I swear it is an unwritten rule of shearing that you gain your calories back at the end of the day with a few cold ones. And you also live off of slim Jim’s and Red Bulls. I don’t make the rules, I just follow them 😂 cheers to my fellow shearers! Tis the season to enjoy a lot of cold ones! 🍻
-
#sheepshearing #cheers
It’s PM feeding time and your girls are happily chewing cud while you feed around them ❤️ nothing brings me more happiness than my flock at total peace while I’m working around them 😌
I’m nearing the end of my spring season and I’m tired and my body hurts and I’ve hit my record amount of farms in a season but I still LOVE shearing! I absolutely love it. It’s like a childhood dream. I get to go and pet all the sheep, see all the different types of sheep, experience different farm set ups and also meet other animals that aren’t sheep. I just love animals and to have 2+ months filled with spending all my free time with animals, I’m thrilled.
-
I had a new client this year that was checking in to make sure everything was going well and I didn’t need any help and I didn’t realize he was there. I was doing my normal thing, having a one way conversation with the sheep I was working on and he said, “I love how you talk to the sheep!” I legit had no idea he was there and I told him that personally, I think it helps keep the sheep calm. It probably doesn’t but it helps me. My love for the animals I’m trying to help is displayed through my conversations. Sure, they may fight and I may get annoyed when I’m trying to help them but they don’t know that. So, telling them it’s all okay even though they don’t understand English gets me through my day. I’ll probably die shearing sheep and I’m okay with that.
-
I probably say this every post but I would not be where I am without my amazing clients that have me come back. Even though I’m not the fastest shearer and I’m still learning something new after 8 years, I appreciate your perseverance with me and I feel like I don’t say it enough!
So I’ve had a rough go this week but I finally had a turn at something good coming my way at the end of season. I asked Melted Hoodie Fabrication, LLC to make me a stand for my longhorn down shaft so I can safely use it. Welp, the stand was done today and shwooo I’m absolutely in love with my down shaft. It’s fast and easy to use 😍 I’m really excited to put it to the test next weekend and just really move through some sheep.
Had to share this tik tok video with you all! THIS is a big sheep! Columbia sheep are huge, basically horses. People always see the stout, heavy sheep and think those must be hard to shear since they’re twice you’re weight. Wrong, those are the easiest to shear. The hardest to shear are these horse-like sheep that you have absolutely no control over because they are actually as tall if not taller than you. You want to get them down? Good luck, it’s like trying to flip a mini pony. Keeping them down? Their legs are so long they can get a front hoof down while in a sitting position.
-
Don’t get me wrong. These sheep are beautiful and I know some of my clients have them or a cross of them. This shearer in the video did an excellent job trying to maneuver this monster sized ram and I don’t know if I’d even be able to do that given my size compared to the rams.
They WOULD tip over with out the farmers and ranchers having a sheep shearer come out! My biggest fear in the shearing trade is that there will be one day when there’s not enough shearers. Currently, I present sheep shearing at two schools and even though it’s for educational purposes, it’s also in the hopes that someone will appreciate it enough to pursue it. I love my clients and I love my clients sheep and the only way to keep this love going is to one day find at least one special person that loves sheep as much, if not more than I do, to continue the harvest of unique American wools. The sheep need us.
How I greet my sheepies in the morning 🥰 I love sleepy mornings with them ❤️
-
-
#sheepmom #sheepofinstagram #finnsheep #finnsheepofinstagram #finnwool
Picked up some hair lambs this morning to finish. With the price of lamb in the grocery store, now is the best time to homestead your own food. I’m a big supporter of growing your own food or supporting local. In this case, I’m doing both. I bought these lambs off of a local lamb producer and will grow them out for my own freezer. Knowing where your food comes from and how your food was treated prior to becoming food is very important for me. I’m a huge animal lover, and a huge meat lover. I think it’s healthy to balance the two. I’m very blessed to have the knowledge and proper tools, techniques and equipment to give the animals I raise for food a humane life and ending.
-
On another note, you’ll notice I put most sheep in the bed of a truck to bring them home. Unless i’m picking up a whole flock, I don’t waste my time hooking up the trailer to drag around. One of these days I’ll get a bed trailer or a farm SUV that I can just toss lambs in the back of. But until then, I’ll muscle my way through safely getting them on and off the bed.😂
Second year in a row these girls have foiled my efforts in taking a video 😂 either way, you can kind of see in this video that I was struggling on the neck. A Finns favorite hobby is felting their own wool and this girl was a pro at it. Her neck wool was pretty felted which limited my mobility around the neck. I couldn’t get a good break in the wool until I set my shears down and used both hands to break it. Number one rule is to never ever cut a break, cutting a break leaves you with an uneven staple length in the fleece that you just cut. I’d much rather take time to manually break the wool than ruin my good effort into keeping an even staple length.
-
-
-
#finnsheep #finnsheepwool #sheepshearer #womanthatshear #shepherdess #americanshearing
Shearing babydolls can be time consuming as they have wool EVERYWHERE! You have to be really careful with them because they have a lot of skin, thin skin, and again, wool everywhere. I start by cleaning up the belly as usual and then work on the face. It’s really important to completely clear the face of wool as an overgrowth of face wool can cause wool blindness. This part is even more tricky. You have to be careful of lips, ears and eyelids. With a fast moving blade that’s not really made for tight areas, it’s important to take your time. Not everything has to be rushed and the animals’ safety is the most important thing.
-
-
-
#jrfshearing #sheepshearing #babydoll #babydollsheep #sheepofinstagram #womenthatshear #sheepshearer
A surprise visit from Carol Baskin the snapper. Check your fields, friends! It’s snapper season, and they’re looking for a nice dusty and dry place to lay their eggs. I don’t trust them around my lambs or my sheep. Sheep have very fragile legs and a bite from a snapper in the right spot could end up in a loss of a sheep.
I’m sure Carol will be back tomorrow morning, and we’ll be in the continuous cycle of moving her, finding her and moving her again until she finds a new nesting spot.
-
#snapperseason #finnsheep #sheepofinstagram #snappingturtle
I know everyone loves these types of videos, so here’s my ram, Oakley, getting his second shear ever! He’s the most docile thing I’ve ever shorn. He makes life so easy. He got lots of scratches after because he was SO itchy from all that wool.
Curious little lamb waiting for mama to get finished up #jrfshearing
