It was haircut time for the Frontier Culture Museum's shaggy sheep Wednesday and supervisor of interpreters Alex Tillen stepped up for the task on the opening day of Wool Days. It takes him about a hour to clip a sheep, using hand shears — in frontier days, an expert might be able to finish the chore in half that time.

Harvesting wool, though, didn't stop there. Volunteers at the museum's English Farm exhibit gathered the wool Tillen clipped, cleaning it in kettles of boiling water over open fires. Wool Days runs through Saturday, giving visitors a chance to see the museum's new lambs, and watch how people met a key challenge of colonial days — getting the material for their clothing — with demonstrations of shearing, cleaning, carding and spinning wool.