Hats off to Emily... or maybe "hairs off" to Emily!

We just had 20 goats shorn, whew!

I can not believe how I am so exhausted and I didn't do the shearing. Larry and I just moved the animals about, caught the next one to get a hair cut, picked up and bagged the new & beautiful fleeces.... and watched.

In the decade that we have had these goats we have been through several shearers and even learned to do it ourselves. In the beginning we had a fun shearer; he was born in the U.K. and spent a good deal of his youth shearing in Europe and then down in Australia. Huge guy & had a personality that matched. But, as our luck would have it one year he informed us he would only be doing sheep from now on and no longer goats. We panicked. We bounced around, one year begging a guy to drive 7 hours down from New York - also very good at what he did, but not a practical solution. Another time begging the guy who supplies our feed to do it, just because he had seen it done and was brave enough to try. He had owned a few sheep at one time so he wasn't completely new, and he was genuinely helpful. Then for a while we had the husband of someone who we bought animals come. Also, very helpful because we were desperate, but again not a permanent solution. Next we found our first, female shearer. She was extremely nice to our animals, but it took her a long time to do them, and we would never get through the whole herd. As a matter of fact with all of the acts of kindness, some here or there wouldn't get done, and increasingly we would have to try doing a few ourselves. The most important person to us on that scale was our feed and fence guy, Kevin. He of all the folks was the first, perhaps because of his patient nature, to put the clippers in my hands and slowly teach me how to do it.

Larry and I were quickly realizing that if we were going to have these animals we were going to have to learn how to do "everything" that involved their well being. For goodness sakes, I had assisted in a C-section on a goat once -- how could shearing be harder than that! Well, darn it, it is! Thank goodness there are some aspects of Maryland that are still very Agriculturally oriented. We have a rare thing over here, an annual "Shearing School". So, off I went.

It was wild! A brief talk about how to clean some clippers, a note book full of hand outs, and then out to the barn. It was snowing that day. It stuck in my mind, because, how would these animals stay warm once they were shorn? There was about 4+ inches of slush and mud every where that would suck your boot off. My feet were wet and freezing. There were about a 15 of us trying to learn and 2 teachers, and the farmer that was lending his flock. All 15 of us terrified of hurting his sheep. Okay, so next, a teacher leads a 170 lb. sheep up to you - turns her head back towards her hind and flips her over into your legs, and tells you to begin. Believe it or not -- there is a connection to BALLET, here... When you shear there is a position one, position two, a pliea, a courtesy, and an ever reaching arch. It is a bit of a dance, only your holding this 12 lb. pair of razor sharp clippers, so maybe it should be better described as ballet meets surgery, all in the barn yard. The weight of the animal is all on you, you glide the clippers along the curves of the sheep's body, keeping them as parallel as you can, intuitively predicting were the next lumps and bumps are going to be as they are revealed under the wool. You are totally terrified of armpits, shins and nipples. And the sheep just wants the whole thing over with -- and, of course, you identify with the sheep. From the first day to the second several of the contestants did not show up. Was it all the snow... hummm, I think not.

So after this experience, we had the awesome and daunting responsibility of shearing our own herd. And somehow, we limped along doing it our selves for a couple of years. At the beginning of each session you feel like you've never done it all over again. Then you get going, and you feel good because you make a little progress and it is hard work. Then you nick one/cut one. Uuuugh! That is the worst; you empathize with the animal so, you almost can't continue. But, they hop up after their done, forgive you for their boo boo and are happy to have their coat off. At the end of doing 3 or 4 you have tons of tiny hairs stuck all over yourself, and all you want to do is shower. Larry and I would muddle through it. We would both be nervous, inclined to both be back seat drivers, but still need each others support. We wrecked a lot of fleeces, but we got through it with out hurting any animals.

Then we found out about Emily! Emily's family had sheep while she was growing up. When she was a young teenager her family's shearer quit on them too. Emily had the where-with-all to give it a go and shear her family's sheep. She will tell you it was instrumental in learning. She then applied to the shearing school. The stinkers at the school turned her down saying she was too young (my guess both ageism and sexism). She applied the following year and they let her in -- good thing, she knocked their socks off. Now, she teaches there. Emily is still very young, but definitely born to do this job. Of anyone I've ever see shear, she leaves the cleanest looking animals, has the fewest second cuts, extremely low in nicks -- she is just great! Furthermore, she came and did 20 in an evening, no problem.

Perhaps, it was a good thing that we had to learn. For the moment, however, it just deepens my respect, appreciation and admiration of what Emily dose. Hats off Emily! Promise us you will take good care of yourself!

To contact Emily:
Chamelin Shearing
Phone: 443-244-2702
Email: aeriedairy@yahoo.com
Web: chamelinshearing.com