[Jacob-list] shearing

[Melanie Boxall]

I must have missed the tail conversation:) I've seen a few strong opinions
on this list and others that can get a bit heated. It happens in real life
too. There's a phenomenon that anyone can fall prey too, whereby your
experience consists of 100% result X to action Y, and you conclude quite
naturally that this cause and effect is universal. The more experience a
person has ("By heck lad, I've been farming since you were knee-high to a
cowpat, I KNOW what I'm talking about....") the more preachy they can get.
My neighbour, bless his heart, taught me all sorts of things about sheep,
after all, he'd been in sheep a full 3 years longer than me. AND he'd read
THE BOOK. I've since abandoned 90% of his suggestions. And I leave tails on.
I figure nature put them there for a reason.

Anyway, as I don't work off the farm, I'm here all day, and I have sheared
angora rabbits therefore I must be incredibly experienced (or daft enough),
I'm going to take the shears to my sheep myself, aided by two teenagers and
a purpose-built stanchion. I'll take photos and let you know how it goes.
I'm not afraid of handling them because I've always done the handling FOR my
shearer anyway, and I'm used to doing hooves alone.

BTW what the heck does "to roo" mean? Is it when some of the fleece just
shears off by itself? I have a yearling ram like that, he looks like he had
a reverse Mohawk.

Incidentally, the difference in cultural attitudes across the pond isn't so
marked in country people. I grew up in England but didn't start farming
until I came to Canada. Other than terminology differences, I don't find any
real difference between farmers here and farmers there. There's a far, far
greater difference in attitudes between country and city people anywhere,
than two farmers from wherever, in my opinion. I find I have more in common
with Russian steppe farmers than someone from a suburb in Toronto. OK,
waffling now, I'm going...........

Live Well. Laugh Often. Love Much.
Melanie


----- Original Message -----
From: "Gillian Fuqua" <gillianfuqua at adelphia.net>
To: <jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 7:35 AM
Subject: [Jacob-list] shearing


> I am a bit nervous that the shearing conversation could turn out like
> the tail conversation.  I would hazard a guess that none of us are
> afraid of getting dirty, most of us do sheep as well as work full time,
> and that we will all make individual decisions of what we will or will
> not do ourselves.  I enjoy the list as a way of finding out how other
> folks do things and trying out things that seem like they might work
> for me.
>
> Gillian
>
>
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