Sunday 9 December 2012

This is it ...

 

This is it my last night on the station, at least for a while. I look around and see empty walls, the building feels hollow, sounds hollow. My car, however, is not and except for food it is packed and ready to head out the gate tomorrow morning. I am excited for the future and what it will bring but sad to be leaving. For me I don't think the leaving permanently has sunk in. I am going to miss the families I work for and their kids. They are my outback family and together we have been through a lot of ups and downs but I wouldn't trade the experiences we've had together for the world.

 
P.S. Sorry for the lack of posts, it has been pretty hectic around here but catch up will happen as there are some exciting things to share.

Saturday 24 November 2012

Baby Roll Call

Pippy's pups

Missy's Pups

The Fantastic Four

Say 'Hi' to Noggin

From the title you probably guessed this one already, yep another calf, another boy.
His name is Noggin because he has a big head (named by Miss S) and he is a bit of a boof head.

 
That brings us up to four poddy calves and in the words of Miss S "we've never in the history of here well that I've been alive EVER had four poddies at the same time." So because of the new addition we no longer can have the Three Stooges or Three Amigos we now have ... the Fantastic Four.
 
Noggin came in through the yards at the beginning of the week with some cows but he was just a tag along and didn't belong to any of them.

 
So he was captured ... let me tell you he is a heavy little thing.

 
 Then held on the trailer on the Toyota/ Golden Chariot for the ride back to the house.

 
While I was passenger and instructor we let Miss S have a go behind the wheel. The smile was worth it. I guess I can add driving instructor to my job description that is found way back here.

 
On arriving back at the house Noggin was released into the house yards and the recaptured for a feed. I think I must be getting pretty good at the calf wrangling bit as yet again I found myself with a calf clamped between my knee while learning to feed. He is a tall one to because I could only just stand over him with feet flat on the ground. He took to the bottle really fast.

 
Here are the other three from the Fantastic Four having a feed. Three calves on one feeder makes for an interesting feed time.

 
From left to right there is Sadie, Angel and Crusty all checking out their new yard mate.

Chinese Dragons

 
Today in amongst doing our remaining school work we went off on a tangent and learnt about Chinese Dragons. I found a slideshow here that told us a bit about Chinese Dragons as well as what they looked like and what they stood for.
 
 
Did you know that traditionally Chinese dragons had a camels head, a snake's neck, fish scales, eagle claws, tiger paws, ox ears, deer horn and whiskers. There colour also told you a lot about them. Green was for the land, blue for water, red for fire, brown for the forest and gold for metals and precious gems. They each had different personalities as well. Now I'm not saying this information is fact but it sounds pretty cool to me.
 
 
The kids then drew some dragons as I gave them each feature and chose the colours they wanted to colour their dragon. We had some very powerful dragons created who were multi coloured so they had ALL the powers.

 
 


Later on after school work was done we made egg carton dragons to hang in the schoolroom.
 
 
 
 To make these I cut up egg cartons and gave the kids 6 pieces each.



They painted each cup of the egg carton inside and out.



They then glued on eyes and a tongue on one cup for the head.



After tying some bells to the end of some ribbon the egg cartons (now with holes in them) were threaded onto the ribbon and the ribbon tied off. A dab of craft glue was put on the knot to stop it going anywhere.

 
More instructions can be found here.

 

Thursday 22 November 2012

We're Going To Asia ...

... well our schoolroom is going to Asia.
You got excited for me didn't you.
 
The family I work for don't do celebrations but we are still having fun making things and this time it is Asia. Miss S is studying Japanese and Mr E, Miss E and Mr R looked at Asian stories throughout the year so to finish it off we are going Asian in our schoolroom. Bring on Asian stories, food, crafts and games.
 
 
To start the ball rolling yesterday after pulling down our sea themed decorations and artworks the kids painted some large paper lanterns to hang in our room.
 
 
They are bright and colourful making the room look cheerful. I found these lanterns in a cheap shop in The Towers.
 
 
 
Next up we are going to make some Chinese Dragons after a bit of story telling.
 
Note: Did you notice the countdown in the background of the last photo ... scary.
 
 
 
 
 

Sunday 18 November 2012

A Lazy School Day

On Friday we steered clear of the curriculum and had a lazy school day ... okay not so lazy. We are coming up to the end of the school year and have very little work left to do. The count down is up on the board at the children's insistence but I am not really enjoying watching the numbers go down and knowing that this also marks about how long it is until I leave. I like the kids though am happy that the holidays are creeping ever closer.

We did maths worksheets I made up as well as some I printed out.

This sheet can be found here.
 
 
We made cool crab crackers for smoko with Jatz, dip, cheese, carrot and sultanas.

 
We played a dice game called 'roll a turtle' that involved drawing a turtle by the number rolled.

 
We wrote acrostic poems about something from the ocean and made bright balancing crabs.

This activity and printout can be found here

We finished reading the second 'Rowan of Rin' book by Emily Rodda which the kids LOVED and we practised dances for our end of school musical. We then finished the school day on a high note playing computer games and drinking choc banana smoothies.

 
The evening saw Boss Lady H and myself heading down to the house dam to start the pump so we had water (long story short the windmill is broken). Imagine our surprise when we almost walked into a roo and then saw a lone pelican on the very low dam.


 
 As the light faded I got a snap of the three boys perched on a rock watching their Dads bring the weaners back after a day out tailing them.

 
 

Thursday 15 November 2012

Weaner Time

14th Nov


Nope not the sausage variety but the cattle variety. A weaner is a calf that has been taken off it's mother so it can no longer suck off her. They can be weaned as young as 6months although some aren't weaned until 8 to 10months of age. This depends on the property, the cattle and the season. When steers and heifers (boys and girls) are weaned here they are usually tailed for 2 weeks. Tailing means they are taken out every day to feed and walk along the fence lines and learn how to stay together in a mob. This is done on horseback here.

Here are some pictures of the horses and riders getting ready to go ...





 




 
 
The weaners were put into the paddock beside the house to feed and water for a few hours yesterday before being moved along again.
 

 
 
A previous post on weaners can be found here.

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Afternoon Feed

Okay so now I am probably going overboard with the calf photos but how can I resist sharing the three stooges and all that milky cuteness.

Angel and Sadie having their evening feed.
 
Yum, yum.
 
What's yours taste like? Can I have some?

Milk bath.

He he I got it! Lesson never take your mouth off your food.

Crusty

Clamping Crusty between my legs to feed him after catching him.

Yum, bottle time! (photo proof that I do what I say)

Gone? Are you serious?

Miss S giving Crusty another litre of milk while hold him still.

See I can do it myself. No one is holding me now.
 
Nearly empty ..

 
All gone ... You've got to be kidding!

Okay this will do I guess, tasty.

Note: Crusty is a lot easier to catch and feed than Angel who was a two or more person job. She just helps herself to the feeder now. Crusty will get the hang of the bottle soon enough he already chases it around when it is empty.