I started learning something new today. I'm about to become a wool handler with a shearing gang, and this morning we had some training. The six or seven other girls have already been out with the gang working - mostly pre-lambing, which I gather has shorter wool - so I was the only one completely new to it. Not only that, but I am at least six years older than all of them, and I'm pretty sure that one or two are only sixteen. Makes me feel old. A foretaste of next year, no doubt.
It will probably take me a full day's work to get my head around the shearing lingo. 'Frib' has me the most puzzled at present. As far as I can make out, it's the dirty bits around the edges that get put by themselves. And the act of removing them from the fleece after it has been laid out on the table is called 'skirting'.
Today's training was actually to prepare the girls for a wool handlers' competition in Gisborne this coming weekend, but it went a long way towards showing me what was what as well. Hopefully I'll be able to see the real thing in action tomorrow before pitching headlong into paid work.
I was quite nervous about it before today, but now I think I'll cope just fine. It certainly looks a lot more interesting than kiwifruit!
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