Summer

Hello to all that may be reading this. I come to you from under the shade of a gumtree by a little lagoon at the windmill. Matt is trying to work out an electrical issue on the bore pump, I have helped where need be and Ashton and I have wandered over to sit in the shade and watch the solitary wood duck floating around.

Again, I struggle to write what’s been happening since I last posted as the days are just normal work to us and time rolls so quickly I forget what’s been going on.

Matt has been doing a mix of work at home and in town. With all the off property projects happening there has been building, welding, concreting and supplies to collect from surrounding regional centres. He stays in town when he’s working there as it saves the 120km + trip each day. The kids and I have a good routine and just quietly it seems to run smoother when Daddy’s not home! There are always issues on a property and Ive encountered a few whilst home alone. One morning I woke to find our mare had split open her cheek in the stables. Unless it’s life threatening we don’t call a vet and it was wet at the time so access wasn’t possible anyway. I was able to get some advice from neighbours about some possible home remedies. I knew it looked gnarly but was confident it would heal ok if I could keep infection out, which I did and it is now almost completely better. I have also dealt with blown floats on troughs and pipes. I have been able to resolve most issues, even though with frustration and gritted teeth at times. Although Matt makes most tasks look relatively easy to complete I am not as coordinated or as strong as him so using tools in awkward places or anything to do with wire I am almost completely useless. I feel I am building confidence now and am getting better at station tasks, although still so much to learn and improve on.

The kids are doing great. Ashton’s speech has improved ten fold in the last few months and he can verbalise most things he wants or doesn’t and he certainly has an opinion! He has been my dream baby sleeper until recently when he has a new hatred for his own bed and refuses to sleep in it. He sleeps with Indigo most nights. He still needs a daytime sleep but doesn’t normally have one unless it’s in the car on the bus run, and he is normally firing on all cylinders until 9 pm. Indigo keeps busy with lots of things, all depending on what she’s into that week. Sometimes it’s horses, other times motorbikes or ‘dog training’. She has a great imagination and loves to be planning some sort of performance in her mind, whether it’s a class performance, dance routine, poem for the show or a dog performance…she loves an audience. Lexi is cruising along, happy doing her own thing. She loves to do the dogs with Matt each afternoon, she knows exactly who goes where and who gets what. She has done a bit of horse riding, although the horse she is using at the moment can be too strong for her and she can struggle to keep him going the direction she wants which is very frustrating. She has no interest in the motorbikes but does like riding the quad.

We have been working on the Blackall house on weekends when we can get over there. We usually head up on Friday afternoon or Saturday and stay in the caravan until Sunday. We have done a lot but we are still so far off the finish. I am trying hard not to let it bother me but I am definitely looking forward to being done. Nothing has happened on our Tambo block, which is very frustrating. We have ordered and paid for our little house but are yet to receive it! All in good time I suppose.

We enjoyed a visit from a childhood friend of mine, he’s on his way to WA for a job so stopped in for a few nights. It was nice to share our company with a visitor and of course the kids enjoy a new face. We haven’t done too much socialising, we have so much to keep us busy we choose to stay home and avoid the trip to town to attend any town events. It will get busier in the coming months though with campdrafts, pony club and local shows on the agenda.

We have had the usual cattle incoming and outgoing. Lots of quick musters with the helicopter and plenty of drafting and loading on trucks. The biggest yarding to date since we’ve arrived was done last month, with 751 head mustered into the yards by 8am. It was a big day in the yards sorting and drafting to relevant weight/fat categories for different markets and paddocks etc, with only 3 of us completing the job.

A few weeks ago we thought we had lost Ziggy, our little dog. It had been a big day mustering, drafting and loading cattle and I had just made it to the house on dark when the girls said they couldn’t find him. I went back to the yards to check all the troughs, sheds, trucks, ute’s etc to make sure he wasn’t trapped somewhere. It was most unusual and I was very worried about him. Matt had left to go out pig chasing that night and it was only the kids and I home. I went out later that night on the buggy looking for him, checking he hadn’t been run over by the road train earlier in the afternoon but still couldn’t find him. I came inside and decided there was nothing more I could do until morning when I received a phone call from Matt asking if we were missing Ziggy? Matt had just had a call from the truck driver who had left here in the afternoon with cattle to say he had found a little dog in the back crate with the cattle! OMG! 😳 Of course this truck driver was fully loaded with cattle now waiting 100 km away on the side of the highway for someone to come get this dog, not game to attempt any retrieval in fear of panicking the cattle. Great! Matt’s not home, I have the kids and it’s 9:30 at night. With no other option than to get in the car as quick as possible and drive to the truck to get this poor driver back on his way, a quick change out of my pj’s and I was en route. Of course I had to also unhook the horse float from the car first and hope I had enough fuel to do the 200km round trip. Thankfully I arrived to a sympathetic truck driver, not a cranky one (they don’t like being held up)! We found the little beggar in the back of the road train in the farthest trailer (the first deck we had loaded 🤦‍♀️) terrified and confused amongst the 450 kg steers legs. Now how to get him out? We couldn’t reach him from the gap at the top of the trailer and my only option was to put my fingers through the tiny gap at the bottom, loop my fingers around his collar and drag him up the side, bumping into the legs of bullocks , risking his life and my fingers, until I reached the front of the trailer where I was able to pull him backwards by the tail under the small gap. What a nightmare! I was absolutely covered in cow sh*t from head to waist as the steers were very wrestles and disturbed, moving about and kicking the side spraying sh*t everywhere. Ziggy was an absolute mess too. A quick assessment in the dark on the side of the highway deemed he must be the luckiest little dog alive. A quick wash under the truck tap for both of us and we made the 100km journey back home, arriving at 11:30pm. Ziggy will now be caged for all future loadings!

The days are shortening with Autumn’s arrival, however the mercury is still high. We received 61 mm of rain last week, which is a great boost heading into winter, the country is green and fresh and it looks beautiful.

The next month is particularly busy with an expected 1000 head to be mustered and sent and perhaps that many incoming also across the three properties we work on. We have a planned trip to Toowoomba for supplies and the local Tambo show to follow. And of course all the normal daily happenings in between.

I assume your lives are equally busy, perhaps with slightly different tasks to ours. I hope you enjoy this post, and as always, please leave a comment or a simple hello so I know you’ve dropped by to read. Until next time, 👋

WARNING: Graphic images below 👇🏼

Almost completely better