Two bags full

Two bags of wool came to my place - the rest was stored either at Geoff's or Anne's (I definitely don't have the room, and the wool, complete with dags, vegetable matter, and dirt has a distinctive 'down at the farm' smell).  The two bags weigh in at: 6.5 kg and 8.1 kg.

straight from the farm

I began by sorting the smaller bag - it had  a lot of crappy wool to get rid of, so took out anything that looked like it was too soiled or two dirty or had too much matting. This job would normally be done in the shearing shed as the sheep was shorn - however Bruce doesn't have a shearing shed, and the shearing to him is a necessary spring task, to keep the flock in good 'meat raising shape' so fleeces are shorn in the hay filled shed, and rolled and thrown straight into plastic bags.

fleece that has been skirted and picked over (once)

Wool locks in mesh bag in 140 degree water

Locks drying

I then tried washing some clean and some dirty stained locks - water at 140 degrees with dish washing liquid most of the dirt came out and most locks look about the same, but still some dirt in it after two rinses, and a little bit of vegetable matter.  Set to dry on the fiber mesh I got (set up across two chair backs).  I teased out a lock - it looks fine and removes all of the vegetable matter, but still slight colouring (so will try one more wash).

Continued sorting - the two bags had roughly 5 fleeces, and total weight of 14.6kgs

Reduced to 9.7 kgs total and fits into 1 and a bit bags.