Spring

Finally we are finished with winter and have entered the glorious season of spring, yippee! Although it has still been quite cool at night here the days have been warming up nicely. I’m enjoying any work outside in this temperature because I know I will be useless in summer, I just can’t handle working in the heat. As usual there has been plenty happening here, although it’s hard to look back to pin point activities to tell you about, the days just roll by, as do the weeks and months for that matter. I haven’t left the station for a fortnight now, each day fills up quickly and thanks to a fantastic mail run service I even get my groceries delivered to the mail box…..just like in the city! The girls are starting swimming lessons this weekend which will force me to town once a week for a month or so.

We are still working in and around the house to finish it off, we’re now up to erecting the house fence, can’t wait to be able to keep the dogs out and toddler in! We laid 10 pallets of beautiful green couche and have thrown seed out so we’ve been watering in between rain and it’s really starting to take off now. The lawn will be beautiful when it’s all filled in and the fence is finished, a lovely big green space. We are lucky enough to have pop up sprinklers too. Matt had to do a lot of digging and reorganising of messy pipes that had been poorly setup and has also put new lines in to access dam and bore water for the house. I am keen to get some gardens going and to add some colour, I’ve been scavenging thru the station dump for anything I can repurpose into planters, old pallets, drums, paint tins etc It’s amazing what a lick of paint can do. I haven’t been able to source any plants as yet, I think I will have to take a trip to Charleville to stock up….when I get a spare day to do the 6 hour round trip!

The builders are due back next week to put the deck roof on and also extend the machinery shed and a few other odd jobs. The electrician is also booked to install lights, air cons, power points and a million other things. We always seem to have someone here, I’ve had truck drivers turn up for a shower and dinner, contractors arrive unannounced, mechanics, fuel deliveries, fencers etc. I never feel lonely, in fact sometimes I feel like I need a break from people at my house. Actually that’s not really true, I like the comings and goings. Thankfully we have a donga type building, it has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with a deck with outside kitchen. Although it is awfully close to the house, which is slightly annoying, I’m in the process of ‘prettying’ it up with gardens and making it feel more like guest quarters than an industrial site.

The kids are all great, we enjoyed a nice break from school over the holidays. They kept busy around the house and were able to come mustering a few times. Indigo continues to improve on her horse and is learning to read the cattle well. Her and Maddi, the station owners daughter, mustered with us all day on horses. They were given lots of responsibility for seven year olds, in charge of tailing the mob and making sure they came thru the scrub whilst we tried to hold the sides together and mob up. Josh is fantastic and very inclusive of the kids and teaches them as they go, even given jobs to bring cattle in or hold mobs in the paddock on their own. It brings us enormous joy to watch her doing so well. Lexi is a great little rider too, although she has a very busy little pony that tires her quickly so she is not so keen for the big days, often happy to just bring cattle in to the yards once the hard work has been done. She is still only five and her petite build makes it challenging to keep up the strength to keep her pony going well, no doubt she has some natural ability though. Ashton is a very typical challenging toddler, very argumentative and difficult to reason with but also a tonne of fun. He loves to be amongst it, my biggest willing helper for sure. Barely a moment or job without him by my side or on my hip. He shows interest in the horses and Zorro the Shetland is now his, but only time will tell how interested he is. He definitely loves anything with a motor and now demands to sit on my lap and drive whatever it is I’m driving, no longer happy to remain passenger.

I’ve been lucky enough to get in on some musters too. Denae and I were sent on horses in the timber under a helicopter to flush cattle out, that was a real thrill. I had no idea if my horse had worked under a chopper before but he handled it so well. At one point we were right under it, only 15 metres or so between us, he was a little nervous but tried to keep focussed on the cow we were pushing, I was very pleased. He’s a lovely gelding, him and I seem to have a good connection…not so much with Matt, they dislike each other. Other musters I’m in the buggy with Ashton, either way it’s nice to be apart of it. My days are full, we leave the house at 7:20am for the bus and between outside work, smoko/lunch, housework, bus runs, animals, dinner and whatever else is happening there is not much down time.

We enjoyed a day at the local campdraft a few weeks back, the kids had a ball. Indi rode most of the day, she didn’t get off her horse until about 7pm. Both girls competed in the mini draft and came away with 3rd and 4th place. Matt had a run also, his first time ever competing. He was so nervous. He did a great cutout, scoring a 22 (out of a possible 25) but didn’t ride hard enough to make the first peg. It’s a massive adrenaline rush and he’s keen to do some more next year.

We have been busy on a personal note too, buying a house in Blackall and a bare block in Tambo. We plan to do a full renovation on the house and our caravan is on the block at Tambo, it will act as our town stopover when the kids have swimming etc. We feel so at home out here and are happy to have something in our name again. Nothing ties us down though, if we ever decided to move on the real estate will mange them.

Matt’s hoping to join the local cricket club, which will be a nice social outlet for him. Although, he’s been too busy to make it to any practice or games so far, hopefully he will get to some soon. I was able to tick off a personal development challenge I set myself, I am now officially a licensed truck driver, haha. I have used it a few times now driving our truck to town with horses on for the draft and the boss’ truck between properties..I think it will come in handy.

I feel like the next few months are going to be a blur, we are already well into October and with our calendar filling up fast and the work load not slowing down it will be Christmas before we know it!

Until next time, take care wherever you are.