NEW SEASON'S FLEECES!

FLEECES
Shorn 10.12.16.
All have been coated unless otherwise stated.
Micron and weights are approximate. Weights listed in blue are accurate.
$25/kg coated, $23/kg uncoated

Browns

2/09 Champagne cream, approx. 27micron, 90-100mm, sound, fair to poor character, 2.5kg $62.50

Black

 

C13/13 Mid-grey/fawn, approx. 25micron, 90-100mm, tender 20mm from butt, good to fair character, very soft, 670g $16.75

1/11 (ram) Dark to mid-grey, burnished tip, approx. 25micron, 100mm, sound, fair to poor character, not coated, 3kg 69.003kg, $69.00

 

I also have a small amount of quite short-stapled lambswool, some brown, some black, @ $5.00/kg

Whites
16/14 Very creamy white, approx. 26micron, 100-110mm, sound, good character, 3.9kg $97.50

 

C10/11 Creamy white, approx. 26micron, 110mm, sound, good character, even, 2kg $50.00

Also six white Fine Merino fleeces, approx. 17-18micron, good length (at least one, KT6, is two or more year's growth), sound, excellent character, but unfortunately they contain quite a bit of vegetable contamination (VM) mostly on outer surface. Some are long enough to just snip off the contaminated tips!

KT1, length 80-100mm, 4.5kg, $90.00

KT2, length 130-150mm, 4kg, $80.00

KT3, length 100-110mm, 4kg, $80.00

KT4, length 120-140mm, 3.5kg, $70.00

KT5, length 110-130mm, 3.5kg, $70.00

KT6, length 150-170mm, 6.5kg, $130.00

NEW SEASON'S FLEECES AVAILABLE NOW!

Hi everyone,
The new season's fleeces have been classed,weighed and photographed and are available for sale!
Unfortunately, seeing as it's only two days till Christmas, I don't have time at present to post the pics and details here but I will do so as soon as I can!
In the meantime if you'd like me to email you a price list, just email me at shiloh40@bigpond.com

A Merry Woolly Christmas and a Happy, Fleece-filled New Year to all!
Jenni

SHEARING DONE!

At last our sheep have been shorn! I'm now working on classing, weighing and photographing all the fleeces and I'll post pics and info here as soon as I can! There are only 23 Bond fleeces this year so it's first in first served!
I have also been given five white fine Merino fleeces, which are good quality and have good staple lengths. The only fault is that they have not come from coated sheep and they contain quite a lot of vegetable matter (VM). If anyone is interested in beautiful soft fine Merino fleece and doesn't mind picking out the VM contamination, let me know!
Stay tuned....

DATE FOR SHEARING!

At last we have our new shearing plant installed and the shearer is booked for next Saturday 11th December, all being well! This is two months later than our preferred shearing month of October but the delay was due to circumstances beyond our control and hopefully next year we'll be back on track!
Keep watching this space for details of the fresh fleeces which I'll post as soon as I have classed and weighed the them!

DELAYS, DELAYS!

I thought we'd have the sheep shorn by now but there has been a hold-up in the delivery of our new shearing plant. Once it's here and set up we've then got to make a date with the shearer. In the meantime some of the sheep's coats are getting tight and I may have to remove some if the leg-straps are starting to cause injury. (I have no bigger sizes of coats to replace them with!) We've also had a lamb with a broken leg which, happily, is all healed up now after two weeks in a cast!
So please bear with us, I'll let you all know as soon we have fresh fleeces available!

Shiloh Wool at Bolwarra - new lambs and lots of rain!

 

It's been an interesting year for Shiloh Wool! We've settled into our new home  at Bolwarra and I've got the 'shop' and dyeing area sort of organized - a bit of work to do yet. I did lots of yarn-dyeing prior to the Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo in July and I discovered that although I had plenty of water (once the rains came and filled the tanks!) the cooler weather meant the dyes took longer to set. In the summer the opposite occurs - lots of warm sunshine so it's easy to set the dyes quickly but conserving water is a challenge. We're all learning how to cope with tank water only.
It's also been a very wet year - even for this high rainfall area so the locals say! We lost two lambs because their mothers became caste and couldn't get up on their feet to tend to their newborn lambs. We usually lamb in autumn/early winter and in my eagerness to increase the number of coloured sheep I joined six ewes in March which meant lambing in august. I didn't consider the fact that they would be heavy with wool at lambing, plus I couldn't have known it would be so wet, and these factors combined caused the problems. However we have four healthy lambs, two ewes and two rams, one brown and one black of each praise God!

 

We will be shearing again in early November. This year we are setting up a shearing area in our new shed so it can all be done at home without having to transport sheep to the shearing shed. It's a

work in progress!

I will post pics of the fleeces here as soon as I have them weighed and classed. Stay tuned!



THE SHEEP ARE HOME!

The weekend before last we brought our 24 sheep home to Bolwarra! They seem to be settling in to their new location quite well. There is more grass here and after a week of frequent rain there is some green pick coming through which they love! My husband just paid $18 for a 20kg bag of oats at the local feed store (cough, splutter!) - I think we're going to have to find a farmer we can buy oats and/or hay from directly!
We've had to catch the sheep and change a few torn coats. I'm going to have to mend some coats I think. Why is it always the black sheep, whose wool most needs protection from the sun, who manage to get tangled in their coats?!!
It's very easy to see the sheep from the house here, so if any coats are dragging or there are any problems we can be onto it quickly.
I haven't set up my 'wool room' yet but I hope to get it organized as soon as I've bought some more shelving! Then I can unpack the boxes and bags of tops and yarns!

Million Paws Walk for the RSPCA

I've signed up to do the RSPCA Million Paws Walk again this year, on 15th May! I'm hoping our rather lazy Golden Retriever 'Bonnie' will last the distance. It turns out that this year one of the Walk locations is right here in Portland, Vic and we have already walked the track! Bonnie did require a few rest stops though!!
If you would like to help me fundraise for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, here is the link to my fundraising page: https://mpw-vic-2016.everydayhero.com/au.jenni-1

RE-LOCATION!

Shiloh Wool is moving! We are re-locating to a small acreage in Bolwarra, Western Victoria. We will have new contact details as from 4th February 2016.

We will still be growing coloured and white Bond fleeces although our flock size has had to be reduced. We will have more space for the Shiloh Wool store and for me to dye lots more beautiful Silky Wool and Silk Dream yarns!