Getting fleeced

My friend Dr. Dan has sheep. His sheep are mostly pets who keep the grass mowed around his apple trees. Each spring he has the shearer come and relieve the sheep of their winter coats. Dr. Dan is a veterinarian, not a fiber person, so his fleeces get put in bags and stored in the barn. He offered me one last year and I had much fun with it so I agreed to take another this year.
When I arrived at his farm and saw last year's fleeces sitting outside, still in their bags, I knew that he had plenty of fleece to give away. I decided to take three fleeces and picked three bags.
When I got home and took the fleeces out of the bags I found five fleeces in the three bags.
I'd been fleeced.
Three beautiful white ones and two that are mottled gray and black.
His sheep, being pets, don't wear coats or have special areas to live in that keep their fleece clean, so cleaning these fleeces is an adventure.
I first had to go to my neighbor to borrow any screens she had available. She also sent a wonderful porcelain tub with a hole in the bottom.
So, today I spent time in my basement cleaning fleece. I connected a hose to the hot water spout from the washing machine hookup and put hot water into several coolers and big containers, along with some laundry soap. In goes the fleece, stir it around to get the soap in, and let it soak. I like using coolers because they have covers that keep the water hot while soaking.
After about 1/2 hour, I dump out the dirty water and do a second wash, then a final rinse in the porcelain tub.
Outside I have a table set up with screens of all different sizes and shapes to dry the fleeces on. I also set up a couple of saw horses in the barn with screens on them.
I was able to do three fleeces before I ran out of room for drying.
My hands are very clean, my back is very sore and I'm looking forward to spending time picking out twigs and hay chaff from the cleaned fleeces. Sounds like a good job to do on a sunny day.
I'd love to hear other stories about cleaning fleece. Have you ever done it? What did you use?