Back in the 90’s when sheep were worth less than the price of a .22 a farmer from Badgingarra moved to our town to work for the lobster processor.
Big monster of a bloke, barrel chested, 6’2”, mullet hairstyle and a stutter that flowed like honey as he would captive us with tales of the tough times farming northwest of Badgy. Hambone was his handle.
He would usually start off with the same 2 words, fruit and currents (or something close to these two words) and it would take close to 10 seconds to spit them out before he would pause and then begin his story
He had around 600-700 sheep left and the previous lot that he had sent to market hadn’t covered his costs of cartage so he got a bloke in to shoot them. The shooter wasn’t as proficient as Hambone would of liked but he didn’t want to do the job himself ( emotional time) but on checking the progress, witnessing the substandard execution and holding onto his sanity (just) he stopped himself from beating the shooter to death with the rifle butt. Instead he jumped into the pens and started to twist heads off of bodies with tears streaming down his face.
Raising sheep in the good times is a cakewalk but as you know and I’ve been told the other end of the spectrum requires a fear nothing approach or a healthy dose of madness
Primary industries are boom and bust and all of them require a certain “Madness” in those who play the game wouldn’t you say?
