I’m baaack

Oh boy, I’m really bad at consistent posts, here goes on the latest happenings since we last posted.

Its November, my gosh, nearly the end of another year. This year has been no different to any other, flat out and full of everyday adventure. If you ring me and ask what I’m doing I will probably not have too much to tell but being a working Mum and wife keeps me busy all day long. Ashton is now at kindy 3 days per week, so the school routine starts early and I do the 40km round trip to the bus twice a day. Indigo had a big change this year, we removed her from school and enrolled her in Longreach school of distance education, formerly known as school of the air. For various reasons school wasn’t working for her and we felt this was the best decision and it has proven so thus far. We have a school room setup for her in the quarters next to the house. It is a perfect space for her, having an air con room with bathroom. She normally logs on at 8am and most of her classes are online with a teacher and classmates, all connected via zoom. She has settled in so well and made some great friends, and she loves her quirky teacher. He’s a really fun out there old school teacher, which just matches her beautifully. She is very self sufficient in the school room, I don’t have a lot of involvement, which is the only way it can work. I absolutely loathe being the ‘home tutor’ and we normally just argue if I have to deliver anything. We have even wrangled Nanny into being the science home tutor, and they connect via facetime each week to complete the lesson. Thanks Nan! Distance Ed gives Indi a lot of freedom, she’s often out before school with her horse and if she knows there is cattle work happening she leaves him tied in the stables all day so she can jump on at smoko break and lunch break to join in with whatever is happening in between lessons. It comes with its own set of challenges though, she is isolated from her peers, she is in the school room alone for the day and has a lot of responsibility to keep up with the work load. She is a kid that can cope with the challenges though. We attend cluster each term, which is an all school face to face week. We take the van up and she attends the campus in Longreach with her friends to do school, participate in sports and other activities. Having 3 kids enrolled in 2 different types of school is also challenging. Most of the term its fine, I drop the little ones to the bus and help Indi get sorted in the morning. Cluster is a bit tricky. I’ve been taking Ashton with me and leaving Lexi with Matt, but although we’re very lucky to have flexibility it is difficult to schedule his day around the bus run when his day is so varied and spread out. So far we have made it work but next year will prove difficult having both little ones at school 5 days. I am sure we will make it work somehow though.

The kids are all riding their horses regularly, more the girls then Ashton but he does enjoy a little ride every now and then. He rides at pony club and has done a few gymkhanas now. We have moved him onto a better horse and he can ride her independently fairly easily. I sent him off at pony club last month to walk across to the club house while I was busy helping another child, I looked up to see him cantering across the paddock! There wasn’t much I could do from where I was other than watch and hope he stayed on, which he did. He apparently had the biggest grin on his face, thank God for good horses hey. He has also gained the confidence and skills to ride the big quad bike on his own. He puts his helmet on and off he goes, often with a dog jumping on with him. He knows how to put air in the tires if they need it and can operate it very well. He tucks his little legs up like a jockey and rests the souls of his boots on the guard at the back and stretches forward to reach the handle bars. He loves it, I think it gives him a sense of independence and responsibility. He absolutely loves school and has handled the routine and bus trip very well. I often have to wake him up on the bus in the afternoon.

Last week we had an early load going out and all the kids wanted to help. The girls were keen to come on their horses and I woke Ashton to see if he wanted to stay at the house but he wanted in on the action too. We were all out and ready to go by about 5:15, the girls on their horses, Ashy on the quad, Mum on the 2 wheeler and Dad in the buggy with some dogs. We sent the girls one side, Ashy up the middle on the track and Matt and I cleared the bit of timber. All the kids did so well, the girls are pretty handy on their horses now and have some good cattle reading skills. They know when to push, cover a side or take the pressure off. It was a beautiful morning watching the sunrise and walking a mob of cattle to the yards, my heart was full! Then they all got ready and went to school, what legends!

I had an epiphany that morning. I’ve often been run off my feet like a headless chicken trying to do everything with 3 kids in tow. When we moved west the kids were 1, 4 and 6 and I had my hands full. Saddling horses and teaching them to ride, watching Ashton as a tiny tot, trying to help Matt etc. At times its been easy to look at Mum’s that have help available, whether it be nearby family or a governess and feel so jealous of that, but the muster with all our kids just reminded me that if I had help they would likely miss out on those special times with us. They would be left at the house with the ‘help’ and they wouldn’t be such capable little humans. It reminded me that the hard yards of raising the kids by ourselves has immense benefit and I am thankful that this is our journey. Its time we will cherish and look back on with the fondest memories when we are old and they are all grown up.

October was a busy month with cattle going out, across Jynoomah and Ercildoune we sent 60 decks out over 2 weeks, that’s about 1600 head. Another 60 went out from the other property at Chinchilla. Whilst I didn’t have a lot to do with the cattle it kept me busy in the office tracking the numbers and recording data. We have just started getting some loads back in to replace them so the coming month will be full of cattle work again. When all the properties are full we are running about 10,000 head.

Matt and I are fortunate that we are able to run some of our own cattle here. We’ve been slowly increasing our turnover numbers and are definitely getting better at the ‘beef game’. There is a fair bit of decision making behind making money on beef. We have both learnt heaps over the past few years and its nice to see some fruit from our work.

I’m pleased to report that we have a fantastic tenant in the Blackall house, she loves it like her own and takes very good care of it. We are so very close to finishing the Tambo house too. Oh boy, its been another long year of hard work and weekends for both of us but mainly Matt. As I type he is in town tiling the bathroom. We have contracted a bit of help to get it done but Matt has done most of it on his own. The remoteness of our location adds to the job, Matt’s done a couple of trips back to the Darling Downs to pickup gear, sleeping in his car at a truck stop and driving long hours to get it all done on the weekend. I’ve picked tiles over texts, paint from websites, door handles/sinks/hardware from ebay! Definitely not your usual way of picking fittings for a new build. We are all looking forward to finishing that job, its been another big one and we’re definitely ready for a break. We have contractors lined up to move in around January, so the finish line is in view.

The 6 cabins of Josh & Denae’s remain ongoing. We are at the final hurdle now though, waiting on a final piece of paper to get the engineer tick off. Its been a ridiculously long road to get these up and running but we are very close! Thankfully Mum came out in July and helped me setup all the furniture, wash all the linen and clean! It was a big couple of weeks, thanks Mum. They are mostly done now, we just need another couple of solid days to finalise the last details like hanging the curtains, artwork, cabin numbers etc. Hopefully we’re taking bookings by 2026!

The clan of furry friends has continued to grow. We ‘acquired’ a Jack Russell puppy earlier in the year. Miss Macie has fit in very well at Ercildoune and we now have 2 little terrors ruling the yard. She’s slightly bigger than Ziggy, they are pretty cute together. We had a litter of puppies too, all working dogs. Matt kept 1 pup, the rest have gone to working homes. We currently have 12 dogs; Tiger, Emma, Mitchell, Jazz, Chook, Sally, Trixie, Billy, Goose, Snoopy, Ziggy and Macie. Matt and Indi turned up at home with a kitten from the town hay shed. I am not a cat person and this thing is pretty feral. She is by no means a big beautiful fluffy house cat, she is a runty little black thing with a dodgy leg BUT she is a good mouse catcher which is her entire purpose here. Her name is ‘Mouse’ of course. The mice have just started getting very active this past month and after baiting we have that lovely smell of rotting mice in the wall somewhere…just marinating in the 38 degree heat. YUCK! If you know the smell, gaaa! Indi has got some nice chickens, she has silver and gold laced wyandottes. I often have an incubator full of eggs in the kitchen hatching out chickens or guinea fowls. She is currently hatching out chickens so she can sell some at the Christmas markets in December. Always a little cheep cheep coming from the kitchen buffet.

We have had lots of visitors to Ercildoune in 2025. My primary school friend Bec and her family came out from Gympie. They stayed a week. It was really special having our kids together, we had such a lovely time. We also had her parents stay a few months later whilst they were out and about in their caravan. I have known them since I was a kid so it was lovely to spend time with them too. We had Mum come and stay for a few weeks, which was really special to have her for that long. We also had some of Mums friends visit while they were on the road too. My brother Luke and Sarah came out for a weekend which was super cool. My Aunty Sue and Geoff also came and camped for a few nights. Matt’s niece and her family also stayed a week. They have 2 young boys and they had the time of their lives with all the boy toys out here. Ashton absolutely loved having them to play with. Its been a lovely year of visitors!

Whilst the year is winding down, all the end of year events start to fill the calendar. Indi and I will head to Blackall for 2 days this week for her swim camp as part of school. Next weekend is our pony club breakup. There’s another trip to Longreach for swimming carnival and awards night as well as Awards night for Lexi. Staff parties, christmas markets. Boy, so much happening. We will enjoy a quite Christmas at home and have a much needed 2 week holiday planned away in January. Woohoo!

I wish you all a wonderful festive season and look forward to updating you in 2026!

Much love,

J x