We were very glad to get the sheep clipped before the really hot and humid weather hit us last month. Not only do the sheep look a lot more comfortable without several kilos of wool on their backs, the risk of flies finding dirty or damp patches of wool to lay their eggs in reduces massively. The heat also reminded us of how valuable tree shade is in such times, and reconfirmed our resolve to plant more so that as many of our fields as possible enjoy that benefit.
The clip from the experimental wool flock looks very promising - if you would like to know more about the shearing process, please watch the short video we made.
The next step is to send to best fleeces off to be processed - some into rovings for hand-spinning and some into finished yarn. We're particularly excited and intrigued by a Merino-Icelandic cross which seems soft, long-stapled and lustrous. Admittedly, this cross was a happy accident but if the yarn is as good as we hope we will intentionally repeat it this autumn.
In the garden, the heat has given the summer crops a huge boost and we should be harvesting cucumbers, tomatoes and beans very soon. The challenge now is to keep the crops watered. Our only supply is a small pond that we try to abstract from sparingly, reserving almost all of it for the covered spaces. By and large the outdoor crops get enough water from the rain, and interestingly it seems the directly sown ones are better able to cope with dry spells.