shearing

Aus is said to have made its early fortune 'on the sheep's back' and after 30 years in the land down under have FINALLY realized a much harboured dream to spend a day with camera in a shearing shed.

Neighbour T's family have worked the land for generations including 'growing wool' and today was day one of the season shearing of their Merino sheep.
Big buggers! Weighing 60kgs + and when we arrived, shearer Jeff, aka Scruffy, was well at work with his two roustabouts and three kelpie dogs, the latter spending most of their time dozing in the slats of sunlight trickling through the old shed.
Nowadays, the shearer usually arrives on his own and T's mum and dad do the roustabouting ( collecting up the fleece, cleaning off the grotty bits and 'throwing it' onto the sorting table after which T's dad, a wool sorter grades the wool). In this instance, 'Fox', from Taiwan, and Letitia, from Paris, are working with Scruffy as Woofers (working on organic farms).
What incredible young women. Strong, healthy, enthusiatic, able to corral and lug a sheep and yes shear as well!! In the 'old days' when a woman appeared in a shearing shed, the call went out 'ducks in the pond' at which point swearing stopped and it was good behaviour all round. Now there are more and more girls in the shed and shearer Scruffy is immensely proud of them

It's a HUGE day, divided into four two hour periods punctuated by eating (and in the girls' case facebooking!) and the rhythm is positively meditative.
Lanolin smears the skin and white gum floorboards and the Merinos doze in the pens, awaiting their turn after which they scamper down the shoot, several kilos lighter.

What a fabulous experience. Very, very, lucky me.