!956 was a very wet year, after i finished putting the crop in ,decided to go shearing in a big shed
This shed called Nonning had quite a few sheep , 40- 50.000, ,so that meant would have been late april early june when I was there
Woke up one monday morning and it was raining, and it rained for three whole days, the huts were in between two creeks so that we were isolated,
The shed only holds 50 a man so just after morning smoko we had finished all the dry sheep, well we could go nowhere so just had to settle down to, just eating and playing cards.
The huts consited of rooms each for teo, and down the end was the cook house and the mess
and across the way was the common room where we played cards or what ever took our fancy,anyway we were playing cards this time , and the chimney started to smoke, one of the card players accused another odf putting a bag over the chimney to make it smoke,well a few words were bandied about, when all of a sudden this bloke let go with a haymaker
but other bloked ducked and he smashed his fist into the open louvres, dont know if u know waht louvres are but it made a mess of his knuckles, so that was the end of that barney.This shed was what is called a split board , the shed it self was in the shape of a T
the top part of the T was on one end with 5 shearers then the table (s) where the fleeces were skirted to rid of all the not so good wool ,then past that another 5 shearers
, and down the other part of T was the wool room
and the wool press..
Most sheds have two shearers catching out of one pen ,but some you have only one . here I had a learner as a pen mate and I was shearing four sheep to his one
either I was very fast or he very bloody slow
.
.I didn't stay for the end of the shearing as had to go home and begin my local run, but when I left I had shorn 2700 myself, forget how long we were there..
Every year they have a football and netball carnival in Pt Lincoln the teams come from all over the coast to play ,from far away as 200 miles, any way I set sail to go to this, and u must remember this is before tarred roads, i was slipping and sliding all over the road and finally it got the better of me ,so detoured around all this waterlogged roadwent up into the higher country
, I made it.
met upi with girl friend and when carnival was over decided that it be better if I took her home ,plus her brother of course
had to have chaperone
her home was perhaps 150 miles ,,so away we go , at that time I had and english make motor car
they just have to smell water and they stop .but now and again the water was over mudguards, (fenders )19 hours later we pulled into girlfriends house ,and her mother was waiting with , better not say.
Excuse all the errors as I never read what I write as if do , would not post, and this one I am half cut as I am writing, sorry
Emu