It must have rained over the weekend and the sheep wet , as on the monday we walked to the river , which was about 1/2 mile away, and in my new shearing boots too, trying to break them in.
The soil there was really black and sticky and before going very far my height had increased considerably. Also being very naive , I was very worried about the wild life , as I had heard stories of the wild pigs , specially the boars with their long tusks ,chasing people ,but I kept my eyes open and thank gawd we never seen any, also goannas had heard stories about them too. I know that I was a country boy, but the animals were tame there in comparison, just an emu or three ,kangaroos by the score . snakes and many other reptiles, that not bother me one iota.
We had intentions of catching a yabbie or two, think they maybe your crawfish, we had the meat and every thing else we needed, only wanted the yabbies to be kind to us, the river was flowing quite fast and also a banker so we just sat around and yarned, while we were yarning a goanna came along to see what we were gabbing about , and seeing that he not understand our lingo ,he decided to climb a tree , but us intrepid hunters reckoned that, that was no place for a goanna so threw a few stones at it, and eventually it fell into the river and swam to the other side out of our reach, that was another thing I learned ,goannas can swim.
Eventually the sheep must have dried out , as the cocky yarded them up ,and had a shed full, when sheep are wet shearers wont shear them as it is injurious to their health, although they never really affected me, I was shearing with a bloke that I only had to look at when the sheep were even a little damp, his eyes would become all puffy anf his face all flushed, so then I knew it was time to pull out of gear.
Next morning i arose and done what I had to ,and then walked into the kitchen at 6.30am , the cook always has every thing cooked at that time , so I would always get freshly cooked whatever it was that we were having for breakfast, some blokes would not come for breakfast till after 7. am and by that time the tucker was not to my liking.
I usually had cereal or porridge, then eggs and bacon and sometimes a chop, after breakfast would wander up to the shed and suss the sheep out, when all the shearers were in the shed then we had to draw for stands, that is where the shearer worked , this shed only had four shearers, we also had to elect a union rep, and think I was the poor bloke that they chose.
At 7.30 am the boss rang the bell to start the run, we each caught a sheep and dragged it out onto the board and into it, not having shorn for about 8 months I was very green and the other blokes were also, the sheep were very tough shearing and I on the first day only shore 80 but was still the fastest there , the sheep were that tough that I bunged my wrist up and was bathing it in metho to try and get it right, I could not bend my wrist at all and a shearer uses his wrist all the time , and whenever I had to change the position of my handpiece , had to stop and use other hand, but it eventually came good.
It usually takes a few days for all the muscles to be stretched ,seems like it was r=every muscle in the body would be stiff and sore the next morning, also for the first week or so the back would ache like blazes, I was very fortunate as after I was run in my back never ached at all ,some blokes suffered agony with their bad backs.
A day in the life of this shearer, out of bed at 6.00am or a little earlier , walk into the cook house at 6.30, have breakfast then wander up to the shed , start the run at 7.30, shear until 9.00am have smoko tea and sandwiches and a scone or two, 9.30 into it again shear another two hours until 12.00, have dinner , I preferred a light dinner cold meat and a salad ,but had to have dessert though , ice cream and jelly and fruit.
Have an hour for dinner, then at 1.00pm would start shearing again until 3..00 pm then have 1/2 hour smoko again , then shear again till 5.30pm knockoff time ,u little beauty, wander back to huts and have a beer ,but those days I not drink so must only have had water, loll around yakking trying to get enough energy to have a shower, and wash out our dungarees, 6.00pm was tea time ,the cook would have a roast and veges and of course more sweets, after tea the cards would come out and we would play a hand or two of poker, 10.00pm lights out. so there ya'll have it