bike, it was hard to imagine Amy and Chris's alpaca farm life, too. Very cool couple.

 

I've enjoyed teaching knitting in Amy's studio to women eager to learn a new art. It's a great location, with fiber on the hoof, looking in at our progress, and beautifully dyed skeins of alpaca lining the shelves, I can't think of a better place in which to learn to knit.

 

Ron and I have decided to spend our 25th wedding anniversary as new campers, I'm looking for a fiber festival to attend during our road adventure. Or, maybe we could ask Amy if we could just park the trailer in her back 40, so to speak, and gaze at her flock. After all, we are more arm chair travelers than road warriors at this point. Stay tuned.

 

 

After the shearing, we headed over to Osborn Park to see the Earth Day fair in progress. Back to the Wild has several owls with them. These have all been injured and cannot be returned to the wild.

 

 While they don't appear to be real, it was actually hard to get a photo of them looking straight ahead, their necks swivel 180 degrees quickly, looking for prey.

Lindsey and Samantha were braving the winds outside at the Library's booth. Lori, when this photo was taken, was taking her turn warming up inside the barn. She loved the owls and claimed she could stare at them all day.

 

After this much outdoor time, we headed back to the house for Sunday afternoon naps with the pups! All in all, a great Sunday in Sandusky!