Finally I could sleep in today, because we had breakfast at 7 o’clock. Our main job was to draft and process the cattle today. We started with the latter and worked with the calves. I put their ear-tag in, punching two gaps in the other ear and branded them with the station-mark and birth year. Ben also taught me how to castrate a bull, but we haven’t had any bulls left on which I could practise, …
No bugs doesn’t mean, that nothing disturbs you! The cattle right next to my window kept muh-ing the whole night. Anyway, it was a big day today! We got up at 6 and did a bit of preparation and maintenance. Watering the yards, that it’s not too dusty when the cattle is in there, filling the vehicles with fuel and checking one of the water pumps. After that we went to the barrel Avgas (aviation …
The night ended at 5.40, when Ben arrived in his Landcruiser. After a quick breakfast, which consists of toast and minced beef (a weird looking, greenish mash from minced beef and onions) we headed of for the first mustering of the day. I got a warm jacket and a beanie, probably the last thing you would think of, when you stay in the Outback. I was quite thankful for this, as it’s really cold when …
The day started at 7.30. After the breakfast Jan packed heaps of food and kitchengear together, while I packed some clothes for the next 5 days. We loaded everything in her Nissan 4WD and “my” Landcruiser. Around 9.30 we headed of to Narangie: Rob in the Truck with a Landcruiser attached to the back, Jan with the Nissan with a horsefloat which inhabited the calf and me in my Landcruiser at the back, who was …
After I ignored my alarm clock at 6.30am, I set it purposely a bit later cause I hot up really early the last days, I finally woke up at 7.45, thinking I am the last one to get up. It turned out, that I was the first one in the main room, but Jan and Rob joined me a bit past 8. We had a extended breakfast and started working around 9.30am. Today we had …
Got up at 6am to assemble the windmill. After a breakfast with fried sausages, we took the truck with all the gear we loaded on yesterday and headed of to the 33 acre property, which is about an hour away from the house. We unloaded all the gear in a shearing shed and left for Winton again. Here we went to a workshop to get some spare parts. It was one of these sheds where …
We got up at 6am and went immediately to dismount a part of a windmill to fix it, before the wind starts blowing. After this was done, we went back and had breakfast, steak and eggs. Interesting for the first meal of a day! We spent the whole day in and around the work-shed to repair things and organize all the stuff we need for the weekend. It started with the repair of the pump, …
I got up at 6.30am and after a breakfast with eggs and fish fingers, we started working. While we were chasing the cattle through some iron fences, i felt like a real Jackaroo, sitting on top of the fences watching the cattle running around, no matter how narrow the path was.
After I woke up several times and only slept for 2 or 3 hours at a time, i eventually decided to end the night around 6 in the morning. I again coarsed, cause the toilets right at the end of my carriage where, of course, broken and I had to go 3 carriages to reach the closest toilet. I went to have a hot breakfast at 7.30 and spent the time with an old fella …
Gary drove me to the Nambour train station and dropped me of. Very confident, that my bag wouldn’t be much over the 20kg allowance, cause I threw out a couple of things, I entered the station and went to the baggage counter. The scale stopped at 30.something kg and I was a bit shocked. As well as the QR-employee. Luckily it’s no problem to take more luggage with you, as long as you carry it …
