Another shearing day is in the books.
This one was made unusual by the collapsed wool market. With very little wool moving on the export market many large flock owners are having to decide what to do with wool they won’t get paid for. One more example of agriculture being at the mercy of exporting product rather than having local initiatives and markets for what is produced in any given area.
I kept numerous individual fleeces for processing into batting for selling, plus I’ll use some in my felting work. But the bulk of the wool clip never even got bagged this year. Instead we piled it on the ground and I can’t tell you how off it felt to do that. I did have some plan for it though so at least it wasn’t going to the dump which is where a good many wool clips will end up this year.
My first plan was to use the wool for erosion control on the trails out to pasture, and then for some land reclamation trials. But then Allen came up with a better idea. We have an outbuilding that is slated to be a three season wool house / small dog kennel in the future. We’re going to use the wool for insulation of this building which feels very fitting and eased the sense of wrong that piling it on the ground presented.
The whole wool scenario causes me to reflect on the felted flock project which seems very timely now. I have a renewed urgency to tackle that project and see it done. There have also been numerous whispers this past year, whispers to value add. At first I thought of this only in regard to the sheep flock and the farm but now I realize that artwork is value adding what I have and photography is value adding what I witness here on a regular basis, and writing is value adding the experiences lived while here on this place. This is the value adding that needs my attention.