Day ??: Skirting a fleece (my Americorps 'Reflection)

Part of being an Americorps Member is that I have to write a 'Reflection' every two weeks. I'm sharing it here. It's not as fun as my other posts, but I've been too tired to write lately. 

Americorps Reflection #1

My main reasons for choosing to spend three months learning about alpacas and sustainable farming was to be a part of something positive, do some physical labor, and have a PURPOSE for getting up every day.  Part of my goal was to NOT think too deeply, so I have found writing this ‘reflection’ difficult. I feel like I am supposed to have some great insight, but I really don’t want to think and analyze anymore. Instead, I’ll share what I’ve learned about ‘skirting’ and how I helped streamline the ‘skirting’ room.

Shearing time was just at the beginning of May. It seems like the shearing is the biggest task, but after the alpacas are sheared the fiber must be sorted, cleaned, and sent off to processing. Each animal sheared has two bags of fiber: a ‘firsts’ bag and a ‘seconds’ bag. While the animal is being sheared, the fleece gatherer puts the best fiber (the ‘firsts’) into one bag, and the ‘seconds’ (shorter/coarser) into another. They are all in clear trash bags with papers that have the animal’s name and whether it’s ‘firsts’ or ‘seconds’.  Before the blanket is ‘skirted’ (sorted through and cleaned), it must be weighed, and the ‘seconds’ bag must be found in order to add fiber from the blanket that does not qualify as a ‘first’.

There were about 60 animals sheared, so that meant there were 120 bags. All the blankets must be weighted before and after skirting, to get an idea of how much prime fiber they really get off an animal.  I took it upon myself to weigh them as they came in, so they didn’t get overlooked.

The main room had been set up to separate the ‘skirted’ and ‘not skirted’ blankets, but all of the ‘seconds’ bags were tossed into a side room. As a librarian, and super-organize-y person this did not seem efficient to me. One rainy day my boss said he had no more chores for me and I could do ‘whatever my little heart desired’. Well, my little heart desired to organize the ‘seconds’ room.

I moved all of the  ‘seconds’ whose blankets have already been skirted to one side, and labeled them. This way, you don’t need to search through 60 clear trash bags of fiber to find the one you need. All the ‘seconds’ whose blankets had NOT been skirted, I put on the other side of the room, labeled, and organized by color. Since the blankets are organized by color, this makes it easier to find its partner ‘seconds’ bag when you start a new blanket.

Everyone seemed very pleased with this setup, and said it made it easier to locate the bags. I think it’s funny that even on a farm, my organizing skills are useful. After two years of unemployment it’s good to be in a place where I feel my skills contribute to the overall operation, and help them meet their goals.

It seems my patience and detail oriented nature is a BIG positive in skirting. I have spent almost every afternoon in the skirting room, and the full timers are VERY happy with that. My work will help get the fiber out to the processor sooner, which means they will get spun yarn back sooner. They sell the yarn to help finance the center. Also, with just a few hours of solitary skirting under my belt, I got to train the new volunteer, Julia, on how to skirt a fleece. Since having to teach someone reinforces your own learning, I found this quite useful. I still fetch the ‘fiber’ lady when I have questions on sorting, but she usually reinforces what I would have decided.

I think I am making steady progress towards both my learning objectives and hours. I’m out in the barns every morning at 8:00, feeding animals and cleaning pastures. The afternoons I spend either skirting fleece or auditing/fixing their library card catalog. I feel I am making a positive contribution to the running of the farm and the Center.