Shearing Day is Over

At least we have another shearing day out of the way. It didn't turn out as bad as it could have been but it certainly wasn't one of those days when everything clicked or went right either.

It started off cold and damp. I couldn't get the 861 diesel started to save my life and I finally had to tow it out of it's spot in the barn. After all this work I been doing to her and paid to have done and she wouldn't start for love nor money. If she isn't going to start just because it's below freezing I am going to have to figure something else out. Before the over haul I could start her at near zero temps without even a hiccup but this morning she wouldn't catch for nothing and the battery would go dead pretty fast. I am sure it's because she is new and tight inside yet, so maybe once it warms up again I can get her more broke in before next Winter.

I didn't have time to mess with it today so I guess it's going to have to wait until tomorrow to figure out what's wrong.

Then the two garden mowers wouldn't start either. One the battery went dead real fast and the other wouldn't even turn over at all. No fire to the starter even though the battery tested good.

Sigh. I hate Spring. I even went and started these things a couple times over the Winter but come Spring they never want to work. It just never seems to fail for some reason.

Of course I had to have these machines out of the way so Mom could have her social meet and greet while we did all the work getting the sheep sheared.

It started to warm up some and for most of the actual shearing it was pretty pleasant with just a sweat shirt on while wrangling the sheep. We sheared 37 and left 5 in their wool because I will be taking them to slaughter on Monday and honestly we got more damned wool than we know what to do with stored away.

It's going to be fun getting those five whethers separated out on Monday as they are not very trusting of me now and more than likely will not be over it in just a  few days either. I see some frustrating work in my near future.

To add to the frustration I am still missing a lamb from last years count. Any of you who have been reading the blog for a while might remember that late last Summer my records got off somehow and I have been coming up one lamb (now a yearling) short ever since and for the life of me I have not been able to find the error. I am not sure what the magical number is, I am sure it's different for each person but at some point between keeping 19 to 25 sheep it gets impossible to get a good count. It's not like the sheep cooperate either and once a number is written down wrong or omitted you may never be able to figure it out.

At this point either the market screwed me out of a lamb or one got carried off and I never found any remains but here's the funny part the bags of wool we now have come out one over for some reason.

It's just maddening especially since I am such a stickler for numbers and all. At least I know now that I do not have any sheared whethers except for Boris and the five with their wool still on will be gone soon. All the sheared sheep are ewes with the exception of the two rams and Boris. That's one visual check that cannot be missed. Each bag of fleece was tagged as well so tomorrow I am going to do a new count and once again see if I can find the error.

So despite all the frustrations shearing day 2016 is behind us now. The chickens can once again use the doors because even though they seem to be able to fly up into the hayloft some of them cannot grasp the idea of flying over a gate. I had seven hens spend the night in the rams empty stall because they wouldn't fly over a 3 foot high gate last night. They complained all day about the gates being closed too while we were shearing. The sheep all look like goats now but at least it's over and I can focus on the next gotta get done time restraints.

Looks like it's swarm trap season next.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!!