In a modern world it is hard to be truly self sufficient, but we try and various times of the year come close in a food sense. As well as our veggie garden and our cattle, we have a very productive orchard that we planted some 10 years ago with apples, pears, citrus, olives, figs and stonefruit trees.  until last year this needed regular mowing the keep it under control and reduce the numbers of - in Aussie rhyming slang - Joe Blake numbers down.

Last October we had a 9 hour road trip each way for a birthday party and to pick up three babydoll Southdown sheep to do the mowing for us. Against my expectations, these guys: Shawn, Sox and Rip van Wrinkle are lovely little fellas with individual personalities. Names obviously mean that they are not destined for the oven.

This month the local footy club held one of their annual fundraisers, a sheep shearing day. Getting a shearer to come and shear 3 sheep is nigh on impossible, so the Poowong footy club brings in three shearer’s from bigger sheep areas for the day and all the local (pet) sheep come in for a haircut to raise money for the club. A social as well as practical occasion, we caught up with many friends and neighbours. Community. The sheep are now tidy and svelte and have a few months to grow back their fleece for Winter, while minimising the risk of fleecerot and fly strike in our wet but still warm Autumn.  

Sue’s next project is, needless to say, wool spinning and felting... watch this space. 

Sweeping up the wool skirtings (the dirty trim fro the edge of the fleece)

Back home, a few kg lighter