Simon Pomfret enjoys the open space on his Bargo acreage with one of his two labradors, Chuck. Pictures: DAVE TEASE
Simon Pomfret relaxes with one of his four greyhounds, Where’s Ryan, in his shed.
When Simon Pomfret wants to chill out, he heads to his large Colorbond shed on his Bargo acreage.
It’s not exactly a men’s shed because it’s occupied by two females known in racing circles as Truth Unknown and Behave Peach.
Pomfret, chief number cruncher at Illawarra Regional Information Service, trains and breeds greyhounds and, thanks to Truth Unknown, has a few wins under his belt. The ‘‘girls’’ share the space with Trunks and Where’s Ryan, named after Pomfret’s eight-year-old son.
‘‘It’s an outlet which I’ve dabbled in for a number of years with my brother Paul,’’ says Pomfret.
He and the family moved to the four-bedroom house that sits on just over half an hectare, two years ago from Tarrawanna.
‘‘We had spent a little time in Bargo visiting friends and we really liked the open space,’’ he recalls.
Pomfret says he was too excited about the shed initially and thought of it as a place to park the cars and store a lot of rubbish.
‘‘It sort of evolved when I transferred the greyhounds from the trainers’ property to here,’’ he says.
Pomfret feeds, weighs and massages the dogs indoors and allows them out twice a day to exercise.
He also has two labradors, Chuck and Lucy.
Sometimes he just likes to zone out from the daily grind of facts and figures by pulling up a chair beside their pens with a glass of wine to give them a pep talk.
‘‘I try to encourage them,’’ he laughs, ‘‘and the only statistics I think about in that space is their weight and times.’’
He insists the shed has nothing to do with carpentry skills ‘‘because I’m not good at that sort of thing’’.
It is, however, fitted with a pool table and a bar fridge.
‘‘If I had a lazy $10,000, I’d fit it with air conditioning because it gets hot in summer – that’s about the only thing it needs.’’