I had my own troubles with the onset of a nasty head cold and no time to be sick.
The trick for L. is that she has wool breed lambs. Although she doesn't need to learn how to use the electric sheers to clip all the wool off like the light-colored meat breeds, she does need to learn how to use hand sheers proficiently. She's never been great with scissors because she's a left-handed cutter so the hand sheers are tricky for her (not to mention heavy). So we took her lamb to the sheep farm (where L.'s lambs were born) for some pointers from another 4Her who shows sheep along with the owner of the farm. They were both really helpful.
L. did some clipping and opted to err on the side of clipping less rather than more. By the end of her lesson at the farm L.'s beginner fitting skills had her lamb looking pretty nice.
Unfortunately the downpours on Saturday morning made things more complicated for L.'s show. Her lamb got soaking wet unloading from the livestock trailer and her wool looked a bit crazy and totally un-groomed. L. borrowed a livestock blow drier and used a low-cool setting to try to dry the wool. It's tricky business to blow dry a wool breed lamb. The lamb can turn in to a giant puff ball in no time, which is even further from ideal.
While L. was stressing about fitting her lamb and doing the show my head cold was even worse than it was the day before and I was developing laryngitis. Some people (my husband) might say that isn't such a bad thing but I really wasn't much help at all to L. during her stressful moments that day.
In the end L. went in to the ring and did just fine. The thunderstorms had several of the animals on their not-so-great behavior and L. felt that Minnie (the lamb's nickname, which is oh so much easier than Midnight Minette to say regularly) was not nearly as cooperative as she usually is. That bummed L. out because she works with her lambs on a halter just about every single day. But sometimes you just can't predict the weather, or an animal's behavior to it. But by the pair's second visit in the show ring (showmanship and then breed class), both lamb and kid were feeling more comfortable.
I was happy that G. had her own thing going on during the sheep show with her shooting sports club and didn't need any help from me. She and her buddies were working in the 4H snack shack taking orders, making subs and having a grand old time.
I had time to be sick on Sunday and stuck around home all day to rest and am hoping I can kick this head cold soon. I think I spent a bit too much in the cold and rain last week (there were a couple of activities but my time at Thomas Point Beach to see the horseshoe crabs is what I think sent my sniffles over the edge) and brought on the full force of this nasty cold.
I was actually thinking I might need to schedule a sick day in the family calendar sometime soon. We really do have too much going on...
When does our summer schedule kick in again? Maybe two more weeks?
Then I will have time to be sick... I think.
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