What a wonderful day! Met at Lisa's farm and cleaned fleece. Joyce, Lisa's sister helped us.
Lisa has a wonderful set up for cleaning fleece right on her back deck. Two washing tubs with drains, and a hot water hose. Couldn't be easier (unless someone else did it!).
Started the day by cleaning an alpaca fleece on a wheel barrow. Soap, hot water and time was all that was needed.
Then we went to the corral to choose a sheep fleece from last month' s shearing day. A couple of sheared rams were there to great us. Lisa chose one white and one black fleece.
Starting with the white fleece, we first picked bits of straw and dung covered bits out of the fleece. That didn't take too long because the shearing happened to occur after a lot of rain and the sheep were fairly clean. Lucky us.
Then we divided the fleece into two and put it into the two tubs. First step is to do a hot water soak - gets rid of the manure ; second step is to wash the fleece with Sunlight soap - do this twice or more depending on how dirty the fleece is; third step is a water and vinegar soak to neutralize the wool from the basic pH soap; last step is a water rinse. Voila! Glistening fleece!
These steps all take time so there is ample opportunity to visit. We had great conversations and lots of laughs. What a great day!
Lisa has a wonderful set up for cleaning fleece right on her back deck. Two washing tubs with drains, and a hot water hose. Couldn't be easier (unless someone else did it!).
Started the day by cleaning an alpaca fleece on a wheel barrow. Soap, hot water and time was all that was needed.
Then we went to the corral to choose a sheep fleece from last month' s shearing day. A couple of sheared rams were there to great us. Lisa chose one white and one black fleece.
Starting with the white fleece, we first picked bits of straw and dung covered bits out of the fleece. That didn't take too long because the shearing happened to occur after a lot of rain and the sheep were fairly clean. Lucky us.
Then we divided the fleece into two and put it into the two tubs. First step is to do a hot water soak - gets rid of the manure ; second step is to wash the fleece with Sunlight soap - do this twice or more depending on how dirty the fleece is; third step is a water and vinegar soak to neutralize the wool from the basic pH soap; last step is a water rinse. Voila! Glistening fleece!
These steps all take time so there is ample opportunity to visit. We had great conversations and lots of laughs. What a great day!
Bags of fleece stored in Lisa's shed since the shearing in June.
A couple of rams watching us.
"Picking" the fleece.
Outdoor washtubs look great.
Draining the tubs.
The fleece after a couple of washes.
The fleece after the last rinse.
Lisa spinning on her back deck.
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