Monday 28 April 2008

Shearing..........

Well this is the last day of the school holidays and thankfully the last day of the shearing........I had a very bad day of wind yesterday and the umbrella grass swirled around everywhere..........it was a pretty miserable day............today we have had a cold change and winter is in the air.........you northern girls must be sending it our way as you are starting to mention that spring has come.............so this post is about our shearing which has been happening during the school holidays..........book worm would spend every waking hour there if I let him...........and as for fairy girl she went to the shed for the first time today and had a princess tiara on.................the shearers are probably still laughing.............

The sheep are waiting in the shed..................

this is the counter the shearers flick as they pull there sheep out of the pen...........

Here is the handpiece they use to shear the wool off with...............

shearer's supplies...........

here they were on there break yarning over the pens...........check out there feet

shearing the sheep...........

nearly done...........

the rousabout gathers the fleece ready to pick up and take to the wool table...........

Throwing the fleece onto the wool table...........

and another..........

the fleece is skirted........the edge wool and bad bits (stained) are pulled off and put into a separate pile to bale later.........

the fleece is placed into a bin below and then when there is enough wool to make a bale it goes into the press..............

here is the wool press which squashes the wool into the bale...............

wool bales labeled ready to go onto the truck ...........

here are the sheep all shorn.........

.....they will need to hide in the grass/timber areas tonight as it is going to be very cold ........

they get counted out of there pens and tallied for the shearer and then they are paid according to how many sheep they shear...........

take care til next time.............

29 comments:

Jodie said...

Great pics Donna!!! For all of those non sheep farmers out there you explained the whole process perfectly.... Well Done..

Jodie :)

Anonymous said...

I am really envious of you. I think you have just the best life.I should have been a farm girl. Its great hearing all about it.Thanks for telling us all about it.Ihave to be content with one dog and hopes of getting some chickens one day.
from jdiz

Nicky said...

Thanks for sharing all those lovely country pictures. Although you probably don't think so, those sheep are so so cute.
Nicky

A Spoonful Of Sugar said...

Looks like your shearing was very productive judging by all those bales of wool! It is the last day of school holidays here in WA today - not really looking forward to going back to school and work tomorrow :(

Unknown said...

Well I have a few questions. How many sheep do you have? How many sheep can a man shear in one day? Do you get paid well for the wool? Here the prize has been a problem, but is hopefully getting better.

Pat said...

How very interesting. Thanks so much for sharing. Your photos are great.

Anonymous said...

Hi Donna thanks for stopping by my blog ... I too will be back to take a peep at yours! I love the picture you have for your banner and oh this post brings back such memories! I grew up near Moree and we had sheep together with cattle & cropping. Nice to 'meet' you!

Unknown said...

I love this post. How interesting. I imagine not only a big day but a super busy one as well. Well if it is as cold as it is here tonight in your neck of the woods I pity the poor sheep! Hope the unbrella grass blows away soon.

Unknown said...

Terrific photo's Donna, I'm guessing you needed to feed all your shearing team.

Patti said...

Absolutely fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing this - we northern city folk have no idea how things like this work. I love to learn, and your pictures are great.

dutchcomfort said...

Thanks for sharing so much wonderful pics of your farm and farmlife. Being a big-city-girl I’m fascinated! Our worlds, lifes and seasons are really upside-down! In Holland the shearing of sheep is in May and June, so in Spring. Is it once a year in OZ?

Stina Blomgren said...

A lot of hard work there...Love the photos...thanks for sharing them...

May Britt said...

Thanks for sharing these photos. So fun to see how a life on a farm can be.

Jenny said...

Wonderful photos-I still have a smile on my face imagining your daughter with her tiara on amongst the grit, sweat and bustle!!

Lorraine said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog Donna....the shearing pics brought back memories of living on the farm....we loved the shearing shed when we were kids...and always said we got better meals when the shearers were there (which isnt of course true - but there always seemed to be more because as you know shearers need to eat to keep them going!) It is a tough job! My sister was always a bit of a princess and didn't have much to do with shearing but later on she bluffed her way into a shearing crew as a roustabout and traveled to NZ...had a ball!! - and came back a pretty good shedhand as well! Love reading about your life on the land.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing the shearing pics they are great.I guess you were kept busy cooking for everybody too. Have a great day JO

Wisdom.Courage.Love said...

Great piccies, thanks for sharing your everyday life with us... Love it!

The Naturalist's Daughter said...

Wow! Fantastic pictures. You must be insanely busy at the moment. What a bummer getting more umbrella grass with the wind. Hope it doesn't get too cold up there.

Floss said...

These pictures bring back good memory; I worked in a shearing shed during the school holidays when I was a teenager. It was hard work and I took a lot of practical jokes -being a girl.

Bloom said...

Fantastic photos. Makes me homesick! The boys back home are shearing too.

Leanne said...

Great shots of throwing the fleece. I stuff my pin cushions with sheep fleece it keeps your pins nice and oiled and it doesn't take that long to looses that wonderful country smell. I head down to the wool stores at the port with an empty shopping bag, use my charm(Tony always says they feel sorry for me and think I'm mad) and the boys down there are always obliging and I come home with enough fleece to fill my pin cushion. You would have a never ending supply.

Doe said...

So that's how it's done! Thanks for sharing. As always, you take fantastic photos.

Lissa Jane said...

thanks for the piccy's chooky!!
when I have bad wind, I stay away from beans and cabbage *W*
its bloomin' cold here too.. feels positively artic 8C at 10am?? its criminal...

could be worse it was -1C in Canberra this morning, but they deserve it!

Fiona said...

What fabulous pictures - why does something that must be such hard work look so romantic?

Anne Heidi said...

Those are great pictures Donna. Hope the sheep won't get too cold. I guess all that lovely wool will be made into wonderful yarn and fabrics :-) I received your cards yesterday, they are lovely! Thank you.'

Thimbleanna said...

What a cool post Donna! I'm surprised though -- I would have thought the sheep would be shorn in the spring after a long winter. Or is it done twice a year? Poor little sheepies -- it's getting cold and they're NAKED LOL!

Ginger Patches said...

Very cool post! That was very interesting, I never had any idea how it was done. Thanks for sharing :)

julieQ said...

Surprising how much smaller the woolies look without all the wool! One time when I was small, a shearer cut a nipple off one of our prize hampshire sheep! My dad was none too pleased...

rachelmp said...

Great pics Donna! I spent my teenage years on a sheep farm... shearing is such hard work for everyone x Rachel