July 1, 2011

Can you help me with some questions that I have? Any help in this matter will be appreciated.

The initial text on this page (letter) was sent to the National Agricultural Library (http://www.nal.usda.gov/) in Maryland. I sent it to them July 1, 2011. I got a reply really quickly. I am not sure that the person who read what I wrote, understood what I wanted. She sent some links to articles on sheep shearing. She said that would keep these people pretty busy. Any text you might see in [ ] is what I will have added to try and make it clearer. (I don't know when or if I will get that text added in this. I might have Douglas read what I wrote and ask him questions before I add any text.) As is often the case this spring / summer, I am trying to get this done before a storm hits.

[I am trying to figure out what the, "object" below would be. I need there to be a conflict in a young man's life. The, "object" is that conflict. This young man gets an opportunity to be a missionary or at least go to a Bible college or school of some sort. The conflict arrises when he realizes that if he goes off to Bible school, he won't be able to make money for the summer. This is money he has been counting on so that he can pay for more university. I am looking for what the money making venture or "thing" would be. What could the kid do for the summer, that would make him a lot of money in a short amount of time?

In the text below I am trying to ask if a, "sheep shearing contest," like I write about, would be plausible. Would the prize for, "person who shears the most sheep in a season," be plausible?]

If you have any suggestions on what a good, "object," would be in my story, let me know.

Hello,

My name is Robyn. I live in Michigan. You have a really great website by the way. I don't know if this is the correct place for me to write to ask these questions. If you can't answer my questions, will you point me in a direction where I might find my answers? (I am in no hurry for a reply.)

I am working on, and taking notes for, a fictional story. The story takes place in the far distant future, on the moon of a far away planet. It is about a young man who is from a farm family that raises sheep on the moon. The young man studies at a university on the planet. As the young man returns home for a spring / summer break, he encounters a mysterious stranger. The stranger ends up staying with the farm family. He offers the young man what could turn out to be a great opportunity. It is a way to learn something that will help him throughout his life. Yet this education has nothing to do with financial gain. This opportunity is in great conflict with his summer duties. The young man has an opportunity to do ____________ ("object") in order to make money for school. It is a lot of work in a short amount of time but there is big money in the end.

My problem is that I don't know what the, "object" is. I know something of rural life as I have lived in rural areas of the US before. My grandfather was a cotton farmer in West Texas. I wrote an E-mail to my cousin. She had raised sheep in 4H some years ago. She raised sheep for meat and not for wool so she could not help me.

I picture the scenery of my story to look something like West Texas or the Australia in a movie called, "The Sundowners," (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054353/) which is also about shearing sheep.

Could my, "object" be a sheep shearing contest? What I mean by, "contest," is a one time thing like at a county fair; where contestants try and shear as many sheep as they can in a certain amount of time. If he wins the contest at a local level he could go on to a higher level until he tries to win the top prize of the season. He would be, "crowned," the sheep shearing champion for the whole moon.

Could my, "object" be that the young man wants to shear the most sheep in a season? Could someone, a business owner perhaps, offer a prize to the person who shears the most sheep in a season? I know in West Texas there was a title bestowed on someone when they produced the first bale of cotton that year. My great uncle once hired farm hands to hand pick cotton so that he would have the first bale of cotton in the county that year. That was in the very early 1980s.

I was wanting to know something about raising sheep for my story. I didn't know when they got sheared for instance. But I discovered a link that answered those sorts of questions on your site. http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/410/410-365/410-365.html http://riley.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=8&tax_level=2&tax_subject=10&level3_id=0&level4_id=0&level5_id=0&want_id=478&topic_id=1735&placement_default=0

Ok, this should be it for now. Any help in this matter will be appreciated.

Mrs. Robyn