Shearing Season 2014

The grueling work of shearing sheep has been in my family for years. It started with my grandfather who ran a sheep shearing crew who traveled all over Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Wyoming. This was how he supported his wife and 13 children. Back then there was a huge demand for this trade and it kept them busy most of the year. My dad started shearing as a teenager and took over the crew  in the mid 80’s when he returned home from his mission and married my mom. The demand has slowed significantly and he mostly shears sheep in Colorado, New Mexico and a few weeks in Texas. He has also picked up shearing Alpaca on a ranch, which is almost completely different then sheep. It is about 5months out of the year that they shear but in those 5 short months it is a very hard, busy, stressful job especially when working around the bipolar season of winter and spring in Colorado and the stupidity of sheep. To make a very long history short Chris was able to join the crew in February as the wool packer. There is a great pride amongst the wool packers to pack A LOT of wool into one bag and keeping the area clean. The heavier the bag the more it saves money for the farmer. Chris became and expert and my dad, who does not give compliments often, said Chris has been the best wool packer he has ever had and now calls him a “professional wool bagging technician”.  Chris took a lot of pictures of his experience working on the crew and I loved seeing how he captured a little of what has been a part of my family for years.

My dad shearing one of his own sheep.

The shearing trailer my grandpa built and is still used to this day.

The sheep shearers kick the wool down a shoot. Chris has to separate the good wool from the poopy wool then place the good wool in the wool packer.

Packing the wool into the "wool packer"

Moving the wool bags. A good bag usually weighs around  500 lbs. Chris made them in the mid-high 600's.

Inside the shearing trailer cleaning their stations.

The shearers comprised 4 men, two of which are Amish. If  you watch Amish Mafia apparently a lot of it is incorrect based off of what Chris has asked these two men.