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.

Travelling

The thing with travelling is that you never know what you will find around the bend or what you see in the distance along straight stretches of road. I travel this stretch of road headed for town pretty often and am rather familiar with its every turn and pot hole but it never ceases to amaze me how much it can change from week to week, season to season. All it takes is to travel it at a slightly different time of day and you see things in a whole new light.

 

I have seen many emus and a few with chicks however none have chosen to stay anywhere near as visible once traffic comes along. Usually you see them heading their chicks off the road and into the bushes before you can even pick up a camera.

The starkness of ant hills/ termite mounds jutting out of the ground only adds to the harsh beauty of the outback.

I love this time of year with the native flowers starting to bloom. The colours are amazing the sweet smell of wattle hits you when you get out of the car. The gums are also starting to flower as well as the gravilleas and the bottle brush isn't far off.

 

  

 On this trip I got to finally see the resident camels that I had heard were around but never seen. They were very quiet and quite happy to keep munching away while I stopped in the middle of their group.

 

Just the Beginning



Winton Show Ball 2011 - a great night out

Well I dare say we will notice the silence tonight, the cattle are finally out of the yards. Out of 7 days we have only spent 1 and 3/4days in the school room. The rest of our time has been in the cattle yards, at cluster or it was the weekend ... which come to think of it part of that was in the cattle yards as well. I figured this was a good time to start a blog, to record the different sides of being a govie on a cattle station. If you want to you can have the best of all worlds by teaching the kids, taking part in station work and going out on weekends. Now after last term were I think I spent 1 full weekend on the property I wouldn't recommend going out every weekend, it is exhausting. Up to 8 hrs on the road every weekend takes its toll but on the other hand you get to meet lots of interesting people and have some great nights out.

I know when it comes round to mustering and yard work we will spend plenty of time out helping. The kids need to join in and it is a case of every hand on deck. No matter the job you do whether it be making sure cattle go into the dip, pushing up cattle in the yards or tallying every bit of help counts and speeds up the job to be done. After starting at lunch time yesterday by lunch time today we had finally finished dipping the last of the cows, calves and bulls as well as some of the neighbours cattle that have not long been picked up.

Yesterday afternoon when pushing the cattle through the yards we discovered that yet another calf had been born in the yard. The little cutie was still covered in afterbirth. The hard thing with calves born in the yards is that it is hard for their mums to find them. He managed to stay out of the way hiding beside the railings but as it cooled of he came over for some human company and coddling.

This morning it looked like he had been cleaned off but there was still no mum in sight. He ended up camping out near the crush moving closer and closer to us every time he woke up. By the end of the morning he was sleeping in a ball right where I was working so I had to step over him every time I pushed a bull through to the dip. In the end I think he got sick of being tripped over and headed off to find his mum. The last I saw he was trying to suck of any cow near enough, the hungry little beggar. I guess we will find out if it found its mum when they come back from turning out the cattle.

Being in the yards is extremely confusing for the cattle. All the sound and unfamiliar sights are certainly not what they are use to when plodding along, doing there own thing out in the bush. Even more confusing when you are blind. One of the cows has a blind calf nicknamed Dizzy by the kids, and just to show how good a mum she has she is one healthy looking calf. Today after going through the dip she lost her mum so spent a lot of time wondering around trying to find her and at one stage spinning round and round in circles trying to find her (hence the name Dizzy which she picked up when separated from mum for branding). She found mum later after heading back into the main mob of cows.



Dizzy running in circles