In August we bought two fluffy wethers. In case you aren't familiar with sheep talk, a wether is a neutered ram. We had only intended on getting the white one, but when we saw the two together, we just couldn't resist. Although they have real names, we keep referring to them as "Sheep and Shadow".
They were both born this Spring and are about four months old in this picture. The white one is an English Leicester Long Wool; we named him Lester. There are only about 150 of this breed in the United States as of 1998, so we're quite fortunate to have one. The black one is a cross between an English Leicester Long Wool and a Black Welsh Mountain; we named him Thirteen. That's his ear tag number and we thought that such a dark, black creature should have a somewhat spooky name. His lamb's wool is so soft and fluffy that touching him was like reaching into a storm cloud.
It was so hot here in Maryland that we sheared them in mid-August, as we were afraid that they'd overheat. Thirteen was our most difficult shearing job yet. Where Lester has pink skin and white wool, Thirteen is a very deep, solid black clear through. It was hard to tell where the wool stopped and the sheep started!
Although they're just lambs, we got 3 pounds 8 ounces of wool from Thirteen and 3 pounds 4 ounces from Lester. Phebe has already spun the black wool into yarn and is knitting a sweater for me to ski in this season. The white wool has been dyed a strange color called "Turkey Red". I'm sure that Phebe will have a report on this wether wool in another month or so.
We bought our wethers from Brindle Hill Farm in south-central Pennsylvania. If you're interested in these long hair breeds, you can contact Kevin at BrindleHil@aol.com
For Phebe's tips on wool working, please click to her wool page.
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