Shearing Part 2
Mar. 28th, 2023 08:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicorndukeTook yesterday off work, relaxed in the morning and also took a nap because Sunday night, I stayed up very late to watch the PHF Isobel Cup Final. Definitely worth staying up for! But the nap helped.
I met J and a friend of his at a farm that had Jacob and Cotswold sheep. Jacobs are black and white splotchy sheep with 2-4 horns and small to medium size. These folks are starting to breed for fiber quality and there was definitely some huge variations in fleece quality. They were also very dry fleeces, with very little lanolin which meant the clippers had to be very well oiled and it was harder for the clippers to go through the wool.
I only sheared one Cotswold because they are huge sheep and are really good at kicking out of holds. The actual clipper through wool is incredibly easy due to high lanolin content and the style of the wool but apparently that's a breed thing, they fight at shearing. Meh quality if you ask me. Given they outweighed me by 20-30 pounds, if I wasn't holding them just right, they were able to kick out of my hold.
I also did two other sheep that were from friends of theirs, a black welsh mountain sheep who was incredibly fat. The wool on her was like shearing a brillo pad, very weird. The other was a Shetland with a surprisingly beautiful fleece that I did a really good job shearing. They offered it to me, but I forgot about it by the end of shearing. Oh well, someone will enjoy that fleece. It was a blue grey color. Wish I hadn't forgotten.
In total, I sheared nine sheep! I stopped before the last two of the herd because my back was hurting something awful, which J said was actually pretty typical. You plateau at 10 sheep due to back hurting and eventually you work through it and the plateau goes to like, 30 sheep. It actually doesn't hurt this morning which means I was engaging my core better than last week, which is very good.
I'm a bit sore this morning, mostly arms and thighs, which is good! My stomach was definitely still off yesterday, I felt super nauseous on the drive home, which was I think from hunger, but hard to tell. it may have been because of the chill I got because I sweat so much while shearing and then if it's 50F which is pretty chilly to be soaked in sweat even if I was wearing a t shirt, a long sleeve shirt and a button down plaid. I did bring a heavy hoodie to layer on top of the long sleeve shirt and t shirt and kicked the heat up in the truck. I've been eating a lot of rice which has mostly settled my stomach down.
No other shearing in the near future, but I'm sure something will come up!
I met J and a friend of his at a farm that had Jacob and Cotswold sheep. Jacobs are black and white splotchy sheep with 2-4 horns and small to medium size. These folks are starting to breed for fiber quality and there was definitely some huge variations in fleece quality. They were also very dry fleeces, with very little lanolin which meant the clippers had to be very well oiled and it was harder for the clippers to go through the wool.
I only sheared one Cotswold because they are huge sheep and are really good at kicking out of holds. The actual clipper through wool is incredibly easy due to high lanolin content and the style of the wool but apparently that's a breed thing, they fight at shearing. Meh quality if you ask me. Given they outweighed me by 20-30 pounds, if I wasn't holding them just right, they were able to kick out of my hold.
I also did two other sheep that were from friends of theirs, a black welsh mountain sheep who was incredibly fat. The wool on her was like shearing a brillo pad, very weird. The other was a Shetland with a surprisingly beautiful fleece that I did a really good job shearing. They offered it to me, but I forgot about it by the end of shearing. Oh well, someone will enjoy that fleece. It was a blue grey color. Wish I hadn't forgotten.
In total, I sheared nine sheep! I stopped before the last two of the herd because my back was hurting something awful, which J said was actually pretty typical. You plateau at 10 sheep due to back hurting and eventually you work through it and the plateau goes to like, 30 sheep. It actually doesn't hurt this morning which means I was engaging my core better than last week, which is very good.
I'm a bit sore this morning, mostly arms and thighs, which is good! My stomach was definitely still off yesterday, I felt super nauseous on the drive home, which was I think from hunger, but hard to tell. it may have been because of the chill I got because I sweat so much while shearing and then if it's 50F which is pretty chilly to be soaked in sweat even if I was wearing a t shirt, a long sleeve shirt and a button down plaid. I did bring a heavy hoodie to layer on top of the long sleeve shirt and t shirt and kicked the heat up in the truck. I've been eating a lot of rice which has mostly settled my stomach down.
No other shearing in the near future, but I'm sure something will come up!
no subject
Date: 2023-03-28 04:35 pm (UTC)Ha, I think I need to get stronger as well, there's an art and science to holding a sheep with your thighs and I don't have the strength yet to pin them with my thighs. But I'll get there! One sheep I had to finish with her standing up since she fought me the whole way and I was tired. But J's friend helped by holding her head so I could get the fleece off.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-28 05:13 pm (UTC)I think texting J would be a good plan. (May it work!)
It takes time to get stronger; there's a truism that it takes a year to get strong when you start doing something demanding regularly. (Sheep-shearing is wretchedly seasonal, too. So it's hard to keep the muscles year-round without doing other stuff.) 10 sheep on your third (?) outing is good! (Pretty good on your sixth.)
no subject
Date: 2023-03-29 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-03-29 07:33 pm (UTC)Getting better is entirely plausible!
I mean, you have been. And it's entirely not an easy thing to do.