A Good Summertime Haircut

The summertime heat and humidity really takes it out of you.  We did a lot of sweating this weekend. I got a short summertime haircut and it helps somewhat.  Animals struggle in the heat, too.  Big Boy is our Great Pyrenees dog.  The breed has origins back to the Pyrenees mountains which border France and Spain where they were used as livestock guardian dogs for shepherds in the mountains.

Our Maker's Acres Family farm sits in a rural setting at a whopping 22 feet above sea level.  That is quite a difference from the Pyrenees Mountains!  So I felt sorry for ol' Big Boy as I saw him in the shade under the trampoline, digging one of his huge holes that he digs to get comfortable in the cool dirt.

Big Boy in his foxhole

But I had a plan.  If a short haircut could help me feel more comfortable in the heat, perhaps it would do the same for Big Boy.  "Here Big Boy!"  He came lumbering out of his most recently dug crater.

I enlisted Benjamin's help and we got our livestock clippers from out of the attic.  These are the clippers that we use to groom the dairy cows before the livestock shows.  Benjamin plugged them in and fired up the clippers.

Benjamin the Barber

Big swaths of white hair began falling off of Big Boy with each pass of the clipper.  The blades on the clipper were really dull and Big Boy's hair was really thick, making it hard to do a good job, but as Benjamin and I justified, every bit of hair that comes off has got to feel cooler and better for Ol' Big Boy.

Take a little off the top, please.

Finally, we were done.  Or at least as done as we were going to get.  Tricia came out and said, "Big Boy, you look terrible!"  Okay, Dog Groomers, we are not!  Benjamin will not be in contention for any American Kennel Club dog grooming awards.  But, I know that Big Boy felt better once we finished and he doesn't have access to a mirror.

Would you look at all the white fur scattered across the yard?!  You would sweat that it snowed in June!

Poor Big Boy!

When we were finished, Big Boy lumbered back to his nest under the trampoline, closed his eyes and wondered what one has to do to get a good haircut anymore?

Maybe in a few weeks we can put sharpened blades on the clippers and spruce things up a bit.  Until then, his haircut at least provides him with a bit of a respite from the sweltering heat of summer.

A Rural Barbershop

The Jeff Davis Parish Livestock Show takes place this week.  Benjamin will be bringing Amy, our youngest Jersey cow who just calved in December.  We'll need to also bring her little bull, Chuck, even though you don't show dairy bulls.  Chuck will be needed at the Show Barn for two reasons. First, if he's not there, Amy will bellow non-stop and be a source of annoyance to anyone remotely nearby.  Second, he'll nurse on Amy as soon as the show is over, emptying her bag.

When the livestock shows come around, it involves some preparation.  The most time-consuming of which is giving the animals a haircut.  We're in the middle of winter and the animals have put on a nice winter coat and, sadly, that must be removed for the livestock show.  Fortunately, we have some livestock clippers that take care of that.  Saturday afternoon, we got busy.  While Tricia held Amy tight, I gave her a good clipping.  Long rolls of hair rolled off in big swaths.  The noise always frightens the animal, especially once you start clipping around their heads.

I'd like a little off the top, please.

It is unfortunate, because the animals have grown nice coats to keep them warm and now it must come off.  All the shaggy hair comes off and they are shaved smooth and clean.

The first pass of the clipper cut

There are a lot of obstacles to shave around on a cow, so this work is slow and tedious.  I stop several times and blow the hair off of the clippers (and off of me) with an air compressor that I've loaded on a wagon and brought near the pasture. We were mostly finished with Amy when we began to hear thunder rumbling and lightening flashing.  Then big raindrops began falling.  We let Amy run back to the hay bale, and we took shelter inside - postponing completion of the job until Sunday.

Removing the winter coat

The weather on Sunday was picture-perfect, with bluebird skies and brilliant sunlight.  As soon as church ended, we quickly ate a bowl of gumbo and ran out to the pasture to pick up where we left off the day before.  I did some fine tuning, cleaning up some of the areas I missed on Amy and worked my way to her head. The head is the tricky part.  We remove the halter and put nose pliers into her nose so that she becomes compliant as we shave around her ears, eyes and nose.  I'd be compliant too if someone put nose pliers on me!  In no time flat we finished up with Amy's haircut.  Benjamin began to walk her around, practicing how he'd show her in the ring, ensuring that she would set up properly.

Showing off that new haircut

Here is Amy modeling her new haircut, showing her sleet, aerodynamic lines!

But we aren't only bringing Amy and Chuck to the show.  We're bringing Clarabelle, too.  Clarabelle is Rosie's little heifer.  She is about 7 months old and has the most gentle and kind disposition out of all of our animals.  She wasn't always like that. In fact, she was the most difficult of all of our animals to halter break.  Now she is so tame and loving.  She also has a very thick winter coat.  It is a reddish-tint, like Rosie's.  We tied her to a solid post and began working.

Time for Clarabelles' haircut

She's smaller, so her haircut went a little quicker, although we played around a bit. Benjamin thought it would be a good idea if we shaved a mane like a horse on her neck.  It looked pretty funny.

The Mane Attraction

Instead of looking like a horse's mane, though, it looked more like a mohawk.

Clarabelle's first haircut

We figured that maybe the mohawk needed to come off.  By about 3 p.m. we finished up and began packing up the clippers.  I blew all the little hairs out of the clipper assembly and cleaned the clippers before packing it away.  After the shows, we'll bring the clipper blades to get re-sharpened.

All done

The Parish livestock show in Jennings is on Wednesday, January 20th, followed by the Southwest District livestock show in Lake Charles on Saturday, February 6th, and the State Livestock show in Gonzales on Monday, February 15th.  The livestock shows are always a very busy time of year.  This time will be even more so as we have 3 cows in milk.  It can be a little overwhelming if you think about it.  That's why I like to break it down into tasks and the haircutting task is done!   

Can you take a little off the top, please?

When it is cold outside, it is nice to have a thick, warm coat to wear.  For animals, it's no different. During the winter, the cows grow think winter coats.  It doesn't get exceptionally cold around here, but when it is raining AND in the thirties AND with a stiff north wind blowing, you can tell that the cows are uncomfortable - even with their winter coats.

It is unfortunate that the livestock shows are always in the January - February time frame.  That's generally the coldest time around here.  Livestock shows mean that we have to pull out the clippers and give the animals a shave.  They don't enjoy it and neither do we, but it's gotta be done.  This is Amy our 15 month old Jersey heifer.  Her thick, luxurious coat is about to be shaved off.

Amy's winter coat

She feels so warm and snuggly.  Amy and her mother, Rosie, grow thick coats. Daisy, our other Jersey cow, doesn't grow a thick coat at all.  We're only bringing Amy and Rosie to the shows this year, so Daisy will get to keep her coat for the remainder of the winter.

Let's start clipping

When I got home from work on Friday, Tricia had mostly shaved Rosie, so for Amy, it was my turn. I oiled up the clippers and turned them on.  They are kind of noisy and we notice that the closer that we get to the animal's head, the more jumpy and uneasy they get.  That's why we start on the end.

Clip, Clip

We put a little hay and some alfalfa pellets in the trough and clipped Amy's head to a lead rope tied around a post so she wouldn't go anywhere.  It's not a bad job, just a slow one.  You simply rest the clippers against the skin and push upwards.  Long tufts of hair will fold over leaving a smooth, clean-shaven look that makes Amy look sleek and aerodynamic! 

In the Barber Shop

When we're done, all of Amy's coat is gone.  The judges at the livestock shows want the animals clean shaven so that they can assess the animals' lines.  A full coat can hide imperfections.  Of course my barber job leaves imperfections as well. Sometimes, if the animal gets a little too jumpy, I've actually cut their ear by mistake, causing some bleeding, but nothing serious.

All done

Just like at the barber shop, once we're done, the floor is littered with a lot of hair that we'll need to sweep up.

Lots of hair on the floor

I mentioned earlier that when we start clipping close to the head, they don't like the sound or vibration one bit and they start acting up and moving around.  We have to get their halters off in order to shave their head, so one little trick that we do is use the nose clips.  The nose is a real sensitive area.  When we put the nose clip into the cow's nostrils, they immediately respect it.  That's the reason that you see rings in the noses of bulls sometimes.  With the nose clip in, you can lift her head and get the clippers all around her ears, eyes, nose and mouth.

Tricia with the nose clips on Amy

Amy looks totally different now without her winter coat.  She's a nice looking heifer.  

Amy Lou

This afternoon was a beautiful afternoon and we were able to get out in the pasture and pretend that we were the judges as Benjamin walked both Amy and Rosie around and set them up.  They have to be checked in at the Jefferson Davis Parish Livestock Show tomorrow night beginning at 6 pm with the actual livestock show taking place on Tuesday morning at 9pm.

Big Boy's Trip to the Barber

Big Boy is our Great Pyrenees livestock guard dog.  I think if cows and chickens could talk, they'd tell you that he harasses them more than he does potential predators, but since we adopted ol Big Boy, we haven't lost an animal to predators - so there's that. Big Boy positions himself stoically in the pasture atop the chicken tractor, scanning the horizon for nefarious creatures.  It's in his genes.  Pyrenees dogs are native to France where they were working companions of shepherds high up in the Pyrenees Mountains that border France and Spain.

As you might expect, a dog with a heavy winter coat that is comfortable in the upper elevations of a mountainous terrain, might not be especially comfortable in the hot, humid, sultry, appropriately named "Dog Days" of Summer in South Louisiana. Although he has shade, we can tell he's hot.  So, we figured it was time for a haircut, so off to the dog groomer we went...

Strike that.  We opted to do the grooming ourselves.  Tricia got a pair of scissors and I got a pair of scissors and we started cutting...  And cutting...  And cutting...

Getting a crew cut...

I wish I would've gotten a before and after picture.  Have you ever gotten a bad haircut?  One that you just couldn't wait to grow out?  One that made you embarrassed to go out in public?  I don't know if it is possible for a dog to get embarrassed.  He doesn't look embarrassed, but let's just say that Tricia and I are not going into the dog grooming business and Big Boy is not going to win any awards at the Dog Show.

Taking "a little bit off the top!"

We lacked the ability to blend the cuts and it gave Big Boy an odd, funny appearance, but you know what? I guarantee you, he likes the fact that we gave him a haircut - not for the appearance, but for the functionality.

Modeling the haircut

With two 'barbers' cutting, it didn't take long for Big Boy's trip to the barber to be complete and Benjamin walked him back out to his post.  It might have just been me, but it appeared he was happy, relieved, and walked a little lighter in his steps. Hopefully, since Big Boy now lacks the aerodynamic properties of the long, flowing, smooth, hair he once had, it won't affect his ability to keep the animals safe from varmints.

Contours of the Haircut

Tricia swept up a very large pile of Big Boy's hair and will work this on her loom to make me a nice sweater.

A white pile becomes a sweater for Kyle?

I'm only joking!  We threw it away.  The white pile smelled downright vile!