Monday 24th June – day 42
Time to practice looking after the place all on my own (for when Luke has to go and have his shoulder op). Whilst Luke and Nena drove up to Mount Isa to drop off the Porta-loo’s from the races, I spent the day doing the usual morning water run. All went very smoothly, I was chuffed I managed to do it all without any help, especially starting the petrol motor (which fills up one of the water tanks) and also managing to get the 40kg bags of feed off the back of the truck and then into the feed troughs. No drama’s or problems to report back… phew! Once I’d had lunch I then had the task of feeding the weeners 8 bails of hay, all on my own... This meant I had to first chase 450 weeners out of the way into different parts of the yards; sounds easy enough, but man those little buggers are fast and they are still getting used to moving through the gates into different yards. I was well and truly puffed by the time I had managed to get most of them sorted – I will admit to having to leave 8 or so as I just couldn't get them into the other yards no matter how much running around flapping my arms making shooooo’ing noises!! Anyway once that was done I then got up into the loader and using the hay spears dropped 8 of the very large bails over the fence. That was the easy part, I then had to roll the bails into the right spot and then stand them up on their ends again. I have no idea how heavy the hay bails are but they are pretty awkward things to try and move around. Buy the end of all of this I was thoroughly shattered, bright pink and ready for huge glass of water!! (Or maybe some vino?!) I think I will have a few sore muscles tomorrow. But all in all a great day, and gave me a nice boost of confidence that I can manage things on my own without getting lost, injured or stuck in the sand!
Tuesday 25th June – day 43
Mustered Yanganjerry Paddock with the help of Darcy (from Ding-a-ding station) and a friend of his. This is a pretty massive paddock, and the aim of today was to gather up all the bulls and any leftover weeners. Bulls are lazy sods so it takes a fair bit to get them a) moving in the right direction and b) keep them moving in the right direction!! Needless to say it ended up being a pretty long morning/early afternoon rounding them up and walking them to the yards. I had a few head on wrestles with some bulls who obviously could not be bothered to move, I won in the end and they was safely deposited in the yards. Still gets the heart racing approaching them head on, they are pretty big beasts!! I spent most of the morning on the quadbike but switched onto the motorbike later on. I’m by no means doing wheelies and skid turns, but I am starting to feel a bit more confident on the motorbike. Once the cattle were all safely in the yards we set to drafting them, pulling out the bulls and separating the cows from the weeners. I took up my usual position in the back yards pushing the cattle through to be sorted, and had a couple of run-in’s with some unfriendly cows. This is still the part of the job that scares me the most, being that close to such large animals that can kick and/or charge at you is pretty terrifying! Most surprising to me is how gentle and calm the bulls are, they are nothing like the ones you see in movies/cartoons snorting and pawing the ground. Just as well really, I wouldn't fancy my chances against them if they took a disliking to me!!
Wednesday 26th June – day 44
Spent the early part of the morning walking the bulls that we mustered yesterday out to their new paddocks. When we got back, Jonny and Sophie (who work at the Walkabout Pub) were ready and waiting to help us muster Irrigation Paddock over at Nulgra. Think it was a bit of a baptism of fire for Jonny, this paddock has the roughest ground of all the paddocks at Colwell; it was also his first time on a kickstart geared motorbike, and his first time mustering cattle! Needless to say he did a great job, got the hang of kick starting the bike pretty quickly, and will probably be pretty sore tomorrow!! The country out here is super rough, lots of mountainous Mitchell grass, creeks and moon rocks that bump you around all over the place. After hours spent riding the bumps and getting stuck in ruts whilst looking for cattle we failed to come across any out in the open, so we swung by the water troughs and true to form they were all camped out there. Couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated that we’d spent all that time out there when they were at the water troughs all along, but it needed to be done to make sure we got them all. Moving them all into the yards went pretty smoothly however a couple of young steers did break away from the mob, this was it, my shining glory when I managed to throw one of the cows. First you have to chase it around for a bit on the bike to wear it out, then on the quadbike you have to drive up to their side and knock them over, pinning them under the bike, then jump off sit on their shoulder and tie their hind legs together to stop them getting away again. I then had to stay sat on the cow waiting for the others to bring over the trucks which we then hauled the cows onto. We then drove them back to where, with all the well behaved cattle looking on, deposited them rather ungracefully in the yards! That should teach them not to misbehave again!
Thursday 27th June – day 45
This morning the drafted the cattle from yesterday, once again separating the cows, bulls and weeners. I had a bit of a go working in the round yard, which got the adrenaline going! I certainly got to get up close and personal with the bulls, Luke let 3 of them in all at once which made it a bit difficult to open the gate for them to walk through – again, it’s just as well they are all quiet and nicely behaved!! Once they were all sorted we let the cows back out into their paddock and trucked the bulls and weeners over to the yards by the house. By the time we managed all this it was pretty late so it was then a mad rush to get the weeners fed, all 500+ of them!!
Friday 28th June – day 46
Mustered House paddock. It’s a pretty massive paddock and today I spent most of the day whizzing around chasing cattle on the motorbike. Started off a little shaky but by the end I was feeling pretty confident. Scariest part was getting across the McKinlay river. It is a pretty wide riverbed, with lots of thick sand and very steep sides but I got across a few times without any accidents. Just have to take the slopes nice and steady and keep the revs up across the sand to make sure you don’t get stuck. There are parts of the paddock that are thick with prickle trees, which of course the cattle love hiding in, think I got a few extra rips in my clothes and LOTS of prickles stuck in me L. It took a fair while moving the cattle
Again we drafted the cattle to separate the bulls/cows and weeners. There were a few surprise babies there so we had to separate them and then set to branding them (which I did), castrating the boys (Luke did this) and cutting their horns (to stop them growing horns later on). I had a go at de-horning, it looks pretty brutal when you are doing it, as there is lots of blood and it’s obviously uncomfortable for them. I asked why they cut their horns and Luke explained that apart from it being safer for humans when they have to handle the cattle, it is also safer for the cattle and reduces the risk of them causing serious injuries to each other when they fight. It involves using a sharp de-horning knife and cutting off the skin around where the little horns are just starting to develop. I think it takes a bit of practice, and as with lots of things out here, it’s not really about physical strength but more about technique. However uncomfortable it all looks as soon as you let the calf up, they seem to give themselves a quick shake off and are then back to bounding around the place.
As usual on Fridays we hit McKinlay and the Walkabout pub for some drinks and tennis – although tonight was more about the drinking and I don’t think we played a single game of tennis between us!!
Saturday 29th June – day 47
This morning myself and Nena walked yesterdays cows and the bulls out to their new paddocks. We managed to get it done pretty quickly and were back before lunch time in order to start getting things ready for tonight and Nena’s leaving BBQ. After lots of chopping up veggies and quick spruce up of the house the place was ready for the party. We even had enough time to have a quick nap (its been a pretty full on week with all the mustering) The party was great fun, hopefully Nena enjoyed herself. It was lovely to have so many people turn up to say their goodbyes, lots of us will be sad to see her leave. I eventually staggered into bed at aound 4.30 am, and I think things finally came to a close around for the hard core party-goers at 5.30 am. Epic party …. Clean up not so fun!
Sunday 30th June – day 48
Made the mistake of getting up at 10 to get a glass of water, walked into the kitchen which looked like a beer bomb had gone off in it!! I have never seen soooo many beer cans, rum bottles and wine bottles!! As I’d seen the mess there was no way I could get back to sleep knowing what a mess it was so I got the cleaning process going (with the help of Jonny and Martin). It took us all the best part of the day to get things put straight, although we did take some time out to have a fry up, naps and watch some episodes of the Inbetweeners. (what a perfect hangover combination). The day wasn’t totally work free, 500 hungry weeners needed feeding up!
Monday 1st July – day 49
Time for, you guessed it more mustering!! This time we chased cattle around both Nora Creek and Boorama paddocks and did it in record time all before lunch time. After lunch we drafted the cows and separated the weeners from their mothers. We were on a roll today and were even able to walk the cows back to their new paddock. Think I am starting to get the hang of mustering and drafting. :)
Tuesday 2nd July – day 50
Did a water run over to Nulgara and gave the cows out there some lick. Luke and Nena then set about fixing up the windmill there, which pumps water out from the underground bore and then fills up the water troughs for the cattle. I’m not terrified of heights per-say however I have to say I didn’t enjoy going up there (and I didn’t even climb all the way to the top!). After lunch myself and Nena set about cutting up another of the large white plastic tubs (which we use to put lick feed in for the cattle) and then ran the tubs out to 4 mile paddock, where we have been putting most of the cows. Whilst out there we checked in on the dam, and found three cows bogged in. Two had already died, but the third we were able to drag out and get up on its feet. Bit of a bummer really as it has been a few weeks now since we last had to do this. Hopefully it was a one off and that will be the end of cows getting bogged there.
Wednesday 3rd July – day 51
After getting up early to feed the weeners (demanding little shits!) we headed out to Mount Isa … which is just a short 3 hour drive away!! Did a bit of essential food shopping and headed back home. Had a bit of sad news when we got back, Monkey one of the working dogs with the gentlest of natures passed away. Not really sure what happened to him, he was a reasonable age but had seemed to be in good health. Poor Monkey.
Seeing as it was Nena’s last night we cooked her favourite meal, lasagne, and had a few people over to say goodbye. It is going to be very different without her
Thursday 4th July – day 52
Bit more of a relaxed morning. Nena leaves for Perth this afternoon, so we headed out for a horse ride on Serious Boy and Leeroy. Whilst we checked on the weeners and had some fun cantering around being cowgirls. Nena had just enough time to pack up her stuff and then we were off to Cannington mine where she caught her flight to Cairns. It was very sad saying goodbye, but I am positive she will have an amazing time travelling the west coast. On the way back to the station we popped in and filled up one of the water tanks and did a mini reverse water run. No cattle in the dam which was great. Now that I am finally caught up I will leave it at that – need to get a good nights sleep as we have to round up the camels tomorrow!!
Time to practice looking after the place all on my own (for when Luke has to go and have his shoulder op). Whilst Luke and Nena drove up to Mount Isa to drop off the Porta-loo’s from the races, I spent the day doing the usual morning water run. All went very smoothly, I was chuffed I managed to do it all without any help, especially starting the petrol motor (which fills up one of the water tanks) and also managing to get the 40kg bags of feed off the back of the truck and then into the feed troughs. No drama’s or problems to report back… phew! Once I’d had lunch I then had the task of feeding the weeners 8 bails of hay, all on my own... This meant I had to first chase 450 weeners out of the way into different parts of the yards; sounds easy enough, but man those little buggers are fast and they are still getting used to moving through the gates into different yards. I was well and truly puffed by the time I had managed to get most of them sorted – I will admit to having to leave 8 or so as I just couldn't get them into the other yards no matter how much running around flapping my arms making shooooo’ing noises!! Anyway once that was done I then got up into the loader and using the hay spears dropped 8 of the very large bails over the fence. That was the easy part, I then had to roll the bails into the right spot and then stand them up on their ends again. I have no idea how heavy the hay bails are but they are pretty awkward things to try and move around. Buy the end of all of this I was thoroughly shattered, bright pink and ready for huge glass of water!! (Or maybe some vino?!) I think I will have a few sore muscles tomorrow. But all in all a great day, and gave me a nice boost of confidence that I can manage things on my own without getting lost, injured or stuck in the sand!
Tuesday 25th June – day 43
Mustered Yanganjerry Paddock with the help of Darcy (from Ding-a-ding station) and a friend of his. This is a pretty massive paddock, and the aim of today was to gather up all the bulls and any leftover weeners. Bulls are lazy sods so it takes a fair bit to get them a) moving in the right direction and b) keep them moving in the right direction!! Needless to say it ended up being a pretty long morning/early afternoon rounding them up and walking them to the yards. I had a few head on wrestles with some bulls who obviously could not be bothered to move, I won in the end and they was safely deposited in the yards. Still gets the heart racing approaching them head on, they are pretty big beasts!! I spent most of the morning on the quadbike but switched onto the motorbike later on. I’m by no means doing wheelies and skid turns, but I am starting to feel a bit more confident on the motorbike. Once the cattle were all safely in the yards we set to drafting them, pulling out the bulls and separating the cows from the weeners. I took up my usual position in the back yards pushing the cattle through to be sorted, and had a couple of run-in’s with some unfriendly cows. This is still the part of the job that scares me the most, being that close to such large animals that can kick and/or charge at you is pretty terrifying! Most surprising to me is how gentle and calm the bulls are, they are nothing like the ones you see in movies/cartoons snorting and pawing the ground. Just as well really, I wouldn't fancy my chances against them if they took a disliking to me!!
Wednesday 26th June – day 44
Spent the early part of the morning walking the bulls that we mustered yesterday out to their new paddocks. When we got back, Jonny and Sophie (who work at the Walkabout Pub) were ready and waiting to help us muster Irrigation Paddock over at Nulgra. Think it was a bit of a baptism of fire for Jonny, this paddock has the roughest ground of all the paddocks at Colwell; it was also his first time on a kickstart geared motorbike, and his first time mustering cattle! Needless to say he did a great job, got the hang of kick starting the bike pretty quickly, and will probably be pretty sore tomorrow!! The country out here is super rough, lots of mountainous Mitchell grass, creeks and moon rocks that bump you around all over the place. After hours spent riding the bumps and getting stuck in ruts whilst looking for cattle we failed to come across any out in the open, so we swung by the water troughs and true to form they were all camped out there. Couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated that we’d spent all that time out there when they were at the water troughs all along, but it needed to be done to make sure we got them all. Moving them all into the yards went pretty smoothly however a couple of young steers did break away from the mob, this was it, my shining glory when I managed to throw one of the cows. First you have to chase it around for a bit on the bike to wear it out, then on the quadbike you have to drive up to their side and knock them over, pinning them under the bike, then jump off sit on their shoulder and tie their hind legs together to stop them getting away again. I then had to stay sat on the cow waiting for the others to bring over the trucks which we then hauled the cows onto. We then drove them back to where, with all the well behaved cattle looking on, deposited them rather ungracefully in the yards! That should teach them not to misbehave again!
Thursday 27th June – day 45
This morning the drafted the cattle from yesterday, once again separating the cows, bulls and weeners. I had a bit of a go working in the round yard, which got the adrenaline going! I certainly got to get up close and personal with the bulls, Luke let 3 of them in all at once which made it a bit difficult to open the gate for them to walk through – again, it’s just as well they are all quiet and nicely behaved!! Once they were all sorted we let the cows back out into their paddock and trucked the bulls and weeners over to the yards by the house. By the time we managed all this it was pretty late so it was then a mad rush to get the weeners fed, all 500+ of them!!
Friday 28th June – day 46
Mustered House paddock. It’s a pretty massive paddock and today I spent most of the day whizzing around chasing cattle on the motorbike. Started off a little shaky but by the end I was feeling pretty confident. Scariest part was getting across the McKinlay river. It is a pretty wide riverbed, with lots of thick sand and very steep sides but I got across a few times without any accidents. Just have to take the slopes nice and steady and keep the revs up across the sand to make sure you don’t get stuck. There are parts of the paddock that are thick with prickle trees, which of course the cattle love hiding in, think I got a few extra rips in my clothes and LOTS of prickles stuck in me L. It took a fair while moving the cattle
Again we drafted the cattle to separate the bulls/cows and weeners. There were a few surprise babies there so we had to separate them and then set to branding them (which I did), castrating the boys (Luke did this) and cutting their horns (to stop them growing horns later on). I had a go at de-horning, it looks pretty brutal when you are doing it, as there is lots of blood and it’s obviously uncomfortable for them. I asked why they cut their horns and Luke explained that apart from it being safer for humans when they have to handle the cattle, it is also safer for the cattle and reduces the risk of them causing serious injuries to each other when they fight. It involves using a sharp de-horning knife and cutting off the skin around where the little horns are just starting to develop. I think it takes a bit of practice, and as with lots of things out here, it’s not really about physical strength but more about technique. However uncomfortable it all looks as soon as you let the calf up, they seem to give themselves a quick shake off and are then back to bounding around the place.
As usual on Fridays we hit McKinlay and the Walkabout pub for some drinks and tennis – although tonight was more about the drinking and I don’t think we played a single game of tennis between us!!
Saturday 29th June – day 47
This morning myself and Nena walked yesterdays cows and the bulls out to their new paddocks. We managed to get it done pretty quickly and were back before lunch time in order to start getting things ready for tonight and Nena’s leaving BBQ. After lots of chopping up veggies and quick spruce up of the house the place was ready for the party. We even had enough time to have a quick nap (its been a pretty full on week with all the mustering) The party was great fun, hopefully Nena enjoyed herself. It was lovely to have so many people turn up to say their goodbyes, lots of us will be sad to see her leave. I eventually staggered into bed at aound 4.30 am, and I think things finally came to a close around for the hard core party-goers at 5.30 am. Epic party …. Clean up not so fun!
Sunday 30th June – day 48
Made the mistake of getting up at 10 to get a glass of water, walked into the kitchen which looked like a beer bomb had gone off in it!! I have never seen soooo many beer cans, rum bottles and wine bottles!! As I’d seen the mess there was no way I could get back to sleep knowing what a mess it was so I got the cleaning process going (with the help of Jonny and Martin). It took us all the best part of the day to get things put straight, although we did take some time out to have a fry up, naps and watch some episodes of the Inbetweeners. (what a perfect hangover combination). The day wasn’t totally work free, 500 hungry weeners needed feeding up!
Monday 1st July – day 49
Time for, you guessed it more mustering!! This time we chased cattle around both Nora Creek and Boorama paddocks and did it in record time all before lunch time. After lunch we drafted the cows and separated the weeners from their mothers. We were on a roll today and were even able to walk the cows back to their new paddock. Think I am starting to get the hang of mustering and drafting. :)
Tuesday 2nd July – day 50
Did a water run over to Nulgara and gave the cows out there some lick. Luke and Nena then set about fixing up the windmill there, which pumps water out from the underground bore and then fills up the water troughs for the cattle. I’m not terrified of heights per-say however I have to say I didn’t enjoy going up there (and I didn’t even climb all the way to the top!). After lunch myself and Nena set about cutting up another of the large white plastic tubs (which we use to put lick feed in for the cattle) and then ran the tubs out to 4 mile paddock, where we have been putting most of the cows. Whilst out there we checked in on the dam, and found three cows bogged in. Two had already died, but the third we were able to drag out and get up on its feet. Bit of a bummer really as it has been a few weeks now since we last had to do this. Hopefully it was a one off and that will be the end of cows getting bogged there.
Wednesday 3rd July – day 51
After getting up early to feed the weeners (demanding little shits!) we headed out to Mount Isa … which is just a short 3 hour drive away!! Did a bit of essential food shopping and headed back home. Had a bit of sad news when we got back, Monkey one of the working dogs with the gentlest of natures passed away. Not really sure what happened to him, he was a reasonable age but had seemed to be in good health. Poor Monkey.
Seeing as it was Nena’s last night we cooked her favourite meal, lasagne, and had a few people over to say goodbye. It is going to be very different without her
Thursday 4th July – day 52
Bit more of a relaxed morning. Nena leaves for Perth this afternoon, so we headed out for a horse ride on Serious Boy and Leeroy. Whilst we checked on the weeners and had some fun cantering around being cowgirls. Nena had just enough time to pack up her stuff and then we were off to Cannington mine where she caught her flight to Cairns. It was very sad saying goodbye, but I am positive she will have an amazing time travelling the west coast. On the way back to the station we popped in and filled up one of the water tanks and did a mini reverse water run. No cattle in the dam which was great. Now that I am finally caught up I will leave it at that – need to get a good nights sleep as we have to round up the camels tomorrow!!
Sleep Well Monkey xxx
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