A devil for punishment

Not satisfied with the shearing of our own 330 sheep, I have now volunteered Laura, Thomas and myself to help a friend with her 300 tomorrow.

She came to see us the other night after dropping her two kids off for a "do" at school. She lives about an hour away from us, but the kids are at school near to us - another complicated story.

I was asking what was happening about her hay this year and had she clipped the sheep. The hay, she explained, would be none existant as the sheep were still on the fields. The sheep, she said, were being clipped next week, and did I know of anyone who would like to catch for her! Now this is a job normally to be avoided, especially if you know the sheep are going to be fairly big and fairly wild. She has three shearers coming, 300 sheep and only herself and the two kids to do it. Now none of them are terribly big or strong, so I offered our services, with the proviso that if the weather is good I'll be tractor driving doing our hay.

I asked Laura if she was willing, and to ask Thomas if he would also help. Both decided that we really couldn't get out of it, and I daren't tell them I might not be able to go! However, David said that he would do the hay as far as he could, but that we would probably have to finish it on Sunday. Oh joy! Catching damn sheep one day and boring tractor driving the next. Roll on Monday.

In an effort to persuade Laura I said they were young and fit - the shearers, not the sheep. Thomas has to be persuaded by cash. Hopefully the sheep will be not too big, quiet and not too weighty.

At least when the lamb-man came today he marked 26 of our lambs to go Wednesday, that will be something to look forward to, until I get some more in, and some fat bulls are going on Monday. It will be like a practice run at retirement with almost nothing to feed for a few days.