Today was a glorious day of about 70 degrees with winds 20-25 mph. It was slightly overcast this morning, making it the perfect weather for sheep shearing. I say that because our shearers were located where the cross breeze blew through the barn and the clouds kept the temperatures down. For anyone who doesn't have an experience with shearing, it is hard, hot work, and doing it in less-than-ideal conditions, while doable, make it an even more brutal task. Our shearer hails from northern Illinois in the Forreston area. This man has a wide radius of clientele, traveling into southern Wisconsin, over to Iowa and Minnesota, and further south in Illinois than Monmouth. He is about dad's age, so really feels the shearing in his back, but it is extremely difficult to find shearers of any kind, let alone young ones. He and his wife both came and she also shears. There were only 30 ewes and 1 ram, so it took about four hours, though it would have taken considerably less time if we hadn't socialized. I have to say, I think that everyone should observe a conversation that takes place between farmers. You will be amazed at the stories, what they know about their neighbors (not to mention people in other areas), and the wide range of knowledge in different areas. For example, the four of us (the two shearers, dad, and I) talked about everything from gardening to equipment to how young people aren't willing to put in an honest day's work to the specifics on various individuals farming practices. Yes, this conversation may be purely agriculturally-based, but the range these sorts of conversations between farmers still astounds me. And because I've listened to these conversations my entire, I learned the language and picked up on concepts purely through osmosis. The shearer is a fun guy, though, and he definitely loves to talk.
As for the process, our shearers use electric razors, in case anyone had any doubts. They put carpet down and mount the motor for the razors with a 2x4 on the wall. There is also a bag holder that stands about 6 feet tall. They use large burlap sacks for the wool. Except for second cuts, they pretty much keep the fleece in one piece. They start by sitting the sheep on its rump and shear the underbelly and around the udder. Then they shear around the backside. From there they make a cut up the neck, go around the ears, the top of the head, then they move down and/or across the back, turning the animal as necessary. Because our sheep aren't a wool breed (though polypay wool is decent), we aren't particular about second cuts or anything like that. So long as the work gets done, all is well. Dad and I helped catch the sheep and keep the process going. I am not very good at catching the ewes. I managed to get one, but that was about it. At Tillers I managed to and I even got to turn them (as Tillers' shearer guided me), but that was also in a smaller area with smaller animals. I did manage to hit my hand against the manger in the process, so I have a lovely bruise forming right now. To be useful, though, I put the fleeces in the bag as they finished them. At least I could help somehow.
After a late dinner, we went back to the silo farm and I got started grinding feed. Mom came over to let us know that a man was coming over to dig out two beaver dams we had in one of our creeks. I've met this guy before; he has all the large backhoes, diggers, and loaders and if we ever need something larger than a skidloader for excavation work, he's the one we call. He had his backhoe and he, his two hired men, dad, and I went to creek and I saw him evict some beavers. It was really fascinating to see what materials the beavers collected for the dams and it's incredible to see how big they are, and just how much water those dams stopped. It's good to have the dams out and return the natural flow of the creek again. While he was here, we also had the guy level out one spot in one of our pastures where we intend to put a culvert. Because this man also travels a fair bit for his work, he also has some interesting stories and lots of knowledge about the area, not that he got all fired up the way the shearer did. Still, there was a lot of socialization today. It was a nice break from routine.
The remainder of the afternoon/early evening was spent grinding three loads of corn (so about 6 tons) to put in the feed house. We also fed the west yard. Yeah, I'm still a rookie. I had been getting better with the tractor and wagon, but I must have spoken too soon. I missed a fair bit today, so had to go back and shovel the feed into the bunks. Maybe someday I'll get the hang of it. But, yeah, today was good, and tomorrow we might get the corn planter out!
No comments:
Post a Comment