SATURDAY. I’ve always heard that two heads are better than one. It just stands to reason that two shearers are better than one also, and today my good friend and goatherd buddy Terri came out to Fancy Fibers Farm and proved the point.
Terri has cashgora goats, somewhat different from my angoras, but not really all that much. She’s a pro at shearing with scissors and with trimming hooves, my definite weak spot. This morning she drove her family’s monster crew-cab duely truck from Blue Ridge to Farmersville to help a friend in need: Me! As previously reported, I have too many animals – those I recently acquired – that need shearing, hoof trimming, or both.
In the back of Terri’s monstrous truck was her shearing stand which was a double bonus! This meant we could work on two animals at one time, which is exactly what we did. Ken toted her stand into the center aisle of the main barn, and then he and I set out to corner the goat that was at the top of the shearing list.
Catching these animals is always something of a battle. They are definitely not used to us and, since their pen has turned into a mud pit with all this rain, we aren’t the most nimble creatures outselves. Terri manned the gate, and helped coerce this first animal onto the shearing stand. If they could only understand English! The goat was going to feel so much better after all this matted fleece came off!
Terri started in on her with a practiced hand. Her hooves were a mess. I watched while she patiently carved, explained, clipped, and shaped them back into some semblance of normalcy. One of the hooves had pretty much
completely curved sideways; that one will take more trimming at regular intervals to get it back into its desired shape.
Then she started in on the fiber. Three hours later, we had a goat that was much happier with her lot in life. I used the electric shears to take off some belly mats that were close to the skin, and Terri did some finishing with her hand shears. I had occasion to grab her shears a time or two also. Boy are they sharp! They put mine to shame, and mine are new! She told me that her husband, Neil, sharpens her shears after every time she uses them, and you could really tell it! Clearly I need to take a rasp to mine!
While Terri was working on my Angora doe, I worked on the Shetland sheep that we’ve taken to calling “Cousin It” after the Addams Family character. This poor sheep had fleece dragging the ground that had matted into one continuous
block. Imagine your entire body covered in a gigantic web of dreadlocks, and you’ll sort of get the picture. Fortunately the mats did not go all the way to the skin, so once I found a place to start cutting, I could cut the matted fleece off and still leave some fiber on the sheep. It’s really too late to be shearing, so I was glad that the little guy could retain some of his own fleece. I had visions of trying to get him into a sweatshirt….
This picture is the back of the sheep. I started on the left side, then works around his hindquarters. The fleece came off in one great connected mat which is what you see trailing behind him. As soon as I cut the other side off, the dogs ran off with it for their tug-o-war game. Terri helped me with the hooves on the sheep also, and then back into the big pasture he went!
While all this was going on, the Nygoras that live in this pasture were hanging around making a general nuisance of themselves. Little did they know that they were next. With Ken’s help (he just picks the smaller ones up and sets them down on the stand, we did four more sets of hooves before we called it quits.
Next weekend will be our last opportunity to shear those who still need it, and/or decide who is okay to leave as is for the winter. While Cindy and Laurie mind the store at the Snowflake Bazaar, Terri will join me for one more round. As I’ve said many times, thank goodness for friends, especially those with shearing stands and super-sharp shears!