Sevilla is our orneriest sheep, by nature. She's usually the one to tell me exactly what she thinks of me. She didn't like being shorn one bit. Especially not with a pair of children's safety scissors. (I was terrified of using the real sheers. They looked way too lethal. A friend of mine sheers her llamas with children's safety scissors. I only gave Sevilla one tiny nick with them, so I was happy with that result. Not sure if they give a close enough shave, but oh well. Whatever.)
Sadly, none of her sheep friends seem to recognize her. They're like, Where's Sevilla? And who's this goat following us around? Even though they all stood and watched us sheer her. This is why it's okay to eat sheep.
Even Tom Turkey seems to be more accepted by the flock! Even her daughter (her own daughter Yoshimi!) doesn't recognize her.
She's next.
You are a much braver human than I. Cutting naps off a cat once ended in tears and a trip to the emergency room. I'd hate to see what a sheep would do to me.
ReplyDeleteWith the proceeds from the wool (if any), buy a set of sheep clippers (electric)? I think they've got protective guides/buffers that clip to the blades to make the shearing safe and expeditious. It might be worthwhile to construct a box that, perhaps, the sheep could be led into to demobilize her for the shearing.
ReplyDeleteChristina, thanks for the vote of confidence!
ReplyDeleteOroboros, the electric clippers don't have safety guides. At least, I've never heard of any. You just have to practice to gain the skills needed, I think. That would be great, though, if there were such a thing. If happen upon any, let me know! Sheep's wool is much thicker than dog hair. As far as demobilizing, we purchased a halter to hold the head in place next time. We noticed that she was much more docile if we just kept her chin up. We also have instructions somewhere for constructing a rotating piece of wood that you strap the sheep onto to sheer them. That would be the next thing to try, if the halter doesn't help significantly. The safety scissors really weren't at all bad. Plus, they were safe!
Interesting. WEll, human hair clippers have attachments for varying the length of the cut. Keep your eyes peeled for a set of those. Maybe they'd work. You can get them cheap at garage sales, swap meets, etc. such that it would be a cheap enough experiment.
ReplyDeleteThe human ones don't work. However, I did find some safety ones. In the mean time, though, I figured out how to use the manual sheep sheers, and things went much better today! More on that, later. I think BAH may have taken my picture while I was sheering. Also, I put up some boards and tied the sheep to them. That worked pretty well! Thanks for your concern. :)
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