Shearing onward
May. 5th, 2023 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicorndukeBig shearing day today, five with 60ish sheep to shear. Plus two llamas. My goal for the day was 12 sheep.
I did 11! I think I could have done 12 except I accidentally caught my left middle finger in my clipper somehow and had to stop shearing to get the bleeding stopped. It's fine, a shallow flap of skin and it stopped mostly stopped bleeding by the time the farmer got the first aid kit out, although it re-opened as I sheared. It's definitely all done bleeding by now so it should be good to go. I'm usually up to date on my tetanus shots, although I'm five years out, so probably time to get another one just for funsies. I know they say they're good for ten years or something but I'm pretty prone to encountering situations where it would be a concern. But I handed my sheep over to Joe, washed it with water, then alcohol wipes then bandaged it up. Biggest issue is that lanolin will make bandaids and gauze come off and my fingers were sweating so I had to reapply twice and mostly got it to stay on via extensive gauze winding over the bandaid. I knew it was coming off because lanolin will make wounds sting a lot and it hurt. Thankfully it happened at the last stop of the day.
Other than that, it was good! First stop I did five sheep, second stop was two and a half sheep (the jumpy jerks) and I got to watch J shear the llama (first stop was supposed to have a llama but they couldn't catch it), third stop was one (they only had three sheep) and fourth stop was the last four I did. Hang on. Did I math that right? Or did I only do three at the last stop. Well either I did four at the last stop and actually met my goal, or I did three at the last stop and did eleven. Counting sheep as I shear them is difficult. I didn't go to the last stop on the drive because my back was hurting. The main issue is that I also take a very long time to shear when my back hurts, because I can't hold the sheep in the positions they need to be as well as I should. So it takes me longer by a lot. Don't worry, my back is just sore, not actually ouchie.
The fourth stop's sheep had a lot of some kind of poopy muddy situation happening on their butts, which was extremely gross and annoying to shear off so that was bleh.
I got home, showered and ate delicious chicken and rice I made last night. 10/10 past self.
I will be packing in the morning to drive to MD!
I did 11! I think I could have done 12 except I accidentally caught my left middle finger in my clipper somehow and had to stop shearing to get the bleeding stopped. It's fine, a shallow flap of skin and it stopped mostly stopped bleeding by the time the farmer got the first aid kit out, although it re-opened as I sheared. It's definitely all done bleeding by now so it should be good to go. I'm usually up to date on my tetanus shots, although I'm five years out, so probably time to get another one just for funsies. I know they say they're good for ten years or something but I'm pretty prone to encountering situations where it would be a concern. But I handed my sheep over to Joe, washed it with water, then alcohol wipes then bandaged it up. Biggest issue is that lanolin will make bandaids and gauze come off and my fingers were sweating so I had to reapply twice and mostly got it to stay on via extensive gauze winding over the bandaid. I knew it was coming off because lanolin will make wounds sting a lot and it hurt. Thankfully it happened at the last stop of the day.
Other than that, it was good! First stop I did five sheep, second stop was two and a half sheep (the jumpy jerks) and I got to watch J shear the llama (first stop was supposed to have a llama but they couldn't catch it), third stop was one (they only had three sheep) and fourth stop was the last four I did. Hang on. Did I math that right? Or did I only do three at the last stop. Well either I did four at the last stop and actually met my goal, or I did three at the last stop and did eleven. Counting sheep as I shear them is difficult. I didn't go to the last stop on the drive because my back was hurting. The main issue is that I also take a very long time to shear when my back hurts, because I can't hold the sheep in the positions they need to be as well as I should. So it takes me longer by a lot. Don't worry, my back is just sore, not actually ouchie.
The fourth stop's sheep had a lot of some kind of poopy muddy situation happening on their butts, which was extremely gross and annoying to shear off so that was bleh.
I got home, showered and ate delicious chicken and rice I made last night. 10/10 past self.
I will be packing in the morning to drive to MD!
no subject
Date: 2023-05-08 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-05-09 08:20 pm (UTC)Angora goats have very loose skin, so (I’m told) it’s kind of like shearing a small merino sheep with horns. The hair doesn’t stick together into one big blanket, either, which is helpful when your client wants to skirt right there at the shearing station. As you shear off poopy parts you can just chuck them to the side.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-10 12:21 am (UTC)I suspect J has got his folks trained to have the sheep on hand or he'll skip them since every stop we've been to has had the sheep dry and penned, ready to go. Although he did mention that there's some people he doesn't work with anymore, so those might be the people who tried to pull crap.
Oh interesting on the angoras! I haven't sheared any merinos yet, although I watched J do a small flock. There's not actually a ton in our area, lots of Romneys instead.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-10 10:51 am (UTC)Yeah, my shearer is really good about second cuts. She’s strong, relatively quick, and really good with the animals. She was on the USA international sheep shearing competition team in 2012.