Winter sheep activities: from shelter to wool

We had a plan. The lambs were to return to the sheep farm for the winter. Fino and L. didn't build the shelter last spring with winter in mind.

I should have known that was a futile plan.

L. is a sweet talker. She also happens to be a hard-worker and that's a helpful (to her) combination in life.

She sweet talked the sheep farmer in to letting the lambs winter with us because she loved Minnie so much and didn't want to part with her. She also explained she had every intention of learning to spin wool this winter (more on that in a bit) so she was all about taking good care of the lambs.

She sweet talked her daddy in to building an addition on to the sheep shelter for hay and grain storage (the warmer weather storage we were using is now full of bikes and other items that can't be in the snow). She agreed to assist (and mostly finance with her sheep show fair premiums) with the building project.

She sweet talked G.'s cow farm connection to sell her hay over the winter.

Then her daddy found a way to deal with the frozen water issue with the lamb's small water pool (formally used as a child's sandbox/pool toy - thanks Meg!). No sweet talking needed as this piece was a necessity. It required an investment of a submersible water heater. Fino built a small wood stand to place the heater on so it wouldn't melt the plastic material of the pool and it works great (even on the coldest day of the year the water was not frozen).

And voila! (which was far from instantaneous) L. had a winterized home in our backyard by early-December for her lambs.

The lambs are doing great despite the frigid temperatures. They regularly choose to spend time outside their shelter. Although they do have a slightly different look right now...

The snow beards make us chuckle and don't seem to bother the lambs a bit.

When December rolled around, L. moved on to her next phase of her winter sheep activities - washing her lamb's fleeces (sheared after the fair).

This is when I fell under the kid's charms.

Now I know why there is a reason people don't wash wool, even many of the people who raise sheep specifically for their fiber (many sent it out for processing - wash and card by machine to make roving). It's a darn lot of work.

With a tip from a fellow 4H mom and fiber artist, we used an old laundry basket and poked a bunch of holes in the bottom of it (for water drainage). We had another larger bucket to submerse the wool-full basket in the boiling water to rinse clean.

It takes about three rinses (with no agitation because you have to be careful not to "felt" the fiber by mistake) of boiling water to get the water to run clear from the wool.

We spent about four hours washing small batches of wool (our basket wasn't very big) with this method and only made it through about 1/2 of one of her fleeces.

Like I said... a lot of work.

L.'s sheep club leader set up a couple of wool spinning classes to teach a small group who were interested in learning to spin their lamb's wool. The kids learned how spinning wheels work and then had a chance to try their hand at spinning with some roving material.

Much easier said than done.

L. loved it and was loaned a wheel (a semi-sweet talking transaction because she was so excited about the project) and has done a lot of practicing at home with it this past month.

I purchased some low-grade roving for L. to practice with and she hopes that by the time she works through that supply, she will be able to spin thin strands of yarn (as they should be) without bumps. Then she thinks she'll be ready for spinning her own lamb's wool.

Next on her winter sheep activities... crocheting a small project with her hand-spun wool.

I think I can say with confidence that L. likes sheep.