You all know how fascinated I am with Sheep Shearing. It's just one of those jobs around the farm that I can spend a whole day watching. Seeing a skilled clipper take off the wool in one piece without leaving any marks on the animal is akin to poetry to me. It's an artform.
When I was in elementary we read a book called 'The Sundowners' about a depression era family who travelled from sheep farm to sheep farm to make money during the sheering season.
Little did I know there was an actual movie version of this novel. In all the things I ever was shown from grades K-12, there was NOTHING that had my focused attention like that movie did. I still can't tell you why I loved it so much. I just did.
When they asked us in those beginning of the year questionnaires what we wanted to be when we grew up I always put 'sheep shearer' which inevitably led to the teaching trying to convince me to shoot for a more lofty career goal - like maybe President or astronaut. Astronaut never appealed to me because I knew that there weren't any sheep on the moon.
I loved my first trip to Australia because my Brother-in-Law had arranged for me to go to his buddies farm where they were doing the yearly sheering. He thought I was joking all these years and would get caught in a lie.
To see those woolly creatures as we approached the pens made me squeel like a tween at a Justin Bieber concert. Being able to get that close to the operation and seeing how must skill it took to do right - well I was in heaven. Leaving the farm that night depressed me because I knew that all the wishing in the world would not make a 24/7 sheep shearing channel a reality.
The top picture reminded me that sheep are not perfect. They do have a nasty habit of hogging their time at the water fountain. It's like they are oblivious to the thirst of others.
So tell me, is there anyone else there that has a weird fascination with something in this world. It may be pizza guys throwing the dough into the hair to create the circular crust or a cop using a tazer gun to bring down an unruly suspect. What can you watch all day long regardless of how people would react to your truth?
