Monday 29th July – day 77

Monday means one thing … water run.  Bit different this time as we got to make sure all the weaners are happy over in their new paddock.  They’re looking pretty well settled, going off in little groups exploring the place.  A couple managed to get into the fenced off section around Dribbling Bore…. Gave James and myself a bit of a workout running around after them trying to get them out.  One managed to get out relatively easily, but the other gave us some trouble.  In the end we managed to catch him and had to drag him to the fence.  Not wanting to have to chase weaners around here on a regular basis we decided to tighten the fence up a bit.  (Seems to have worked as haven’t caught any in here since).  It’s great seeing all the weaners out in the paddock, looking healthy and happy.  I took a few photos of them enjoying their new surroundings…  After getting back from the water run and having some lunch we headed out to feed the small weaners who are still living up in the yards.  We then did another round of prickle tree spraying before calling it quits for the day.

Tuesday 30th July – day 78

Did a couple of rounds of prickle tree spraying this morning.  This is still one of my less favourite things to do.  Somehow I always manage to get stuck in the prickle bushes, which may not sound too bad but boy do these things have prickles!!  Some have prickles that are long enough and strong enough to make sewing needles out of – so it can be pretty painful when you get stuck in them!  At one point the bush had me by the scruff of the neck, the tops of both my arms, my hat and the backs of my legs.  Not fun, although I have noticed that some of the trees I sprayed earlier in the month have started to die off, so I feel like I am getting some revenge.  After lunch we walked cows from Yanganjerry water tank over to the green water tank in Nora Creek.  The purpose was mainly just to open up the paddocks and give them more food options…. It took us about three hours to walk these cows between paddocks, pretty slow going and it was hot too.  One old cow decided she’d had enough and decided to sit down in a creek.  Tried our best to get her moving again but she would just not budge so I decided to leave her behind and that we would check on her first thing in the morning.

Wednesday 31st July – day 79

So first thing we did today was drive out and check on the cow from yesterday.  I had all my fingers and toes crossed that she had decided to get up in the night, but unfortunately she was still sat where we had left her.  In these instances we do our best to try and get the cow up on their feet, if we don’t then more often than not they will stay down and die/get attacked by crows and other wild animals.  It’s not easy getting big cows up on their feet, and it’s impossible to do by hand, so James ended up having to drive the loader over all the bumpy mountain, sorry Mitchell Grass.  The next thing we had to do was wrap two chains around the cows belly, whilst dodging her head/leg (as they can still whack you pretty good even when they’re sat on their arse!).  Once the chains were around the belly and attached to the loader, James lifted the loader arm up picking up the cow, and as soon as her hooves were on the ground and she had taken her weight, James had to drop the loader arm and then she just casually walked out of the chains and was off on her merry way, with a cheeky look behind her like nothing had happened.…. I guess sometimes we all need a bit of help getting up!  Once we’d driven the loader back we did a round of prickle tree spraying and then after lunch we moved some cows into a new paddock, and did a quick check of the dams.

Thursday 1st August – day 80

Spent the morning on a water run, the weaners in North Paddock are certainly enjoying their weaner feed, greedy little so and so’s!! After lunch we headed out to Yanganjerry to move some cows into Nora Creek – theses were ones that we must have missed on Tuesday. It was another hot ol’ day so again these ladies were a bit slow to move.  Took us just over 3 hours, I was glad to get back home and out of the sun!

Friday 2nd August – day 81

Did two rounds of prickle tree spraying in the morning, still getting stuck in the prickles L not fun!  But at least with James here we can share the load a bit.  After lunch we did the usual daily tasks, checking the weaners and dams.  As its Friday we headed over to McKinlay town for a spot of Friday night tennis.  Wasn’t too much of a late one as saving it up for the weekend and the Cloncurry Merry Muster …

Saturday 3rd August – day 82

Picked up Jasper and Amy on route to Cloncurry, and we stopped off at Anthill Jonny to paint his face on.  Hopefully Jonny will be happy with it!!  Spent the day and night at the Merry Muster, and had a fantastic day/night watching all the bull riders, steer wrestlers, ropers and bareback riders.  How some of those guys can stay on the bulls/horses I don’t know.  As ever the after party in the dirt with a live band was good fun .. although I think most of us had just one too many rums!!

Sunday 4th August – day 83

We stayed over night in the Post Office Hotel, Cloncurry, and seems that everyone managed to make their way back ok!  Took it easy getting up and out of the rooms and then we drove out to Chinaman Dam just outside of Cloncurry Township.  It was a beautiful day (although they are always sunny out here!)  but the best thing was just being near a large(ish) body of water …. Ohh how I do miss the sea! 

Monday 5th August – day 84

Bad things happen in 3’s right?  Monday = water run.  So myself and James got into the Nissan and realised we better fill up (as all in all the whole water run is over 100kms).  Got to the diesel pump and James noticed that the diesel was coming out rather sluggish …. Low and behold we have run out of diesel … which made me panic a bit.  Especially seeing as we use diesel for;

-          The ute, car, loader etc

-          For the back up generator (Should power go out)

-          To mix with poison to spray prickle trees

-          Etc etc …

Oh well not much I can do about that … maybe it will give us some time off spraying prickle trees!!  Anyway we carried on with the water run … all was fine until we got out on to the tarmac where I proceeded to completely smash the windscreen by hitting a rather large eagle at about 100km/ph.  Bugger –that’s number 2.  Didn’t have any choice but to carry on along the road and back home where we switched into the other Ute … which had sufficient fuel to get us around the remainder of our water run, thankfully.  Once we finally got back (in one piece) from the water run we headed up to feed the weaners in the yard and number 3 happened, as one little steer had died :( .   Not a good day!!!!

Tuesday 6th August – day 85

We had been noticing that the little weaners up in the yards have sores/scabs on them and that they seemed to be scratching a lot.  In order to combat this myself and James set out in the morning to de-lice and worm the weaners.  It was relatively easy to do as it was an external de-licer (not injectable)  Fingers crossed once they have got rid of their lice/worms they will pick up a bit.  Unfortunately the lack of diesel has not meant the end of prickle tree spraying as it turns out that there was a pod full of some dirty (i.e. cant be used in vehicles) diesel laying around.  James and I just needed to rig it up so that we could fill up the poison tank, once that was done we headed out twice to attack the prickle trees .. wooooooo!!

Wednesday 7th August – day 86

What better way to start your day than with two bouts of prickle tree spraying!?  Not much more to say about that – I think you all know my feelings about prickle trees!!  After lunch we gave the wagon a good (and well needed) clean, inside and out … man I never realised just how shiny the wagon could be, it was almost blinding in the sunshine!!  Seeing as it was pretty filthy it took us a while to get it so shiny, left me just enough time to get a bit of housework done (ready for the arrival of Tony H – a friend of Luke’s who will be coming to help out during his week off from the mine).

Thursday 8th August – day 87

Today we set out on the water run, started early to ensure we had enough time to drive out to Cloncurry to do a weekly food shop.  On the way back from doing the shopping we stopped in to pick up Tony, our new housemate for the next week. 

Friday 9th August – day 88

Drove Tony out  to Beaudessert Lane Paddock today to familiarise him with the area.  Tony then set about grading the road through the paddock.  He made loads of progress in just one day the road was way smoother!  Good work!  Whilst Tony was out making the roads of Colwell safe, James and I did yet more prickle bush spraying …. I would get a photo of it for you, but I’m not sure I want to remember it! 

p.s. anyone else noticed what day it is? … I made it to day 88/ 3 months so I should now be able to apply for my second year visa!  After having been so terrified of leaving Melbourne to do this, all I can say is I have had the most amazing time and have not regretted coming out here one bit!!  Best decision ever maybe!?  Anyways the hard work is not done yet, as I will stay for a bit longer (plan is to stay until end of September) to help out Luke (who will be in a sling for at least 6 weeks following his shoulder op)…. I wonder what the next adventure in Oz will be ???

 

Monday 22nd July – day 70

Drafted the weaners today separating the little/slightly wobbly on their feet ones from the bigger healthier weaners who will be making the 25+km walk over to Nulgra in a few days.  We then drafted the larger ones again checking through to make sure they were all branded, ear marked, had been dehornedand for the boys … cut (sorry fellas!)  There were a fair few that needed this treatment, so got a chance to practice branding, also did the ear marking and had a few goes at dehorning … I still think it seems pretty brutal, and depending on the size of the existing horns you either have to use a double edged knife to cut the horn and skin around it out, or for larger horns you have to use ‘super scoops’.  These are like large sharp nut crackers,  I found them easier to use than the knife and got a cleaner cut out of the horn… only thing is that the larger the horns are when you cut them out the more bloody it all is – I felt like I was in the middle of some Quentin Tatantino film with blood squirting all over the place :S , despite this the weaners soon hop up and are back running about like nothing happened, I think I end up more traumatised than they do!

Tuesday 23rd July – day 71

James and I headed out this morning to do the water run.  I love getting out and doing the water run, I had been enjoying doing it on my own since Nena left -  was a great way to relax and have some thinking time whilst driving through the paddocks …. However having another person along again has been great – not just because I no longer have to struggle lifting the 40kg lick bags, but also because it means I get to play Monopoly deal again (whilst we sit and wait for one of the tanks to fill up).  Sadly I seem to have taught James how to play too well, and he has taken to smashing me at it L …  Next time I introduce someone to the game I will ensure that I only give them the basic tips and tricks!!   After lunch, and getting over my Monopoly defeats, we started to walk the big weaners over towards Nulgra.  Luke made the decision that it would be best to walk them in two stages so we only took them over the road and left them overnight at a holding paddock.  This is about 1/3rd of the total journey they will be making, but was still a fair old walk and took about 3 hours.  I do often wish that cows would all just walk in a straight line and stop trying to eat the bloody grass, but I guess they can’t really help it – after all it is part of their nature!!  By the end of this I was pretty shattered, and a little bit fed up of being on my bike, although that may have been due to the fact that I had a few falls off – they were all super slow and it was mostly because I hit a rut at an awkward angle, which normally wouldn’t result in falling off, but I was so tired that I just couldn’t hold the bike up when this happened so I ended up dropping my bike a few times.  Ooops…

Wednesday 24th July – day 72

Early start today as we needed to get the weaners all the way to Nulgra by the end of the day.  What little troopers they were too, all but one managed the rest of the walk.  For the one that couldn’t walk all the way, I had to grab and tie its legs up so that Luke could go back to pick him up in the truck and drop him off at the final destination.  Apart from that we only had one iffy moment where the weaners decided to take the hardest route across one of the creeks.  It was like watching Lemmings dropping over a cliff!! We had to drag a couple of the weaker ones up the banks which was hard work; it was then even more challenging working out how to safely get ourselves and our motorbikes up and out of the sandy, steep sided creek, but I made it, and I didn’t fall off!! (this time anyway!)  I will admit to getting very fed up at several other points during the day;  the ground was very difficult to ride on (sandy with lots of bumpy mitchell grass and hidden holes) and I got stuck a fair few times.  Luke witnessed one of my little paddys when I fell off (again at super slow speed) – I came very close to kicking the damn bike, but resorted to sitting on my ass with the bike in front of me and pounding the ground with my very angry fists!  Apparently Luke found this sight rather amusing…  Finally we got them to their new paddock, and it only took us from 7am unti?!) is actually broken from being sat on a motorbike for all that time!!  Never mind once we were home it was time to hit the shower and get over the aches and pains in order to head to McKinlay and the Walkabout Pub for farewell drinks for Jonny.  You would have thought that after all this time spent travelling I am better at saying goodbye to people … unfortunately not L  I still hate saying goodbye (even when I know people are headed off to have more adventures and fun).  McKinlay will be losing a fabulous chef and I’m losing my doubles partner.  It’s going to be weird not having Jonny around, but here’s to wishing him an awesome time in Thailand and all the best for the future.

Thursday 25th July – day 73

Early start this morning as we had to leave at 7am to drop Luke off at Cannington Mine for his flight to Townsville.  He will now be away for at least two weeks whilst he attends his sisters wedding and then has an op on his shoulder (to stop it popping out all the time – yuck).  Whilst he is away it will just be myself and James looking after things and so I can now officially add Station Manager to my CV – how cool is that?!

Our first task was supposed to be simple … moving the bulls into Ram paddock (just one paddock over from where they are currently staying).  As I’ve mentioned before the bulls are really well behaved, they’re just a bit slow and lazy when it comes to being mustered up.  Hahahahahaha famous last words!! Today one bull had clearly got up on the wrong side of the prickle bush and was doing everything in its power to misbehave.  Started off by putting his head down and puffing a bit, which is normal behaviour for bulls that just can’t be arsed to move.  The best thing to do in this instance is to drive head onto them with the quadbike and push them back until they give up and walk in the right direction.  I started doing that with this bull (now named Nicholas…. Aka Nasty Nick… aka Dick(head) ) and all seemed to go to plan, but then he got a little bit peppy and decided to run in the opposite direction to where we wanted him to go, and where all the other bulls were slowly but compliantly walking to.  James and I took persuit to get him in the right direction but he was having none of it.  He started putting his head down and running a little bit at us, I persevered with the quadbike but when he turned and landed a hefty hoof on the front of my bike I took the executive decision to lay off him and let him run the way he wanted.  After all he was running towards a holding paddock that had a gate into the paddock we wanted him to go in.  So once Nick had helpfully run himself into the holding area, we tried again, leaving the gate to the correct paddock wide open for him.  He was still having none of it, and started to actually charge at James who was on a motorbike. All I can say is thank god I was on the 4 wheeler, not being a super confident motorbike rider  I would have most probably  wet myself if I had been in that situation!!  Thankfully James being a bit of a pro on the bike seemed to take it in his stride and even commented that he thought the bull would be faster – from where I was sat it looked more than fast enough!!  So after dodging a very narky Nick we tried once more to get him toward the correct gate.  Sadly the wind must have changed and he must have got a whiff of the ladies who had just come into the next door paddock for a morning drink.  Next thing we know Nick has kamikaze rolled through the fence and is now in with the ladies.  At which point I just thought, maybe I won’t be putting “Station Manager” on my CV after all!!  The area that Nick had rolled into had a gate open which would allow him out into one of the larger paddocks giving him access to a number of poor cows who, having only just gotten rid of their greedy weaners, would be very unhappy to receive him and his habits!  I then whizzed over to the said open gate, jumped off and shut it as fast as humanly possible… all the while Nick was pacing and staring at me and was not that far away.  Thankfully he didn’t have the foresight to run at the gate (otherwise I would have been well and truly flattened, with Nick shaped hoof prints).  Contained… again…we then tried to separate Nick from the ladies who were unfortunately trapped in the paddock with him … the wuss just kept hiding behind the ladies and randomly charging at James when he got too close.  Not wanting to push him too much (and cause him to jump through another fence) we decided to leave him in with the ladies and headed home for a bit to let him cool off. After all Nick has been in a paddock with only other bulls for the last couple of weeks, you can’t blame him for getting a bit of Prison Fever.

Anyways the whole point of moving the fellas was so that we could put some lick out for them and help them put some weight on.  (Some were starting to look a bit skinny and I was getting particularly concerned about Phill, the lovely bull from Irrigation Paddock who seems to have lost a lot of weight).  Anyways James and I set to cutting and cleaning up a new pod to put their feed in and after lunch drove the feed and tubs out for the bulls.  With regards to Nasty Nick we had to separate him from the cows, if that wasn;t possible then we were going to have to walk them all up the laneway into the yards and then separate them that way…. Not a prospect I favoured, as that would have involved getting up close and personal with Nick, on foot and in a confined space!! Fortunately when we got there the ladies had snuck away from him and we were able roar in and push them out of the gate away from him.  He started to realise what we were doing, but fortunately but that point it was too late as I had blocked the gate with the Toyota.  I still had to jump out and shut the gate, which was a little bit scary, even with the Nissan between me and pissy Nick.  We then tried to coax him into the correct paddock, hoping that he would be better behaved without the women there to show off to.  Nope, he was still having none of it.  He even had a go at the Nissan – I wish I had taken a video as he actually put his head down and was pawing at the ground ready to charge.  Again not wanting to wind him up and cause him to jump fences we decided to leave him in the paddock with the gate to his new paddock left open.  We then dropped of the feed tubs and lick – feeling a little uneasy and checking over our shoulders (fearing Nick had decided to follow us in and eat us!).  Once the food was out we headed out around 4mile to check the dam and said a little prayer to the cattle god, hoping that in the time we were away Nick would have smelt the lick, seen reason, and moved over to the new paddock.  Halleluiah!!  By the time we got back he had seen the error of his ways and moved off into the new paddock, and I could breathe a huge sigh of relief…. Station Manager back on CV … maybe?!

All I can say is what a day that turned out to be!!

Friday 26th July – day 74 

Spent the morning out on a water run.  Managed to not get a total ass whooping in Monopoly Deal – think it ended up 2 games a piece.  As part of the run we did an extra bit of a loop around North Paddock to check on the Weaners that we walked over on Wednesday.  It’s great seeing them out and about and not just stuck in the yards.  They all looked happy and suitably round so that was a relief.  After lunch James and I started to fix up a Nissan tyre (which had blown earlier that week during the water run).  The tyres on the trucks have inner tubes and unfortunately the tube that blew was pretty much in pieces so we weren't able to just simply patch it up.  The rust guard had also completely fallen apart and we couldn't find a replacement one, so thus ended the attempt to fix the tyre as we will need to get some extra parts in town before we can put it all back together.  Feeling a little deflated (haha get it!)  we headed out for a drive around 4 mile paddock fixing up holes.  Found a fair few bits of fence backing onto neighbouring properties that needed some TLC.  Hopefully now those bits are fixed up we won’t get any more of the neighbor's cows in our area. 

Guess what … it’s Friday so off to tennis we went.  Yup it was definitely weird without Jonny.  Turns out myself and Amy make a reasonable partnership, comfortably beating Jasper and James.  Sadly the same cannot be said about myself and James … I may need to pay for him to get some lessons, as I don’t think I can stand losing to Jasper every week!!

p.s. Again, sorry James !! :P 

Saturday 27th July – day 75

Lie in, James checked on the weaners, who were all ok.  We then drove into Cloncurry to do the weekly food shopping and also to pick up a new inner tube and rust belt for the tyre.  Picked up two extras on the way (Cameron and Amy), so it ended up being a fun roadtrip into town.  Jonny had left behind a fair few clothes so Amy bought them with her to drop off at Vinnies (charity shop).  On route however there are a number of large ant hills, some of which have been dressed up/painted …. I think we may have created a new tradition- anyone that leaves must supply an outfit to be used to dress up an ant hill and immortalise their time in McKinlay!! As it was a bit of a spur of the moment decision we didn't have anything to make a face with, so ant Jonny is still a work in progress.  Hopefully he will appreciate the thought!  Didn't get up to much in Cloncurry town other than getting in the weekly food shop.  Dropped Amy off on the way past McKinlay and Cameron came back to ours for the night, I cooked spaghetti and we showed him around some of the station (whilst checking in on 4 mile dam) .. spent the rest of the night watching a film and having a few beverages. 

Sunday 28th July – day 76

Got up and the three of us checked in on the weaners and then we headed out on the motorbikes to show Cameron around (in daylight).  Popped in to check on 4 mile dam and had a look in over at the bulls.  Cameron was having a great time on the bike so decided to take him through the big open in House Dam (which is pretty rough stuff).  Usually we ride on the cattle pads to try and make it a bit of a smoother road – Cam apparently likes it rough as he decided to just zoom across the rough, with the biggest smile on his face ever!! Once we’d waved Cameron off we headed over to the workshop to fix up one of the car tyres.

 

I'm alive!!  Super sorry for taking forever to post on here again, I got a little bit lazy for a couple of weeks, then it seemed like a huge task to catch up ... and then the internet decided to be bad and not let me on.  I won't bombard you will all my millions of stories all at once - so it's going to take a few days to get up to date.  Today happens to be my 87th day!  So I have very nearly done all I need to in order to get my second year visa ...thing is I love it so much out here I think I'm going to stay a little while longer!!  Anyway, enough of that what's been going on at the Station???

Friday 5th July – day 53

Yay my favourite thing to do …. Fixing bike tyres :S  I will confess to jumping on youtube for a quick refresher how to get the damn wheel off the rim – but once that was sorted I managed the rest ok.  After lunch Luke and I headed out to Nulgra and South Paddock to round up the camels out there (as the camel man is coming over to take some away and drop new ones off)  Headed out on the motorbike to do this, I am starting to feel a bit more confident, although need to practice standing up and riding at a reasonable speed – as it makes it a hell of a lot more comfortable when riding over rough country!  As ever headed into town for Friday night tennis, the social highlight of the week. J  

Saturday 6th July – day 54

Bit more of a relaxed day.  Fed the weaners in the morning and did the obligatory dam checks but that was about it.  We went into McKinlay town in the evening to watch the Lions pulverise the Wallabies in the rugby.  Poor Luke was stuck in a room full of Brits who were all very pleased with themselves!  To make things even better Jonny bought us all over a slice of delicious Lemon Cheesecake.  Ahh bliss…

Sunday 7th July – day 55

Was a bit of a late night last night, but managed to get myself up at 5am and drove over to Ding-a-Ding Station where I helped Darcy out with his weaners.  First we had to sort them and then set about ear tagging, branding, de-horning and cutting (the boys).  We then walked them over the road to their new paddock.  These weaners have never been walked out so they were impressively well behaved, couldn’t help but make a few wishes that our little terrors are as well behaved when it comes to walking them over to Nulgra. After lunch time I mowed Tiffanies lovely green lawn and then cleaned out a couple of the water troughs.  Yuck those things get filthy, and there were all kinds of weird buggy amphibian things crawling around in the sludge at the bottom :S  Lets hope I avoid having to do this at Colwell!  Got home just as it started to go dark, long day but good fun and made a few pennies … that’s another “Contract mustering” job under my belt!!

Monday 8th July – day 56

Headed out for the standard Monday morning water run.  Nothing to report as all was ok, I’ve been obsessed with a book recently, so the 45 minutes spent waiting for the water tank at Beaudessert to fill is a great chance to carry on my reading.  I wonder if the reason why I am particularly enthralled with this book is because the main character is called Gemma?!  After lunch I was tasked with getting the quad bike ready for prickle tree spraying and Luke showed me how to mix the poison (60 litres of diesel to 1 part poison). Thankfully finished earlier than normal, after the late night Saturday and early start at Ding-a-Ding I was pretty shattered.

Tuesday 9th July – day 57

Fed the weaners this morning, hungry little things.  The little ones are getting used to us turning up and feeding them, so much so they are getting a bit cheeky and don’t really move out of the way when you are trying to put the feed in their tubs.  Some of them are so cute and fluffy though so I guess I don’t really mind, only thing I dislike about feeding them is when I accidentally end up kneeling in a fresh, warm, squidgy poo!!  After lunch I headed out to Fullers Dam in House Paddock and got started on the mammoth task of spraying prickle trees (specifically the prickly acacia trees).  It gets a bit monotonous, but thankfully I had my iPod with me which was cracking out some great tunes – I hope the cows nearby didn’t get too offended by my terrible wailing (aka singing along!)   .

Wednesday 10th July – day 58

Today we spent most of the day up in Cloncurry.  We took one of the weak weaners up to the vet to be checked out as we do seem to be losing a fair few of them.  Luke just wanted to make sure they didn’t have any viruses or diseases.  The vet seemed to think that they most probably had a vitamin deficiency and so recommended we give them all a vitamin shot.  On route to Cloncurry we picked up an extra, Steph (who works at the road house in McKinlay) so it was nice spending some time with her and having a good old yarn.  She is from Hong Kong, and so McKinlay is VERY different to home life for her! 

Thursday 11th July – day 59

Did the usual Thursday water run this morning.  Sadly there was a dead cow in the dam in 4 mile, tried to get it out but it was stuck in a very awkward position and the banks are very muddy – I ended up about knee deep in mud and had to drag myself out!!  Decided to leave her in there and would come back later … either with my swimming gear on, or with something that I could use to balance on (without getting stuck in the mud!).  Everything else went smoothly on the rest of the water run so when I came back I grabbed a crate and headed out to get the dead cow out.  Worked a treat and saved me having to get in the water, which was a relief!!  After lunch we drafted (sorted) the weaners out into healthy/strong ones and smaller/ less healthy ones in need of a vitamin boost. Lets hope this helps perk them up and stops them dying.  

Friday 12th July – day 60

Fed the hungry weaners this morning, they seemed ok after yesterdays vitamin shot, although it is probably too early to tell just yet.  After feeding, Luke headed off to Polo Cross at somewhere about 10 hours drive away.  I decided to stay home for the weekend to catch up on some sleep.  I did a bit more prickle tree spraying in the afternoon and then after just a few hours of being left on my own I got thoroughly bored and headed into McKinlay for Friday tennis… I got there at about 7.30, not surprisingly I was the first one there so I ended up getting chatting to some of the people passing through.  Met an interesting bloke who picked my brains about backpackers and the potential of creating a business selling cheap camper vans.  Sounded like a good idea from what he was suggesting – if only I had $6k to spare, I’d be tempted to purchase a prototype!  Eventually the usual gang turned up and we had a couple of drinks (to improve our tennis performance) and then headed over to play some tennis.  Jonny and I seem to make a reasonable pair, however I still believe that I am the one scoring most of the points!! I put off going home for as long as possible as I had made the mistake of watching an episode of the Walking Dead before driving out to tennis… I half expected to get back to the station to discover that it was over run with zombies.  Turned out all was ok, although I will admit to making sure the front door was locked and had a few words with the dogs to make sure they kept and ear out for any approaching zombies!   

Saturday 13th July – day 61

Managed to sleep last night, but got a little bit concerned when the dogs woke me up early barking away …. Turned out to just be Bazza coming to pick up his chilly fridges – phew, thought I was going to have to get the gun out!!  Did the daily weaner and dam check and then continued to watch further episodes of the Walking Dead.  This in hindsight was silly, especially as I was at a point where they were living in a farm house that had become over run with man eating zombies.  The house I am in doesn’t look much like the one from the TV series but the country outside looks pretty similar!!  Sets the imagination off that’s for sure.  Thankfully Jonny came out to visit, so I had some company and we switched to watching something a bit more light hearted and less zombie-esk … the Inbetweeners!!

Sunday 14th July – day 62

One of the major plusses of being friends with a chef is getting a scrummy breakfast cooked for you!! J  after chowing down on bacon and eggs myself and Jonny headed up to check the weaners and dam.  Was nice having some company, I would have gone stir crazy if I had been here all weekend on my tod!

Monday 15th July – day 63

Monday morning water run around the property.  I love doing the water runs, getting to check out how things are going across the station; also gives me time to plug my ipod in and sing along to my favourite songs!!  After lunch Luke and I headed up to feed the hungry (greedy) weaners.

Tuesday 16th July – day 64

Weaner training camp.  This morning we got the 400+ larger weaners out of the yards and took them for a walk around one of the holding paddocks.  The purpose was to firstly see how well they walk with us on motorbikes and also to get them used to us and give them an idea of what we expect them to do.  What good weaners they were too!!  They walked beautifully for us, we will walk them a few more times before the big walk over to Nulgra paddocks, after all practice makes perfect!!  After lunch we then headed into Cloncurry to do the weekly food shop and to pick up our new recruit, James who will be here keeping me company whilst Luke is away getting his shoulder fixed. 

Wednesday 17th July – day 65

Took the weaners out for a walk along the laneway to see how they moved.  They went pretty well, so fingers crossed they should be good to walk over to Nulgra next week.  Bit of a baptism of fire for James as this afternoon we headed out to muster up 4 mile, the paddock with lots of the old cows…  all went well and no one got lost!!  It’s just as well James has a fair bit of experience on a motorbike as it’s not the smoothest country to ride over.  After we got back from mustering I learnt how to clean out the motorbike and quad bike air filters – they were filthy so not sure when they were last done!!  It’s the final State of Origin game tonight, which is a pretty big deal out here – it’s an annual 3 match tournament where Queensland play New South Wales.  Apparently Queensland (the region that I am currently in) has won the title for the last 7 years, and tonight was the deciding game (as it was 1 game to each of the teams).  The three of us headed over to Moronan Station where they were having a State of Origin BBQ to celebrate.  Man there was SO much food.  Thankfully Queensland won, not sure Luke could have taken another defeat!! 

Thursday 18th July – day 66

Drafted the cows from yesterday; we had to run them through the shoot and weigh them all to make sure they were heavy enough to be sent off to sale.  All went well although there were a few pretty moody cows who had a bit of a go at myself and James (welcome to the outback!!) I’ve got an ugly black bruise on the back of my left knee from where one cow gave me a serious rubbing up!!  I hadn’t even realised she was angry, I just thought she was coming up to me to sniff – maybe she took offence to my red t-shirt, and so decided to rather vigorously rub her head on me.  Thank god she didn’t have horns and that I was able to jump up on the railings (and hold on!)  Nothing like a bit of cow created drama to get the adrenaline pumping!!  In the end we managed to get them all sorted in pretty good time and so then set about feeding weaners.  We loaded the cows for sale onto the truck at 5, all seemed ok however  unfortunately not long after we got back to the house Luke had a call from the guy who was trucking the cows to say that he was having problems.  Some of the cows were pretty old and a bit skinny so the stress of being drafted through the yards and then loaded onto the truck must have taken its toll on them and a couple of the cows gave up standing and lay down.  Because of the limited space on the trucks they cows can’t be left lying down, as they can cause other cows to fall down and so on.  Luke and Wayne (the truckie) tried to get them all standing again, but there were still a few that wouldn’t get up so they had to be bought back to Colwell and unloaded again … by this point it was gone 9pm and so we had to unload then in the moonlight.  Seeing the glow of cows eyes in the dark is a wee bit creepy, especially when there were a couple of very pissed off cows that were not to happy about being dragged out (by their necks!)  Luke decided to leave the cows in the yards over night with a bail of hay and that we would re-load them again tomorrow morning.  Bit of a shame really as the rest of the day had gone so well. 

Friday 19th July – day 67

James and I headed out to the green tank in Beaudessert Lane to fill it up.  We then hot footed it back for 9.30 to try loading the cows again.  Had to reduce the number of cows to send off as the weaker cows would probably go down again, and it was decided that maybe they would be more comfortable if they were less packed together.  Unfortunately loading took a little bit longer as again there were a few cows that chose to lie down in really awkward spots!!  There was nothing wrong with these cows, they were just being what is described out here as “a bit sookie”  i.e. lazy/whimpy/pains in the but!  We eventually got them all in and sent off for sale in Winton. Once they were gone James and I then walked the leftover cows back down the laneway and deposited them in 4 mile paddock.  Hopefully they will fatten up a bit more out there.  After lunch James and I carried on with the water run checking all the water troughs, dams and bores. Nothing to report on, which is usually a good thing!! Friday can only mean one thing, McKinlay Friday night tennis J .  It’s James’ first tennis night so we introduced him to the usual gang.  Sadly its Jonny’s last Friday night tennis… ever L  so I need to find myself a new partner …. Even more sadly James is not a tennis pro, so looks like I’m going to have to do a lot of the running around to make sure Jasper and Cameron don’t win every week. 

p.s if you are reading this James, I am very sorry!! :P  

Saturday 20th July – day 68

Colwell BBQ time! :D any excuse to have a bit of a gathering eh?!  Spent the morning doing a few odd station chores and then the afternoon prepping some food for the BBQ.  Jonny and Amy came over early and so we got cracking with the drinking games, playing ring of fire.  This is pretty much where my night started and ended …. I learnt a few things from the night;

1)      Don’t play ring of fire when drinking wine, chose a lower % drink i.e. beer, maybe even water!  

2)      DON’T draw the last king and down the cup of nasty (which included gin, rum, vodka, beer, wine and god knows what else)

3)      Maybe just don’t bother playing ring of fire… like ever!

4)      If you get cold whilst lying in your bedroom next to your bucket on the hardwood floor, taking your clothes off and laying under the thinnest of blankets is not the best way to try and warm up! Brrrrrrr.

Needless to say, having consumed the best part of a bottle of white wine on my own, and then drinking a large glass of assorted spirits in one hit I was a little worse for wear at the very un-respectable  hour of 7.30pm!!!  Ooops spent a few very sorry hours in my room, on the floor next to my bin, but managed to come back from the dead by about 11pm … just in time for most of the guests to have left :S  Ahh well the usual lot, Jonny, Charlotte, Amy, James, Martin, Luke were still out and about so the fun continued (and I stuck to the H20).  Still somehow managed to have a pretty fantastic night though!

Sunday 21st July – day 69

Not too much of a clean up to do this time which was nice.  Had the traditional bacon and egg brekkie and then hung out with Jonny, Amy, Charlotte, Martin etc playing cards and watching hang over TV.  Think everyone was pretty shattered so most of us disappeared for a mid afternoon snooze before everyone headed back to their homes to prepare for another weeks work in the outback.  Sad to see Jonny go as he leaves for good on Thursday – who will make scrummy chocolate cheesecake now!?  Despite my failure to see most of the party, I can still say that this was a pretty awesome weekend and I actually didn’t feel too bad this morning!