Living on Riverina
I'm now staying on a 5 acre property in Riverina. My main job is a woolhandler, and we went 2 hours away and stayed at an inn, while we shore some sheep. There were 10 shearers in total although not all sheared every day. We shore in two sheds. The first was a basic 4 stand* which we adapted to let 4 more shearers work around the side. we were only doing lambs, but two of the rousies had to drag sheep for those without proper stands. We had our work cut out, but as it was only lambs it was manageable and we cut out in only one day. One of the draggers was just starting, it was his first day and he was only 17 but he seemed to enjoy dragging sheep.
Next we took on a raised board*. There were 5 stands there, and Kino, the contractor, put his trailer outside the door with 5 more, giving 10 stands in total. I started on pickup** for the trailer, helping the 17 year old to learn how to take crutches out**. He was kinda slow at first, and missed a few from walking, so even Kino came over and told me to hurry him up. At the end of the run I tried to teach him how to pick up a fleece but he wasn't interested... not helpful!
I was on pickup and the tables were all inside the shed, closer to the permanent raised board. I had to run back and forth past the press to put the fleeces on the table. At one point I had just thrown a fleece and was dashing back to get another one when, unbeknown to me the presser opened the door of the press behind me. this is what went through my head:
Oh, the press door, it's hit me on the head.... hmm, the floor would be a good pace to go right now. Oh, everyone's asking if I'm alright, better tell them I'm OK. Everyone will be working, better get out of the way.
I moved out and sat in a pile of wool, before Kino came and made sure I was OK, got a rag and cleaned my ear up (which was bleeding)
After a few minutes I felt better and carried on; if a little more careful than before. After a while the experienced boy rousie came in and suggested I do some skirting, and I did that for the rest of the run.
I'd never done skirting before, but I'd seen experienced people do it. Here's how it works. Hopefully the thrower has thrown the fleece well and you can easily find the hind leg (handy tip - the thrower holds on to this bit last when throwing, so look where his hands were as the fleece hits the table). Then you pull off the edge where mucky bits are, taking only the matted, dirty bits and leaving fluffy white fleece behind. More often than not though, it's a bit twisted, the thrower has in haste picked up from somewhere other than the hind leg and you need to do a little sorting before you can get started. If you're really unlucky the whole fleece is a jumble with holes and twists, or just a fluffy mess, and you have to go rooting around and pulling off what ever you can find. Ideally you should also roll the fleece as you go along, allowing another fleece to be flung onto the table. Often several rousies will be skirting the same fleece and you just have to rush around looking for unsorted fleeces to skirt. As you roll up this exposes the white wool that was closest to the sheep's body. Often there are bits of skin where the shearer was a little clumsy or a dog bit the sheep, and you have to pull those bits out; they need different processing. finally, the cleaned up fleece is taken to the classer, who's only real job is to test each fleece and decide where they are to go. He can test the quality by by pulling on the wool. If it's yellow or weak, it goes into a different bin and labeled as such. Different breeds of sheep need to be kept separate, and the length is also taken into consideration, from full ewe wool, lambs wool, to short lambs wool which just goes in with the locks to make felt. Rams wool has its own special musk and has to be kept separate too.
We stayed 3 nights there and headed back after our 4th days work. Work continued as normal, this time on a closed board* (ack) Only 3 more days work there with 6 shearers this time. The 17 year old wasn't there and a few of us speculated he hadn't been kept on because he was quite slow. Everyone was more organised this time which was good, because I was feeling tired and couldn't keep up the pace I was putting in at the camp outs.
This Wednesday - Saturday we have to work on the farm. We did some painting the first two days, and then today some mowing. I'll add some pictures, but first I have to take them. Watch this space and I'll update the post with them.
*the Board is where the shearers work. There are three types that I've come across: A raised board which has the shearers looking like they're on stage, a closed board in which the sheep come out of a pen in front of the shearer and are released into another behind the shearer, meaning the shearers are all working in an enclosed space, and an open board. Open boards and raised boards can either have release pens underneath the shearer, so the sheep falls down a chute, or next to the catching pen, normally long and thin so the sheep can be released right at the back and straight back into the paddock.
** The jobs of the rousies are as follows: Broom, Pickup and skirt. On broom you have to remove mucky wool from the sheeps arse right after the shearer has taken them away. You also have o sweep the board as the shearer goes in to get another sheep and generally keep the board clean. On pickup you pick up the fleece (duh) and put it on the table. You have to do it a special way though to put it on the table nice and flat. By holding back legs of the fleece, scrunching them up and pulling them over the rest of the fleece (which you should have pulled into a ball shape to make things easier) Then you scoop all the rest up while still holding on to the legs. When you throw, you keep hold of the back legs, so the rest of the fleece can go up and out. That's the idea anyway and most of my throws end up disasters :P I've already described the skirters job above.
Next we took on a raised board*. There were 5 stands there, and Kino, the contractor, put his trailer outside the door with 5 more, giving 10 stands in total. I started on pickup** for the trailer, helping the 17 year old to learn how to take crutches out**. He was kinda slow at first, and missed a few from walking, so even Kino came over and told me to hurry him up. At the end of the run I tried to teach him how to pick up a fleece but he wasn't interested... not helpful!
I was on pickup and the tables were all inside the shed, closer to the permanent raised board. I had to run back and forth past the press to put the fleeces on the table. At one point I had just thrown a fleece and was dashing back to get another one when, unbeknown to me the presser opened the door of the press behind me. this is what went through my head:
Oh, the press door, it's hit me on the head.... hmm, the floor would be a good pace to go right now. Oh, everyone's asking if I'm alright, better tell them I'm OK. Everyone will be working, better get out of the way.
I moved out and sat in a pile of wool, before Kino came and made sure I was OK, got a rag and cleaned my ear up (which was bleeding)
After a few minutes I felt better and carried on; if a little more careful than before. After a while the experienced boy rousie came in and suggested I do some skirting, and I did that for the rest of the run.
I'd never done skirting before, but I'd seen experienced people do it. Here's how it works. Hopefully the thrower has thrown the fleece well and you can easily find the hind leg (handy tip - the thrower holds on to this bit last when throwing, so look where his hands were as the fleece hits the table). Then you pull off the edge where mucky bits are, taking only the matted, dirty bits and leaving fluffy white fleece behind. More often than not though, it's a bit twisted, the thrower has in haste picked up from somewhere other than the hind leg and you need to do a little sorting before you can get started. If you're really unlucky the whole fleece is a jumble with holes and twists, or just a fluffy mess, and you have to go rooting around and pulling off what ever you can find. Ideally you should also roll the fleece as you go along, allowing another fleece to be flung onto the table. Often several rousies will be skirting the same fleece and you just have to rush around looking for unsorted fleeces to skirt. As you roll up this exposes the white wool that was closest to the sheep's body. Often there are bits of skin where the shearer was a little clumsy or a dog bit the sheep, and you have to pull those bits out; they need different processing. finally, the cleaned up fleece is taken to the classer, who's only real job is to test each fleece and decide where they are to go. He can test the quality by by pulling on the wool. If it's yellow or weak, it goes into a different bin and labeled as such. Different breeds of sheep need to be kept separate, and the length is also taken into consideration, from full ewe wool, lambs wool, to short lambs wool which just goes in with the locks to make felt. Rams wool has its own special musk and has to be kept separate too.
We stayed 3 nights there and headed back after our 4th days work. Work continued as normal, this time on a closed board* (ack) Only 3 more days work there with 6 shearers this time. The 17 year old wasn't there and a few of us speculated he hadn't been kept on because he was quite slow. Everyone was more organised this time which was good, because I was feeling tired and couldn't keep up the pace I was putting in at the camp outs.
This Wednesday - Saturday we have to work on the farm. We did some painting the first two days, and then today some mowing. I'll add some pictures, but first I have to take them. Watch this space and I'll update the post with them.
*the Board is where the shearers work. There are three types that I've come across: A raised board which has the shearers looking like they're on stage, a closed board in which the sheep come out of a pen in front of the shearer and are released into another behind the shearer, meaning the shearers are all working in an enclosed space, and an open board. Open boards and raised boards can either have release pens underneath the shearer, so the sheep falls down a chute, or next to the catching pen, normally long and thin so the sheep can be released right at the back and straight back into the paddock.
** The jobs of the rousies are as follows: Broom, Pickup and skirt. On broom you have to remove mucky wool from the sheeps arse right after the shearer has taken them away. You also have o sweep the board as the shearer goes in to get another sheep and generally keep the board clean. On pickup you pick up the fleece (duh) and put it on the table. You have to do it a special way though to put it on the table nice and flat. By holding back legs of the fleece, scrunching them up and pulling them over the rest of the fleece (which you should have pulled into a ball shape to make things easier) Then you scoop all the rest up while still holding on to the legs. When you throw, you keep hold of the back legs, so the rest of the fleece can go up and out. That's the idea anyway and most of my throws end up disasters :P I've already described the skirters job above.