Branding lambs and pressing wool

Another long busy day.  Left for Barren at 10 o'clock in Theo.  Hadn't intended to go over until after lunch but the grib said it would get windy during the day.  Really needed to get over there before the wind as the mooring is in very shallow water and there isn't much room for error.  It was a little more difficult then usual because of the westerly wind.  Had no problems though.  Took photos on the way over as we were accompanied by dolphins in the bow wave.
Pressed up all the remaining wool as we didn't want to get the sheep in too early.  Pressed six bales today and one on the day we shore.  Got approximately 900 kilos of fleece wool and 150 kilos of bellies, stain etc.  A pretty good result from 198 ewes.
Chris went gathering at 1:30 after we had finished all the wool work.  I stayed in the shearing shed listening to my i-pod as all the cleaning up was done and there wasn't much else to do other then wait.  Rather a slow gather today it took about an hour and a half to get them back and into the pens.  Then had to draft all the lambs of again.  Branded 312 lambs with our mark of GI ready for the abattoir.  Discarded 4 as not fit.  Then we drafted the ewes again to get the rams of ready to bring over to George tomorrow.  Also drafted of this years cull ewes.  They are also in excellent condition and will go to the abattoir but they were only shorn this week and cant go until 30 days after shearing.
Left Barren as the sun was starting to set and got back to George at 8:20pm.  Lovely evening as the wind had gone down again.   Concordia Bay is anchored out ready to start work at 6:30 in the morning.  Another early morning then.
Looking forward to supper as didn't take anything for lunch thinking we would be back earlier.  As always there is always someone who thinks they are hungrier.  Today it was seven puppies and two lambs  waiting for supper and demanding they be fed first.

Barren Island shearing shed before the new roof was put on

Lastly delighted to get into the ship to shore today to be told we now have oars.  Having recently changed boats over I was a bit concerned when I got in the new one to find we had one oar and where the other one should have been was a large axe.  I did pose the question who the heck is going to row with an axe!!!!  Visions of ever increasing cirlces came to mind.  Today however the cup is no longer half empty but over flowing with a compliment of not two but three oars.