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!) .
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!
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!
Right that is enough for now .. happy reading and I will continue soon :)
RSS Feed