Spring shearing
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/05/2022 (1331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Mireille Kroeker and Chris Bevan live in the tiny, mostly empty village of Horod — approximately 120 kilometres north of Brandon near Riding Mountain National Park — where they have a small farm with sheep, chickens, pheasants, a pair of cows, a few ducks and guineafowl.
This spring they added two baby lambs to their flock of Icelandic and mixed sheep for a total of 10. Twice a year they shear the sheep and Kroeker uses the wool for projects such as felting, quilt batting and making dryer balls, which she gives as gifts.
She also has a spinning wheel she hopes to use one day. This year they had originally planned to shear the sheep approximately one month earlier, but the frequent spring storms continued to push back the shearing so the sheep would have their protective warm wool in the cold. On April 27, Kroeker and Bevan finally began shearing, giving haircuts — a.k.a. “woolcuts” — to two of their Icelandic sheep, Bessa and Blossom, in their barn, while a cold wind howled outside.
The event was spectator friendly as the lambs, other sheep, chickens, and one of their dogs, Cedar, looked on curiously.
Outside the barn, snow still covered everything in large drifts due to the recent storms.
Once the temperatures begin to rise, however, the sheep will be put out to pasture for the summer before being sheared again in the fall.
» tsmith@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @OtherTimSmith
