Blog #13

Jacobs, Culloden, cattle, rain

So …, the other morning I had the chance to shear a handful of Jacob sheep, and we spent part of the afternoon in Culloden, Georgia.  That’s not the first time in history those two words, Jacob and Culloden, have been linked, though.  More about that later.

With the rains we’ve had in middle Georgia over the past few weeks I wasn’t sure what would happen to my shearing schedule.  So far, I’ve had to reschedule one gig, but that’s it.  For this gig, the sheep were dry and Dede and I started out after dawn for a change, heading to a site in south Houston County.  First things first, though—fuel up the truck and get a latte.  After a short drive we pulled up to the barn and set up in the same place we sheared last year.  It was a cool, sunny, start to the shearing day, which is always nice. The honey latte from Caffe Vignette helped, too.

 

We only had eight sheep to shear, six ewes and two rams, so it looked fast and easy.  Feel free to start laughing.  The first little ewe and ram were slick and quick, but then it was time for the senior ram. Note the >360° curl to his horns in the picture.  Animals don’t grow horns like that without strength, intelligence and instinct about which battles it can win, and which to avoid.  Through most of his shearing he sat fairly well, but coming down the last side he saw a chance to escape, so when he nudged one way and my balance went the other, he was gone like a quarter in a slot machine.  He beat feet off the shearing board, across the run, into and out of the first pen, into the second pen, and out into the woods.

 

  

So, yeah, it was break time.  All of us, Dede, me, the owner, and the wrangler spent the next 15 minutes gently corralling the ram back through all of that into his original pen.  At one point he came straight at me with a full head of steam and I opted not to challenge him.  He blew past me and curved around the pen and finally followed several ewes, trotting into the upper pen.  The owner closed the gate and we were back in business.  The wrangler and I got him back on the board, tipped, and it only took another 30 seconds to finish shearing one large, determined ram.

The rest of the ewes sheared up well with no excitement, but they still generated some awe and wonder.  All the ewes came from the same flock, but they all have different patterns in their wool.  One was patterned more like a badger, while another had the most beautiful small spots underpinning larger ones, and neither of these matched up with any others.

 

Once Dede and I finished up and sorted the gear and laundry we were off to Culloden to visit the Silo Springs Ranch store for their anniversary celebration.  They offer beef from their own cattle ranch and are getting into having sheep as well, so lamb will be in the store more regularly soon. You can order online to pick up at one of the farmers’ markets they frequent, or pick it up at the store, just south of the roundabout in Culloden.

After that I coordinated the next day’s shearing only to find out the sheep were still soaked from previous rainstorms.  Unlike humans who can get dry with a towel, soaking wet sheep can take up to three days to dry out, and that’s in warm, dry conditions with a breeze.  Those sheep are now scheduled for later in the spring, so we had a day of rest.

For those still with me from the start of this post, the Jacobite uprisings were an attempt to restore the house of Stuart to the British throne.  The Jacobites were ultimately defeated at the Battle of Culloden in April, 1746.

C-Ya!

 *** No animals were harmed in the making of this post. Shearing is an important part of sheep farming for the wellbeing of the sheep. ***