Twiddling Thumbs

Isn't amazing how after moving away you can slot back into a community with no problem but some how the fit isn't always just right. Long time friends are no longer there to pass time. However everywhere you look there are still the same people in the same groups and places doing their part.

View of the station I work on.

As you may (or may not) guess from the above I am on holidays. The family I work for have taken extra time off around an event so we all are having a bit of time to chill. So I thought what better time to fill in a bit more about where I come from and how I came to be where I am. Well it is better than twiddling my thumbs and looking at the clock thinking 'hmmm, now E would be on air and R would be doing English ...' I find it hard going from the busyness of station life back to home life were other than helping out with housework (YUCK) or making countless trips to the local shop of post office for no reason life seems to plod along. Now don't get me wrong the impromptu break is wonderful especially after the busiest 3 weeks  with mustering, yard work, cluster and still fitting in school work.

So back to the beginning ...

I have been studying to be an Early Childhood Teacher so I can work with the little tuckers. While still at uni the opportunity came up to do an Isolated Children's Project. Now I had been dreaming about working on a station, meeting that handsome ringer ... well station owner and riding off into the sunset, so I thought it was a great idea. Well admittedly I was also interested in what this distance education caper was all about but lets face it the romantic version is much more interesting.

Bit wet ... coming back to the station after it rained

The mud drying - it curls up everywhere and the kids have dubbed it chocolate cornflakes

Heading out mustering

A smokey sunset

Wild dog culling

Cattle in yards when raining ... what a mess!
I got bogged that day. The mud came up over my boots
and in the end it and sucked one off.

  

After being out here for over two and a half years I can still see that romantic version of the outback around me (now I know that isn't that long but give me points for not planning on leaving for a while yet). I guess some people don't see past the heat, flies as well as other equally annoying critters ... nope rephrase, MORE annoying critters (I am sure at some stage I could even compile a list of them) and isolation (and for those who don't already know wet season can keep you isolated for anywhere up to a few months or as the case was last year, when it rained all but one month, I didn't make it to town very much at all for the 10 or so months I was actually at the station). When you get past all that, which you have to fast, you get to know an area and its people. People who are there because they have a passion for what they do, no matter what is thrown at them. People willing to fight for a dwindling way of life. It is the people who make the outback. Plus I don't know how others can't see the beauty of red dirt, wide blue skies, wattle in bloom. So yes it is a harsh way of life, full of battles and setbacks but I think the combination of that and peoples' spirit is what makes it magical ...  romantic. 

Creek that nearly stopped me getting home, lucky it went down quickly.

So I got a little sidetracked so I'll let you know the rest of the how I got here story another day.