Magazine for the professional nail industry.
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136 | NAILS MAGAZINE | APRIL 2017 } { my other life It's been almost three years since Canadian nail tech Melody Hopkins moved her family to a 200-acre sheep farm in central Alberta to help out the farm's owner, her husband's aunt. "As an animal lover, I quickly fell in love with these woolly critters," says Hopkins, whose salon, Hopkins Nails, is located in Lacombe. "I always say animals are good for my soul." On the farm, chores make up a big part of the day. "We farm about 400 ewes. That means every morning we shred hay in the fields and fork hay into the hay feeders. We fill up all the grain feeders as well, and feed certain sheep by pail. We also check to make sure everyone is healthy," she says. "There's weighing, shearing, shipping, lambing…the list goes on and on." Every May, Hopkins cuts her long nails very short in preparation for lambing season. "When May rolls around, babies start to pop like popcorn," she says. "We lamb out around 300-400 ewes, so I'm in our big barn day and night checking for lambs being born, feeding and watering them, cleaning pens, putting out straw, and moving the animals around." Her short nails are a precaution in case she has to help deliver a lamb. "Ewes will often have multiple lambs and sometimes they get tangled up or they're too big or backwards. Then I have to reach in and figure out what's going on. With long nails you run the risk of nicking the inside and causing internal bleeding." One of the things Hopkins loves most about living on the farm is being able to spend more time with her family. "Every year we end up with orphan lambs for one reason or another, and we have to bottle feed them three times a day. My boys always love bottle feeding the babies," she says. "I just love working with the animals. When I say, 'Come on girls' and they all come running up, you can't help but smile. Watching hundreds of sheep coming in from the field is always amazing." Keeping Sheep Ship Shape NAILS (ISSN 0896-193x) (USPS 001-426) is published monthly, by Bobit Business Media, 3520 Challenger Street, Torrance, California 90503-1640. Periodicals postage paid at Torrance, California 90503-9998 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Nails, P.O. Box 1067 Skokie, IL 60076-8068. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks for address changes to take effect. Subscription Prices - United States $20 per year; Canada $57 per year; Foreign $87 per year. Single copy price - $5; Big Book - $40. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks to receive your first issue. Bobit Business Media reserves the right to refuse non-qualified subscriptions. Please address Editorial and Advertising correspondence to the Executive Offices at 3520 Challenger Street Torrance, California 90503-1640 or online at www.nailsmag.com. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in whole or in part without consent of Bobit Business Media. All statements made, although based on information believed to be reliable and accurate, cannot be guaranteed and no fault or liability can be accepted for error or omission. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within 2 years. Melody Hopkins, nail tech In her other life: sheep farmer "When May rolls around, babies start to pop like popcorn. We lamb out around 300-400 ewes." PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEE AVERY