Down in West Cork there are many Host Farms, a popular place for WWOOFing. Hosts are known to each other and will help each other out.
So it came to pass this summer when Host Susy injured her knee and could not shear her five sheep. To the rescue came Dolf and Julia, their close neighbours.
Dolf grew up in a WWOOF household, as his parents were Hosts for many years. Julia came WWOOFing from Canada,in the 1990s, fell in love with Dolf and never went home again.
They in turn became WWOOFing Hosts when they began to run the family farm along with their three children.
Shearing in small numbers is nice to do by hand. You get close to the sheep and they tend to trust you and relax.
So the WWOOFers, with Susy, this summer were able to learn how hand shearing is done, and have a go themselves. As you can see from the photos, the entire gang had a great time and the sheep were mighty happy to lessen their load.
The circle of WWOOFing proves to be as strong now as it was all those years ago.
