How to make your neighbours laugh at you....,

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

I had a post all ready in my mind "move over Mcleod's daughters" I was going to title it - & I was going to say how good Nita & I are with the animals (you know a bit of self- promotion!LOL) - unfortunately I can't...
This all started when our neighbour came & said he would shear our sheep for us - would we like to have them done in the paddock? - Well me being me said 'oh Nita & I'll move them up to the shearing shed ourselves' - to which our neighbour laughed at me & said 'it's easier to move 300 sheep than 3' (yes we only had 3 sheep needing shearing). So on Friday Nita, Ellie & I moved the sheep - it all went smoothly - the only complication was that Whitey our cow (who stays with these 3 sheep most of the time) insisted on coming too (to the point of jumping a fence & getting his foot stuck!) So that was a smooth operation - what country girls we are (we joked)!
Dave & I even gave shearing a go ( none of the city folk would try) - oh & the blood isnt' from me. I only did a little bit - it's definitely a learned art!!


Dave did a bit of the black sheep - these are quite hard to shear as they have black wool & black skin - making it difficult to see when you have skin. Thankfully our neighbour is a very experienced shearer (I actually think the white sheep came off worse than the black ones!)
Our neighbour also has about 200 odd sheep on our place ( we get him to put them on to eat down the weeds etc.) & we wanted them moved into another paddock - of course he ( I think he was laughing inside) said that since we handled the sheep moving (3) operation so well, could we do it for him - of course we said - 3 girls, we can handle anything (never ever ever say that - we will NEVER live it down!)
Well we tried - first we took Zai & Ellie to help us. The sheep were in our biggest paddock (50 acres) So Nit & I went to the far end & pushed them up (this means we ran behind them & yelled) - unfortunately sheep are stupid - little Ellie can turn a whole herd of sheep. Enough said.
Next try we got rid of the kids & pulled out the big guns (well the quad bike) - So we tried. It was much easier pushing them, but the ah, hem sheep would get up to the place we wanted them & just refused to go through the opening in the fence. This happened 10 times (it's true - determination & perseverance are strong in our family!) So all we had to show for an afternoons work was sore muscles & ourselves covered in dust (I've never been so dirty in my life) .

Of course our neighbour got them in second try the next morning ( we prefer to say that we had the sheep so well trained by that point, it was easy for him - nothing about skill & experience - LOL)

As for McLeod's daughters - well all the farmers laugh at that show anyway!!

13 comments:

Mum-me said...

What a funny story. At least you got your exercise for the next week (or three!)

We holidayed on a sheep farm last year. Our children had a great time trying to herd the sheep. HB and I laughed ourselves silly watching them rounding up sheep on their pushbikes.

Anonymous said...

btw...nity has discovered that the words Babe used to round up the sheep were completely false....she was yelling 'Baa Ram Ewe' at them and they completely ignored her!!! They ("Renata & Nity) looked hilarious and the photo does not do justice to the amount of dirt they were wearing. A couple of times Nity was so exhausted that she literally lay down on the ground (yep the same that a couple of hundred sheep had run over) on her back (yes the same one who spends a considerable time doing her her before school!!!).....They were both exhausted - poor things - but then again sheep aren't very smart!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Renata, you are a brave woman! I would be WAY too chicken to even attempt shearing a sheep. I'm a nervous wreck when I do a little thing like clipping my kid's fingernails, because I'm so paranoid about cutting them!

Kate said...

You two are so cute. And your hair even looks good like the McLeod's chicks!! :P :P xx

debi9kids said...

LOL! Great story.
I love that you aren't afraid to try :) It's half the battle right there ;)
All I kept picturing in my head while reading this is that scene in Babe when he tries to move the stubborn sheep . LOL

16 blessings'mom said...

Sounds like me trying to get my kids out the door for school in the morning! You girls are great, you can still smile after all that....

Mummy McTavish said...

I just laughed when I got to the last photo and it was you two girls with a sheep in the background completely ignoring you. Would have loved to be sitting on a fence watching the whole thing. though I probably wouldnt be able to resist joining in;)

Cheryl Lage said...

Love the glimpse into an adventure I doubt I'll ever have! You wear it so well!

SF said...

Renata, you are amazing!!!!
What a life, what wonderful experiences you are having out there. Well done! Love the photo of you and Nita. :)

Frizzy said...

A day of hard work you'll never forget. How long did the water run black at the bottom of the shower? That is always a testimate of how hard you worked in the field/barn etc.

Deanna said...

Oh what a cute story!!! WAY to go with shearing the sheep not so sure I could ever do that!!!

And what a sweet photo of the two of you :)

Kimmie said...

as a non-sheep shearer...wow, that looks hard. I don't think I could have got past the blood.

Looks like you have nice neighbors though...yeah to that!

Do you have plans for the wool?

Kimmie
mama to 6
one homemade and 5 adopted

Anonymous said...

Why Renata, who is that stunningly gorgeous, super hot and unbelievably beautiful girl in the photo with you???
;-)

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