Getting the metaphorical axe ready

Blog #42

Three hours sharpening …

So …, legend has it that Abe Lincoln responded to how important preparation is with this anecdote:  “If I’m given four hours to chop down a tree I’d spend the first three hours sharpening my axe.”  True or not, that’s an easy to remember thought.  More recently (~85 years ago) preparation for Operation OVERLORD took more than two years, from training soldiers to manufacturing materiel, to weather forecasts to secondary action support, all to support an event that took less than 48 hours initially.  But then, Europe hadn’t been successfully invaded from the sea for a few years.  A few hundred years.

Shearing season is similar, but orders of magnitude simpler.  Orders of orders of magnitude simpler than an amphibious invasion, but a bit more involved than sharpening a single hand tool.

 

Some things are quick, some take time.  A fresh coat of blaze-orange paint on  washers and nuts only takes a few minutes.  Cutting the fingers off a glove then gluing the raw ends of the stitches takes  a bit longer, waiting for the glue to dry.  Physical preparation takes the longest.  Walking a few miles a day around the neighborhood to build aerobic endurance, coupled with miles on the treadmill, sprints on a rowing machine for abs, back, and shoulders, plus exercises to work my obliques all take weeks to build muscle tone, and they take longer each year. 

With the dental work I've had done over the winter it's time to protect my teeth as well, so there's new mouthguard in the box this year, along with hearing protection.

 

I also picked up a new oil can that’s less tippy, so I should spill less in my shearing box as the season wears on, and this week I ran a bleach rinse through my 5-gallon water jug to get rid of any bacteria that survived the winter.

When you look in the back of my truck for a shearing gig, it looks like I’m ready for a month living in the Arctic based on how much gear is there.  It doesn’t seem like it should take that much “stuff”, but it does.  For shearing, it's all in the interest of shearing quickly and smoothly to minimize stress on the animal and return them to the pasture, their normal environment.

Shearing is slated to start in two weeks with a small batch of Babydolls in south-central Georgia, and I think prep is about complete, minus picking up a few groceries for snacks!

I’m looking forward to this season, meeting new folks, possibly shearing new breeds, and learning more of why folks have chosen the sheep they have and what their objectives are.  I hope you read along as the season unfolds.

 

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. ***