Skip to main content

Its shearing time at home!


The kitchen was dark and still. There was a sound outside that I hadn’t noticed until now…what is it? Ah..rain! I dash up to the bedroom and open the door to show Howard the lovely sound but his response is not in the excited form I expected.

He leaps out of bed and next minute he is in his ute and gone. As it turns out some wool bales were on the back of the truck and exposed to the weather. Half the sheep were still out of the wool shed too so todays shearing will be a shorter day.

I enter the shed around 11am and our 2013 shearing is in full swing. The men have been warned I want to take a few photos so they get on with their work. The shed is loud with the humming of machinery; a radio in the background and the odd joke but there is little time for conversation. 4 sheep are held still  by the shearers as their fleece is careful and swiftly taken off. The remaining stock waits in small pens behind the old swinging doors.

This shed was built in 1968 but seems a lot older.  The wide-open room fills with a strong smell of lanolin. Light is falling over the large bales of wool as some men are dragging them onto the back of the truck. Its so busy and really interesting to watch as it all flows like clock work. A young man is sweeping the floor, two others are throwing the fleece across the old table and go on to skirt it. This is removing any dirty wool in preparation for classing it. The wool classer determines each fleeces quality and places it in its appropriate area to be pressed. Each bale is then weighed, stenciled and stacked in the shed.

3500 of our sheep will lay back and have their wooly jumpers taken off this week. The bales will then be taken to Goulburn and be tested for length, strength and yield. Once branded, the wool is then taken to Sydney and we wait for the day of sale.

I hope you enjoy your wooly jumpers, coats and blanket’s this winter and give a thought to the shearer who works tirelessly all year so that we can be warmed by this beautiful natural material. A whole team of people are a part of the wool industry, from the farmers who actually need to care for the stock and their pastures all year to the customer who makes the choice to pick up a wool product. Well done to all involved!





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Can creativity be good for our health?

Hello, It has been a while between blogs but as my intention for 2023 is to write full time, I should manage a regular post once again. Writing has always been something I do early in the morning or in the tiny spaces in between all else, but this year I am putting creativity at the top of my priority list.  If you know me well, you would know I have always wanted to write a book. The sensible project would be to share what I have learnt over the past 12 years about health, yoga, breath work and mindfulness, to support the healing of trauma and rural challenges, but at the moment it is a farm based novel that is flowing well. Perhaps all of the above topics will turn up in the lives of my characters, we will see.  It is so liberating, giving myself permission to do what I love, here on the farm. Although on some level it also feels isolating to be here on my own each day at the desk. The opportunity to witness this landscape from this quiet space feels deeply healing and quite confront

Bribbaree Show, One direction, Boarding School and Hay Making. What a week!!

#Champion Bloom of the Show!! One Direction Concert Breakfast at Bronte Beach   Mowing Hay    Yo u wouldn’t believe what I have been doing in the past week. The local Bribbaree Show was on during the final weekend of the school holidays so our 2 youngest girls entered a few events on their horses and Howard joined in the team penning. I walked around with our eldest daughter, passing some very well groomed dogs on our way to the equestrian area. The show ground was filling with families and local women were dropping off cakes and sandwich fillings at the canteen, while the children convinced their parents to let them go on some rides. Howard entered a big red rose for me, that had opened in our garden a few days earlier and I am pleased to ‘announce’ that we won ‘Best Bloom of the Show’. What fun!! We had tea, sandwiches and cake for lunch, Howard skipping the fatty food this year. By late afternoon we gathered with everyone for a cool drink befor

Discovering Meditation in small stages - 3 Audio Recordings attached.

10.11.23    Discovering Meditation   If I can define meditation in the simplest way, I would say meditation is ‘ being in the space in between our thoughts .’    Meditation is no ‘easy’ task when we have over 70 000 thoughts a day.  This is why I stepped todays class through a 3-stage process, in preparation for a brief meditation experience. Below is an explanation of each of these stages I taught and why these techniques are great preparation for potent stillness.    Stage 1.   It is more challenging to meditate with lots of tension in the body, so the first step is to let go of the extra holding that we may not even be aware of. This is done by noticing the body and slightly moving each area, or tensing and releasing each body part. (Starting at the feet, legs, spine and then the belly as we breathe. Open and close the hands, stretch the arms, lift and drop the shoulders, carefully stretch the neck and face.)   Stage 2.   Secondly, we can begin to be more aware of our breathing patt