The Sheep
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We started out with ten Texel X sheep - 'hogs' they called them as they had not yet given birth to lambs and were one year old. Our neighbour Donnie McDonald gave them to us in payment for the use of our fields in the first year we arrived. Over the next couple of years Donnie showed me how to trim their feet, dose them , inject them and what to do when a ewe loses it's lamb and a lamb is orphaned. The first time Donnie showed me how to turn them over so that you can hold them between your knees to trim their feet...it looked so easy, I was sure I could do this! I ended up on the floor having torn a muscle in my upper arm, which to this day still troubles me. You have to be aware that these are no ordinary sheep. Well, leastways, not to me they are not! These creatures weigh in at around 75-90 kilos ...convert that to something I am more familiar with and that's the weight of person coming in at approximately 11 stone! So all you need to do is lean over one (if you can they are three feet high!) grab teh legs of the feet furthest away from you and hold underneath their chin twisting their necks (no you won't break them!) away so that you 'upturn' them onto their backs. hey presto! there you are ready for foot trimming or shearing!
Since those days, sadly, Donnie has passed away and another neighbour has assisted us with the same friendly and fun way that Donnie did.
Most domestic sheep such as this have been bred to be sheared annually and such they cannot really be left as their coats become quite 'matted' somewhat like felt. It also becomes so heavy when wet that they are prone to rolling over and not being able to get back up again. Having never sheared sheep , the equipment is not only very expensive but in the hands of someone with no experience can prove quite dangerous we thought that this should be something that we ask local island sheares to do. For a number of years we did this and then one year our sheep were left till very late on. In that year their wool had not grown sufficiently by the time winter was here and it was a particularly cold winter. This had a detrimental and fatal affect on some of those sheep. We decided it was time we did it ourselves. The first summer after that we hadn't got any shears but had bought some 'hobbyist' style that were designed to eb able to cope with a small number of sheep. It was the summer holidays and I decided to start work on their coats. I got everythign ready and sheep in the paddock. Oiled the shears and started them up, whirring away it sounded like tehy were fine so I was ready to start. Now you ahve to relaise that handling these sheep is really only something like a very tall, strong farmer with sheep farming experience can do with ease..there is a definite knack to this I can tell! These sheep I remind you are three feet tall, weighing an average 75-90 kil...I am 5ft 7 inches tall and not fit...it takes me some time to get the first sheep intot eh small 'coral' I have made. So first sheep is in. Pretty calm too! I start the shears adn the second I put them onto the sheep the damned teeth fly off...heck! Well I am a determined individual and stomp off to teh house compliaing and moaning about 'gadgets' as I do when machinery doesn't work in my hands...and come back tot eh sheep with my very best dressmaking scissors! Two hours later I haev finished my first sheep! I stand proudly back and admire my handiwork which admittedly does have an aura of 'should have gone to spec savers'!