Shearing Day

Today was shearing day, as planned. Of course having just recovered from the flu I now feel like crap from the exertion. The job needed to be done, though. Halfway through the third sheep, the switch on my shearer broke. We started calling neighbors and found a machine we could borrow. (Thanks be to God for Peg!) I got home with it and when I hit the switch nothing happened. It turns out the last person who borrowed it cut halfway through the cord so I had to do a hasty electrical repair. Then we got down to business.

I don't know the correct shearing technique so we sheared them while tied as pictured in the photo. My plan was for my wife to take pictures of the process but she ended up working at holding the sheep. Besides, I don't really have a process. I shear according to how the sheep is facing when it decides to stand still. One of the neighbors whom we had called previously about borrowing a shearer stopped by after receiving our message and told me he would teach me how to shear like a pro. Hopefully we'll be able to work that out when September rolls around. Better yet, maybe we'll just hire a pro. Sigh...I always say that when the memory of the shearing experience is still fresh in my mind but I'm always rarin' to give it another try when the time comes again.

I am pictured holding the fleece from the ram lamb pictured. That is the most complete fleece I've ever removed from a sheep. When we looked at the photo, my wife said, "you really don't know how bad your barn looks until you see a photo of it." We need to do some painting this summer - inside and out.

weather Friday: 21°F/30°F
weather today: 11°F/35°F sunny

tags: sheep, ram, shear, fleece, barn