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My
Industry
Travel Theme.
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Visits back to my home town always lead me
past my parents’ woolshed.
I can remember it being built almost sixty years ago…
and the forty years of work
I was part of after leaving school.
The present owners raise cattle and so
the shearing industry is no more in ‘our’ shed.
This waas my/our woolshed.
It was run down when we purchased the land.
Many dollars and hours of time was injected into this shed
to keep it serviceable.
Imagine my surprise at seeing all the yards had been dismantled.
The door left open to the elements and another
industrial building is no longer used to
the capacity for which it was designed.
This was Dad’s hayshed. It held around 2,000 bales of hay.
Every year I would spend time pushing bales of hay (40-50kg)
up into the very top of the roof under a December/January sun.
As a teenager we would earn pocket-money hay-carting.
Not many teenagers look to hay-carting as a
means of pocket-money these days.
The hay would be used as sheep and cattle fodder.
As both these industries suffer from high costs,
low commodity prices and ageing operators…
we are seeing more of this industry spring up. Trees. Blue Gums. Eucalyptus Globulus.
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Where’s My Backpack?: Travel Theme: “Industry“
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WoollyMuses 
I loved the reminiscing as well as the further pictures of places in your memories. The sheep with its young and the blue gum trees in a line were both beautiful to see. 🙂
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I used to love seeing new born lambs as well. Nowadays seeing new borns also reminds me of the cold winter day days spent feeding and checking lambing ewes. As for the trees….much less input required from the landowner. And as one ages..that is a good thing.
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I wrote a post about my childhood babysitter who lived in the country, it’s called either lambs and bottles or bottles and lambs. My brothers and I were blessed to have baby lambs in Mrs Boos’ country kitchen and helping to feed them before the school bus arrived. 🙂
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Yes…those were the days. 😀
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Those past days sure were! 😀
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Sad to see things like this changing, really. The shots are beautiful though. A little bit of a different ‘industry’ post. Interesting, WM.
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It is sad….and thank you.
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I live on 20 Acres and being originally a city boy, hay bale gathering is something I don’t relish. I’m in my fifties and I don’t need the pocket money it gives me. Having being semi rural for 20 years now, I understand your story.
I’m thinking about running a few meat sheep like dorpers – basically lawn mowers, any pointers? Or is it not worth the effort? In December I paid a contractor to just cut the lot. For years we had a one owner, horse agistment arrangement. I didn’t know how lucky I was.
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I have not had anything to do with ‘Dorpers’ per se. However, they are bred from Dorset Downs sheep and Dorsets can be a nightmare if your fences are not secure and most of the English breeds are renowned for this trait. That comment is from experience 🙂 On 20 acres, I would be buying a few lighter conditioned sheep, and making sure that there was enough natural feed on my paddocks that would allow them to put on weight and be sold at a profit. I see a lot of effort for little financial reward. Whereas I am sure that there would someone else looking for an paddock to lease. You get paid for little or no work. I am in my 60s and I know which I prefer….so may be biased.
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Thanks for that good advice. Some agistees have awfully bad habits, especially not paying. I was lucky with my one horse owner. I was also thinking small cattle like dexters, but I will need yards, albeit small ones. I think I’ll just use the insurance fence money on cutting and some baling for horsey friends. Cheers.
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That sounds like a plan. Sounds like you may have caught up in fires as well? Hope all is well
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Yes, we did get caught up last year https://regionalcognisance.wordpress.com/category/equinox-update/
But all is well now thank you
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You were lucky. Glad to hear all is going well now. Looks like we may have a cooler summer than predicted…although we stil have February to contend with.
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Great photos and story. You must have been very fit as a young man. The reason why our All Blacks were so good was because many of them were farmers and their physical work made them really fit for the game. You are right though that young people today wouldn’t do this work at all. Both my children have held down the same job for 2 and 3 years – in a shop. Their bosses have said it was rare to see young people willing to work long hours for little money. They have had the kids stealing from the tills and not wanting to do any cleaning. My children are just so grateful to have a job at all. 😀
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I did not know that many of the All Blacks were ‘country kids’. Looking back I know that I was a lot fitter, as is everyone in their 20s and 30s. It is good to hear of and meet youngsters who have developed a good work ethic. So many teens do not know how much it benefits their future.
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