DeltaBluez Tess Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Last Sunday we had the sheep shearing. Since I am not supposed to toss, roll or lift sheep, I was delegated to the hoof trimming. My friends/students all came out and it went quickly, with each person taking on a job. Eifion was our shearer who came over from Wales. for pixs and the story.... http://deltabluez.blogspot.com/2009/03/45-...-got-pizza.html Diane~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthfieldNick Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Hey Diane- Eifion is due to come over here the weekend of the 20th. I've got 30-odd for him to do. He did nearly 100 sheep on the island last year; I don't know who else has him scheduled. He's so fast! And, um, yes, those arms. I'm such a sucker for nice biceps! Are you still giving lessons? The tops of Nick's outruns have never been great, they got better, and now it's AWFUL! Slicing, overrunning, diving... gak! We need help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaBluez Tess Posted March 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Yes, I am giving lessons....Sunday is the day.....Sats , if I don't have a trial We all voted Eifion as the sexy shearer...we didn't tell him that though..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 We all voted Eifion as the sexy shearer...we didn't tell him that though..... Well, now I guess I'll have to check out the pictures - purely for educational purposes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 He must be fast if you needed that many wranglers and wool handlers to keep up with him! Or were all the ladies just standing around making goo-goo eyes at him? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Do you really want to know the answer to that question Bill? J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaBluez Tess Posted March 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Heck no, we were at the tilt table outside of the barn so we could not look at him,. Several of the guys were in the barn loading sheep for him. I did have 2 friends (females) who were the wool gathers that were in the barn near him Normally I don't have that much help but since I am still recovering from heart surgery (all three of them) my students came out in droves to help. Eifion did 45 sheep around 2 1/4 hr.....he is very fast...... After he left, several women told me that they though he was sexy...after all this yrs, I never paid attention to his looks but his shearing ability. I was over in the UK for work almost 2 yrs ago. Then I took a little vacation and stayed with Eifion for a days or so....it was fun and I had a blast. We went to a pub and those Welshmen can sure drink....anf they kept buying me drinks too. Then I went and stayed with Angie and Kelvin for a week and we went up to Bobby Dalziel.....what an awesome vacation. Diane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Just a little ribbing, Diane. My cardiac situation was a lot less grave, and I sure needed help with shearing last spring. It's great how people in this community show up when they're needed. I just love shearing days. In the past, I have had a tendency to make a Cecil B. DeMille production out of shearing. It comes from the days when we used to shear hundreds, and would have three shearers all as fast as or faster than your man so there'd be a fleece coming off the stand on average every minute. So we'd need two wool handlers, two skirters, a wool packer, a cook (always Lynn), and a pen filler or two. I tried to have no specific assignment myself so that I could deal with whatever came up, or fill in for whoever needed a break, and do just plain old chores that needed to be done. We tried very hard to never have a shearer waiting for us. Nowadays with just 75 sheep and one shearer, it's helpful to have an extra hand or two around, and we dine in splendor, but in all honesty too many people just tend to get in the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaBluez Tess Posted March 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 It's been an annual event with these sets of students for the last three years. Prior to that it was the shearer and me. The last three years *something always* happens...last yr, a ewe got away and Nancy dove on it, and cut her face, three stitches later.... This yr, Ben was trying to help move a bridge for the sheep and fell into the ditch....it's quite funny and we all have a good laugh. One time, a person took a ride down the barn hallway, on top of the ewe....hung on pretty well, I might add. Last yr, I smashed my finger until it was a bright purple...the vet had to look at it to see if I needed to be put down or not....lucky for me, she said I was ok and didn't have to talk a long walk behind the barn... Bill...I knew you were kidding....but have a shearer that is easy on the eyes is sure nice... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 Bill...I knew you were kidding....but have a shearer that is easy on the eyes is sure nice... Therein's the rub - how many pretty lady shearers have you seen? Bill may just not be able to find a shearer that's easy on *his* eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 Therein's the rub - how many pretty lady shearers have you seen? Bill may just not be able to find a shearer that's easy on *his* eyes. There's one who comes to the MD Sheep and Wool Festival to shear some karakuls of a friend of mine. Maybe Bill could lure her up his way! J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 Therein's the rub - how many pretty lady shearers have you seen? Bill may just not be able to find a shearer that's easy on *his* eyes. Pretty is as pretty does. Any lady who shears is pretty in my eyes. There's a young woman one town up the river from me who travels to NZ every year. Last I heard her tally was over 300 in a day. The two-stand women's record for lambs is over 800, held by a mother and daughter in NZ I believe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaBluez Tess Posted March 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 My record is (I think) one and 1/2 sheep a day....I bought some shears then tried shearing....looked like a mullet on various parts of the sheep so then I quit and sold the equipment. The sheep really appreciated that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted March 9, 2009 Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 I just got a report from NZ that David Fagan just won the Golden Shears for the sixteenth time. In the final round he sheared 20 two-tooth Romneys in eight months of fleece in a time of 16 minutes flat, an average of 48 seconds per sheep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belleview Posted March 9, 2009 Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 I wrote this a few years ago to amuse my friends- reflections of new "girl" sheep shearer. CHAPTER 1- Lori goes to the Cornell University Shearing School, 2007. No, she does not *love* to shear sheep. She has no post retirement plans for a second career in wool removal. She just wants to shear her own sheep & doesn't care all that much how rough they look. Shearing school does not "grade" its participants. However, if grades were passed out, Lori suspects it would be a lot like the typing class she took in middle school where she got an A for speed and an F for accuracy. CHAPTER 2- Reality hits home. Lori is caught up in the zeal of her new found sheep shearing knowledge and begins to shear her sheep. It takes her two weeks to do six. This equals about 56 hours per sheep. Although she is not concerned about looks, she must admit that the quality of the job is deteriorating with each sheep. She notes that her shearing machine is made by Oster, the same company that makes kitchen appliances. Perhaps it is no coincidence that several of her sheep look like they have been shorn with a hand held mixer. CHAPTER 3- The search for truth. Lori seeks the wisdom of Tom "shearmaster" Forrester. Tom offers to help & Lori is keen to take him up on it–both because she realizes she will be lucky to get the wool hacked off her sheep before hell freezes over and because she suspects that her neighbors i.e. the parents of many small kids, are becoming increasingly concerned about the stream of loud and creative obscenities that flow from Lori's barn each evening when she tries to shear her sheep. CHAPTER 4- Lori trailers all her sheep to Virginia and shears a sheep to death (well, almost) subtitled: Who knew there was so much blood inside a sheep? Lori shears sheep while Tom "shearmaster" Forrester looks on. Tom is surprisingly patient, for Tom. Or, maybe it is that he is laughing too hard to criticize. Tom has shorn over 300,000 sheep in his life. He can tell you how many he did every year since 1876, or something like that. Lori practically disembowels a sheep and Tom stops talking about numbers. Tom sends Lori into his barn to "find a needle." Lori realizes that the saying "like looking for a needle in a haystack" was probably coined by someone that Tom sent into his barn on a similar mission. Lori can’t find a needle. Both Tom and Lori try to keep the blood in the sheep. Tom goes to look "for string." Tom and Lori try to tie the sheep back together. Bloody sheep are very slippery. Sheep that are bleeding to death kick a lot. The sheep's gut ends up looking something like a bread bag with a twisty ties around it. Tom mutters something like...put this one back and get another one. Tom ends up shearing most of the rest of the sheep. While he shears, he tries to make Lori feel better by telling her stories of all the sheep he and his shearer friends have killed over the years. CHAPTER 5- Tom and Lori work dogs. Tom occasionally checks to see if the sheep is dead yet. Lori secretly hopes it dies in Virginia instead of Pennsylvania. She wonders aloud if Tom should just shoot it before she leaves. Tom has a lot of places to dump a carcass. Tom comments that if it isn't dead yet, it might live. He says this as he uses a pocketknife to scape blood out of his fingernails. CHAPTER 6- Lori goes home. Her nicely shorn sheep and the bloody one with the wool still on, are packed in the trailer. Lori is wearing a white blood stained t-shirt & is still covered in sheep blood up to her elbows. She looks like a serial killer She stops at a gas station & goes into the ladies room to wash the carnage off her arms. The sensor on the auto- water sink is broken and no water comes out. She sneaks into the men's room. The damn water sensor broken in there too. Technology is a wonderful thing. The convenience store lady lets Lori wash the blood off her arms in the sink next to the coffee pots...while some truckers are waiting to get coffee. Lori wonders if the convenience store lady has gone in the back room to call the police. Lori is very happy that sheep only have to be shorn once a year. the end. (PS the sheep recovered) Lori Cunningham Milton, PA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted March 9, 2009 Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 And now you know why I have strongly resisted Tom's attempts to teach me to shear. I always get him with "If I'm trying to shear, who's going to catch and turn sheep?" I can just imagine how much fun (not) you had. The first time Tony and I got the shearmasters out and sheared some sheep, we decided we'd better not quit our day jobs as at the rate we went, we'd have made about $2/hour. How is shearing going for you now? After talking to Tom in the fall, I decided I'd skip fall shearing altogether, which means those fleeces will likely be mulch come spring shearing time.... J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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