Hurricane Irene

Who'd have thought that a hurricane would impact on the project?

Turns out that the extensive rain we had over the period when Hurricane Irene transited, severely tested out storage techniques at Anne's house (her garden shed!).  We had (see previous posts) skirted most of the wool and transferred it to brown paper 'leaf and garden waste' sacks - 1 fleece per bag.

Along came the rain and drove into the shed at angles we hadn't anticipated so a reasonable amount of water got to the bags.  Now as it turns out they are a little bit water resistant, and while they (and a little bit of wool inside) got wet that didn't turn out to be the problem.

Something in the paper making process made wet paper absolutely irresistible to ants!!  By the time we discovered this, there was quite a colony starting to build up on the outside of the top bag.  With the prospect of as many inside as out - we did a quick clean up (of the ants and eggs on the outside) and opened the first bag.

Clean!! (with some damp spots) - so the conclusion was it was the paper, and not the raw wool that attracted them.  So with some quick work to spread out and dry the few bits of wool that did get damp we are back in business, and now that I have finished washing the wool I had at my place I have taken the first two bags of wool from the shed back to the apartment.

As it turns out one of those fleeces we labeled #1 - it was fairly clean and it had very long locks (not Shrek long, but consistently long across the whole fleece), so will be a pleasure to prepare and card once scoured.