So I was asked if I could lend a hand shearing sheep last Saturday. I thought why not, I haven't been out to the farm for awhile now.
Saturday started with some fresh snow and cold temps, -23° celsius. Who heads out for a 2 hour drive in these conditions on their day off? This is not normal.
Steem is following me everywhere I go from my truck's rear window.
acres is a whole 2 hour drive through the open prairie from Saskatoon. Driving conditions were not the best with this fresh snow, not too bad though-I can still see some of the road.
Uh oh I can't see much of the highway anymore. I could still be in my warm bed. This is not normal.
Where did the road go!?
Well after 2 hours of listening to the last weeks political highlights on CBC it is time for work.
Here they are, most of 's flock. You may be wondering why we are sharing when it is so cold, well most of these sheep are pregnant and if they feel too comfortable in their warm wool they may give birth in a cold field where their babies might freeze. So if they have less wool they are likely to go in the barn to lamb and the babies will be warm enough.
I had the most important to job, grabbing the tummy hair / wool and throwing into the discard pile. It is the least desirable woll of the animal because they lay in it a lot and it is shorter and also may be contaminated with other lamb bits(poop!).
Here is showing a lamb who is boss.
Did I mention how cold it was? This is not normal!
Who's number one? I am!
The very first one sheared wants back in with the crowd. "Hey guys don't go in the chute, ewe won't believe what's going to happen to ewe"
Now that everyone is trimmed up they can have a little snack and get back to normal-whatever that is.
This machine is actually a trailer that can be pulled behind a truck. It holds a large burlap sack(see below) that gets all of the wool stuffed into it with a piston to really cram it full.
There are about 50 animals wool jammed into this sack. It's very heavy. Once a year a truck makes it around to collect these, I don't know what happens after that. Maybe they make pillows to have pillow fights!
Now the chores are all finished and the kids have all had piggy back rides on uncle Eddie it's time for the 2 hour journey home. Great, it has only gotten colder during the day. This is not normal.
Well at least Randy Bachman is playing the Allman Brothers and CCR on AM radio.
As always all photos are taken with my dirty old Samsung Galaxy S6.