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 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 ???
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