Chill pill needed

Extracted from the Farm Tender weekly Newsletter - Sign up and get the email every Wednesday morning before 6 am. www.farmtender.com.au

By Dwain Duxson

I have taken the week off my normal duties at Farm Tender and DelayPay to help with the Shearing. We have 400 Wethers, which arrived a month ago and were supposed to be shorn before they came, but the lack of Shearers meant that didn't happen.

I managed to find a Shearer locally who does about 120 a day. So I am chief dagger and Paula, my wife is chief Roustabout and Classer.

After I finished my dagging duties for the day, I took over Paula's role, and as most of you would know, Roustabouting for one is not heavy work.

It got me thinking, and I asked myself the question. Has today been the best use of my time? I mean, yes, the Sheep needed Shearing, and who else was going to do the jobs that go with having a Shearer come.

I guess I felt a little bit of guilt as I have been doing what I do for years and am always present. But the Farm Tender and DelayPay teams didn't (and don't) miss a beat when I'm not there, so why should I feel guilty?

It's probably a Farmer thing, whereby you are always going, always doing and always busy.

It also might be a bit of FOMO.

I have to look at it like it's a good opportunity to do something different, contribute in another way and use the time as time away and refreshing the batteries.

I will make sure I am much better today.

Our little Woolshed has next to no phone service, and one of the things I am used to is having all the info in real-time. That didn't happen yesterday.

So what is meaningful work? And my thoughts concluded that it's up to each individual to decipher that their work is meaningful.

So my jobs today are: first is to get this newsletter out, then attend to all the Shearing Shed matters.

And hey, I was stuffed last night, and my body feels like it's did something yesterday, so that will do....

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