Shearing 2011- or, A Bug’s Life Part 3: The Final Solution

I love shearing.

The atmosphere, the sheepwork, the process of reaping what we’ve grown all year.

The challenge of trying to capture it all on a camera.

I‘ve tried before: Last year, the year before and the year before that (more than once)

The Farmkids love shearing too.

Two fun-filled weeks or so of hanging out together.

The excitement and energy of the shed.

Sheep, sheep and more sheep.

Creating their own entertainment

Hide ‘n seek among the wool bales

This year the kids helped me out with some photography.

They documented things from a new perspective.

Some shots I would have taken…

Some photo opportunities I hadn’t ever noticed.

So we start with woolly sheep by the shedful.

They come into the yards and shed early to empty out and stay dry.

The shearers set to work, just a few minutes per sheep and the wool comes off

The fleece is collected by the rouseabout (or shedhand)

It goes onto the classing table to be skirted (all the dirty, scrappy bits around the edges taken off) and classed (assessed for important traits like fibre diameter, length, strength, cleanliness and colour)

The sheep head out five kilograms lighter

Some stay around for a quick drench

The end product, classed and collected up

Pressed into bales (and I think R would like me to point out that this is the old, semi-retired press, not the nice new one with all the bells and whistles and safety gadgets. Of course we only let the kids play with the old one. We figure that if they survive with all limbs intact they are qualified to use the new one)

At nearly 200 kilograms a bale, it’s serious business when you have to move them around…

for example, to retrieve the boss’s sunnies:

Three years later, Farmboy and his dad’s sunnies just slay me

Yep, we love shearing.