shearing yay!
May. 4th, 2024 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicorndukeYesterday's shearing went really well!
We started at a place that had 32 sheep, Finn, Tunis and Cheviots in about equal amounts each. Cheviots are jumpers and kickers on the shearing board so J ended up doing most of them. I took my time, taking good breaks between sheep. My goal was to do five at that place, I did six of them! On a normal week, I probably could have done eight or nine so I'm not far off my normal. We started mostly with the Finns and they are smaller sheep and were very well behaved. Then we did the Tunis and Cheviots and they're bigger sheep and less well behaved. But I didn't let any sheep go although at one point, one of the Tunis squirmed around and I ended up just sitting on her while she was on her side which was pretty funny.
I'm definitely improving, I can consistently get the sheep to sit while I run the clippers up their necks, there's a specific position to hold them in to do it and it takes some work to get it right and I was very pleased about it. These were easy shears too, the sheep were in good condition and well behaved overall. The lighting in the barn was good and it was still relatively cool with a good little breeze coming in.
The owner was just going to mulch the fleeces, so I asked if I could take some of them and I came home with four beautiful Finn fleeces. I haven't worked with Finn wool at all but it's a medium wool and beautiful colors. I wish I had grabbed a Tunis fleece but there's always next year. I need to go skirt them since I just shoved them in bags while we were moving along.
The next stop was four Angora goats. I've never done them, so J sheared them and gave them their shots while I did their feet and held them for a topical fly away. It was interesting to watch, the goats have more skin and so more skin flaps and the hair doesn't lay in the same way as sheep wool, so it didn't shear the same way. Maybe by next year I'll try doing one myself. Two were medium size white does and two were grey large wethers. Horns were a little trouble, at one point, one of the does just hooked her horn directly into the side of my thigh, pretty clearly on purpose. They know where they're horns are. But they were hilariously floppy and mostly just laid there.
The woman who owned the goats was really interested in using the fleeces and we got chatting about spinning and things, so she might give me a call and we'll do some fleece and spinning fun.
I decided to keep going after this, I had been unsure that morning, but I still felt good and I had brought lunch. So we went to another stop, which had three goats that needed hooves done and one extremely elderly sheep. I did the sheep, J did the goats' hooves.
Final stop I went to was nine shetland sheep and they were a much harder shear than J or I expected. First sheep I ended up with was clearly trying to shed out and there was an extremely sticky break in the wool right where I was trying to shear. I did about a quarter, including the belly which is the hardest, then handed her over to J to finish since my clippers were getting hot. I need to get them serviced. I let them cool and did one more sheep. After that I told J that I was getting tired, so we switched to him shearing and me doing hooves and drenches to the sheep. I'm glad we did because two other sheep were also sticky and hard to shear.
So in total, I sheared eight sheep, and trimmed the hooves on ten more goats/sheep. I'm pretty pleased with that, a week after having covid symptoms. I was a bit more tired yesterday and I can taste something weird in my nose, but that seems to be the only lasting effects. I'm very sore all over, but I also didn't really workout or shear for a solid month, so that's to be expected. Shearing always makes me sore and today's weird sore place is my upper forearm, just below the elbow. Why is that sore, I don't know. I'm also happy to start replenishing my cash supply which has gotten alarmingly low.
I'm very glad I went yesterday because now I feel more confident for next week's terribly behaved Icelandics that I do solo. goals for the rest of this weekend are: skirt fleeces, maybe do some light yardwork, bake!
We started at a place that had 32 sheep, Finn, Tunis and Cheviots in about equal amounts each. Cheviots are jumpers and kickers on the shearing board so J ended up doing most of them. I took my time, taking good breaks between sheep. My goal was to do five at that place, I did six of them! On a normal week, I probably could have done eight or nine so I'm not far off my normal. We started mostly with the Finns and they are smaller sheep and were very well behaved. Then we did the Tunis and Cheviots and they're bigger sheep and less well behaved. But I didn't let any sheep go although at one point, one of the Tunis squirmed around and I ended up just sitting on her while she was on her side which was pretty funny.
I'm definitely improving, I can consistently get the sheep to sit while I run the clippers up their necks, there's a specific position to hold them in to do it and it takes some work to get it right and I was very pleased about it. These were easy shears too, the sheep were in good condition and well behaved overall. The lighting in the barn was good and it was still relatively cool with a good little breeze coming in.
The owner was just going to mulch the fleeces, so I asked if I could take some of them and I came home with four beautiful Finn fleeces. I haven't worked with Finn wool at all but it's a medium wool and beautiful colors. I wish I had grabbed a Tunis fleece but there's always next year. I need to go skirt them since I just shoved them in bags while we were moving along.
The next stop was four Angora goats. I've never done them, so J sheared them and gave them their shots while I did their feet and held them for a topical fly away. It was interesting to watch, the goats have more skin and so more skin flaps and the hair doesn't lay in the same way as sheep wool, so it didn't shear the same way. Maybe by next year I'll try doing one myself. Two were medium size white does and two were grey large wethers. Horns were a little trouble, at one point, one of the does just hooked her horn directly into the side of my thigh, pretty clearly on purpose. They know where they're horns are. But they were hilariously floppy and mostly just laid there.
The woman who owned the goats was really interested in using the fleeces and we got chatting about spinning and things, so she might give me a call and we'll do some fleece and spinning fun.
I decided to keep going after this, I had been unsure that morning, but I still felt good and I had brought lunch. So we went to another stop, which had three goats that needed hooves done and one extremely elderly sheep. I did the sheep, J did the goats' hooves.
Final stop I went to was nine shetland sheep and they were a much harder shear than J or I expected. First sheep I ended up with was clearly trying to shed out and there was an extremely sticky break in the wool right where I was trying to shear. I did about a quarter, including the belly which is the hardest, then handed her over to J to finish since my clippers were getting hot. I need to get them serviced. I let them cool and did one more sheep. After that I told J that I was getting tired, so we switched to him shearing and me doing hooves and drenches to the sheep. I'm glad we did because two other sheep were also sticky and hard to shear.
So in total, I sheared eight sheep, and trimmed the hooves on ten more goats/sheep. I'm pretty pleased with that, a week after having covid symptoms. I was a bit more tired yesterday and I can taste something weird in my nose, but that seems to be the only lasting effects. I'm very sore all over, but I also didn't really workout or shear for a solid month, so that's to be expected. Shearing always makes me sore and today's weird sore place is my upper forearm, just below the elbow. Why is that sore, I don't know. I'm also happy to start replenishing my cash supply which has gotten alarmingly low.
I'm very glad I went yesterday because now I feel more confident for next week's terribly behaved Icelandics that I do solo. goals for the rest of this weekend are: skirt fleeces, maybe do some light yardwork, bake!
no subject
Date: 2024-05-04 04:40 pm (UTC)Yay, success!
That location in the arm is one of the less-usual carpal tunnel pain locations. (And probably lots of other things, but certainly that.)
no subject
Date: 2024-05-04 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-04 06:45 pm (UTC)It's not difficult to imagine that you might overgrip -- or need to overgrip! -- a wiggly sheep. (Or that you were heaving them about perhaps more than usual.) And it's an easy thing to not notice doing if you're feeling at all goal-directed which is more or less a given while shearing.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-04 05:42 pm (UTC)Soreness at that location on the forearm can be caused by repeated strong gripping, like holding shears or hoof trimmers.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-04 06:40 pm (UTC)It's actually my left hand that's sore, I use the clippers in my right hand. Left hand moves the sheep around, so that's why, but usually it's my shoulder and bicep that's sore. Who knows
no subject
Date: 2024-05-05 11:38 am (UTC)