I've been going along to help shear for a number of years and now I'm the shearer myself. As I've been doing this I've noticed a lot of things. Some people are a joy to shear for while others are just a real bear. Many times it has nothing at all to do with the sheep. The people and how they treat the crew can make or break a day.
Here's a couple of tips to make life easier and make your shearer want to come back.
#1- We are here to help you. Remember you called us to do a job that you can't or won't do yourself. It is a dirty, hard job. Not many people do it and chances are you had to scrape around to find our name. You are not the only person who has called us and I will get to you. Just give it time. Weather and health play a lot into how many I can do and how fast I can do them.
#2- When we say lock the sheep in, lock them in. That doesn't mean wait until the minute we are pulling in the driveway. (This is only excusable if you have a very small elephant proof paddock.) I came to shear your sheep. Not chase them around a field. This cost time which in turn costs me and you money. Once you have them locked in, make sure it is full proof. Sheep will try to get out and just because they are ok with you in the barn doesn't mean they are ok with the crew in the barn.
#3- If you want to help, for me, that is fine. But you must be willing to do what I tell you or get out of the way. Remember I'm using electric knives moving at a very high rate of speed. They can cut off a finger. When I tell you not to do something it's for the safety of everyone involved including your sheep.
#4- Yes your sheep are hot. It's not likely that they'll die from being hot. Remember on the other hand if the shearer comes out both them and your sheep could die from heat exhaustion while shearing. It can wait another day. If you were that worried maybe you should've called the shearer earlier. Don't wait until the last minute. We don't like shearing in hot weather and unless it's our fault that it's late shearing we are most likely only doing it because we feel bad for the sheep not for you.
#5- Don't gripe about the price. Once again I go back to the basic theory. We are doing a job you are either unwilling or uncapable of doing. I can tell the customers who have either actually shorn, or attempted to shear a sheep. They have respect for what I do and are willing to pay for it without complaint. Believe me we are not making money. If you only knew what the cost of our equipment and upkeep is you'd be surprised.
#6- Leave water. ok while not a rule it is a suggestion. A welcome one at that. I always appreciate a drink at the end of a job. Even in cool weather I break out in a sweat.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Monday, July 7, 2014
She's Gonna Shear?
That is a question I've heard a lot of the last few years as I've started doing more, but more so this year as I'm doing the majority of the shearing. I'm sure the majority of people are just used to seeing K doing it and me helping or catching the sheep, but some are genuinely surprised that I could be strong enough to handle this.
I had never planned to shear for other people. My soul purpose of learning how to shear was purely selfish. I decided many years ago that I was going to have sheep. ( believe it or not, before I wanted to learn how to spin) I also decided that I was not going to call all over in a panic trying to find someone to shear my sheep. So I asked K to start teaching me how to shear. It started slow. I would finish off the back of a rather large ram or take the first pass on one that we decided to do standing up. Always with him watching over me and giving me tips on what to do or how I should hold something.
A few years later I started watching youtube videos and watching demonstrators at events. I wanted to know how other people did it. How did they hold the machine, the animal, their bodies. I was getting the hang of it. I would shear the occasional animal at home and still help out where needed on the road. Over time I began to be the one to do the alpacas and llamas. It was much easier for him to hold them and me to shear them. I am a little more agile and can move out of the way easily when they decided to jump, and he is stronger and can hold the heads and front shoulders more easily.
Last year I started to do more sheep at the house, but was more than happy to still let him shear other people's sheep. I just didn't want to deal with most of them. Lets face it. We shear a lot of pets. That and I'm always scared of nicking the sheep. I hate doing that in front of other people. I would do the occasional one as his knee would give out or his sugar would spike.
Then this last year the inevitable happened. After years of hard labor parts of your body just give out. I waited and waited for him to say let's go out. It was getting later and he simply just said "You go do it". So I started at home. I would grab a couple and shear them. It started to become more than the little bit that I had been doing. Then the people started to call and I just decided that instead of losing the income all together I would bite my fears and go to the mat. Literally we just started going out. Now he still stands over me and directs some things, but as we've gone through this year (what could be classified as my first year) I've gotten better and less afraid of what I was going to do to other people's sheep. I'm still learning and I'm learning that it's going to be a continual process. I'm never going to be one of the people that do a hundred in one day, but I'm okay with what I can do.
I had never planned to shear for other people. My soul purpose of learning how to shear was purely selfish. I decided many years ago that I was going to have sheep. ( believe it or not, before I wanted to learn how to spin) I also decided that I was not going to call all over in a panic trying to find someone to shear my sheep. So I asked K to start teaching me how to shear. It started slow. I would finish off the back of a rather large ram or take the first pass on one that we decided to do standing up. Always with him watching over me and giving me tips on what to do or how I should hold something.
A few years later I started watching youtube videos and watching demonstrators at events. I wanted to know how other people did it. How did they hold the machine, the animal, their bodies. I was getting the hang of it. I would shear the occasional animal at home and still help out where needed on the road. Over time I began to be the one to do the alpacas and llamas. It was much easier for him to hold them and me to shear them. I am a little more agile and can move out of the way easily when they decided to jump, and he is stronger and can hold the heads and front shoulders more easily.
Last year I started to do more sheep at the house, but was more than happy to still let him shear other people's sheep. I just didn't want to deal with most of them. Lets face it. We shear a lot of pets. That and I'm always scared of nicking the sheep. I hate doing that in front of other people. I would do the occasional one as his knee would give out or his sugar would spike.
Then this last year the inevitable happened. After years of hard labor parts of your body just give out. I waited and waited for him to say let's go out. It was getting later and he simply just said "You go do it". So I started at home. I would grab a couple and shear them. It started to become more than the little bit that I had been doing. Then the people started to call and I just decided that instead of losing the income all together I would bite my fears and go to the mat. Literally we just started going out. Now he still stands over me and directs some things, but as we've gone through this year (what could be classified as my first year) I've gotten better and less afraid of what I was going to do to other people's sheep. I'm still learning and I'm learning that it's going to be a continual process. I'm never going to be one of the people that do a hundred in one day, but I'm okay with what I can do.
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