Edward 67 – Sheep 3

Dirty Job #10

A day with sheep.

Normally, they would take the cute lil tiny lambs, and do all the stuff we did today to them.

Procrastination, really does add more work later.

You see, they procrastinated, and so, these where not “lil tiny” lambs. These… were more like, “look at me, I’m almost as big as momma!”

To answer the main question right off the bat, thankfully, there was NO de-balling today. There was a bit of blood however. Michael had me thinking that I was going to be walking into a blood bath worthy of Kali! Psh… twas nothing… almost.

I get picked up by the guy I’m working for, and then we headed to the fruit shack to pick up a German backpacker. We drive to where the sheep are. A much more successful attempt at sheparding than the last time I tried.

We set up this maze for the sheep to be scared through, and then, we start segregating them to where we want them to be.

Then came the “fun” part. Our task of the day was to take the “lambs” pick them up, take them over to a work station where their tails would then be rubber banded for amputation, they would be vaccinated, their ear would be tagged, and then the opposite ear would have a notch cut into it at the top as the mark of the rancher.
Me and “Hans” got to pick up the sheep, and hold them steady while all 4 of these painful things happen to them. This is where the blood comes into play.
The second lamb… I happen to be in the middle of saying something as the guy we were working for’s dad went to punch the notch into the lamb’s right ear. I happen to be holding it on the right side. As my mouth happen to be open due to my need to speak at that exact moment, I just so happen to get a taste of freshly extracted and squirted lamb’s blood.

Yummy…


The rest of the day I chose my moments to speak much more carefully. I also made it a point to look away with my eyes closed every time an ear on my side was getting cut.
The rest of that process went by fairly “routine” with the exception of course of the fact that these “lambs” where HUGE and not young lil cute ones.

All the new one’s having been completed. We went on to deal with all the momma sheep. To them we gave the vaccination and this stuff to wipe out any worms that they might have. This does of course involve stabbing them in the face with a large needle, which they don’t like, and shoving an over grown squirt gun down their mouth, which, they are also not to fond of. We herded them to where we wanted them. Then we led them small group by small group at a time threw this narrow area where we could “easily” vaccinate and medicate them. At one point however, one jump the fence without it’s treatment. It was spotted however, so that made it easy to point out in the crowd. So I, the great warrior and hunter, with all my predator like instincts… ran it down and tackled it to the ground and restrained it till the others came and did what they had to do. That was not the only time I did that however. My predator like abilities also tackled two rams that needed to go into another pen.

This is where the 3 points for the sheep come into play though.

Point 1 went to the lamb who swung it’s head back at me and hit me in the face.

Point 2 went to the second ram that I captured. When I was about to throw him over the fence, not all 4 legs made it quite to the other side. As the others tried to warn me of the sneaky right hind leg, it was too late, and I took a bit of a kick to my right kidney region, no scratch, and no visible bruise.

Point 3, as I was closing a fence, the sheep where rebelling and managed to knock down a barricade that was in between the sheep, and the back of my right leg. I prevented the escape, but the back of my right leg had to pay for it.

Besides those 3 though… I pretty much dominated them the rest of the day. Who knew that my black belt would come in handy when it came to restraining sheep though.
I am happy to report, I did not get peed on, nor did my boots get poopy. In fact; besides the blood in my mouth and the bit that ended up on a little section of my jeans it was a good day in terms of stuff from inside the sheep getting on us.

Tomorrow, I return to Ray and his farm. His farm, without sheep. It will be good to be back.