Monday, November 27, 2006

Rivington Shearing shed

We dont use the old shearing shed as such any more, sometimes it gets used as a storage area but I can remember when we had sheep and old Andrew our shepherd was always up at the shed, maintaining and repairing and the excitement of shearing, getting in the sheep and sorting them out. We only had a two stand shed as we only had a few hundred sheep but it was great fun to go and watch the shearers who were very quick and very rarely made a mistake and to help with the cleaning up of the fleece and the grading and then getting the wool bales all done for the next sale.
I like sheep much better than cows but the cows are supposed to make us some money. Sometimes I wonder.

2 comments:

Alison said...

I love old shearing sheds - the smell and sense of history - and the slightly sorrowful emptiness of many of them these days. I do miss living in a farming area and having such an immediate sense of agricultural working life.

Peceli and Wendy's Blog said...

I can smell the lanolin and the dags - the nostalgia of shearing sheds. My Dad was manager of two shearing sheds and we lived in the sheds and yards as kids or chased sheep down Dead Horse Lane, etc. Both sheds were on the edge of town, south and north, but now both locations are all filled in with houses or industrial buildings.
W.