So I’m updating everyone on our soon to be where abouts.
We have been at this homestead for around 5 weeks and the time for mustering/shearing is about to start. This will be done at the family's other homestead 150km from where we are now. There has been a lot of travelling over the last few days carting gear used for yard work when the contracted shears come, stuff for lamb marking and crouching, and other general gear. We will be moving over to this other homestead tomorrow for around 3 weeks where there will be NO internet. I apologise that my updates haven’t really been that regular and now to top that off I won’t be able to for a while.
It’s now for Dave and I to swim in the deep end. We will be mustering up to 6000 sheep before the shearers come on the 23rd; shears average 250 sheep per day which means roughly 2 weeks of work for them. For us, it means 6 weeks of work mustering all the sheep into holding paddocks (paddocks close to the shearing quarters), dealing with yard work, drafting(separating sexes), organising lamb marking (tagging and crouching), general injections and spraying for lice, then after all that, muster all the sheep back to where they belong. When reading this I think, “Yeah...doesn’t seem too difficult on paper”; but truly I’m shitting myself. It’s a conflict of excitement and nervousness thing that I’m going to bugger up somehow. These paddocks average 8 square km with no significant landmarks to help with navigation, basically only the sun. These will be full on 10 hour days mostly on bikes which I can imagine will do a lot of damage to my arse considering the rocky terrain and long hours (hopefully Dave can still... walk).
Hoping that we do a good enough job and don’t slow down the whole process too much.
We will have mobile signal whenever we visit the local Kingoonya Pub, so Facebook is still on. After all the mustering I can guarantee a decent and interesting blog post!
Talk to you all soon. Thanks for reading
.............................This is for all our friends and family. The QueenslandCruiser is still on the road!...............................
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
No Bull shit!
An afternoon of something completely different
It was morning tea and the whole family were sitting around the outdoor setting relaxing when the topic of beef was on the table. The wife commented how low their stocks were and the farmer noticed how many more wild cattle were on his property. With a quick check of bullets, guns, and knifes it was decided as quick as it became a topic to slaughter one for the family supply. Dave and I looked at each other and instinctively knew; it was like Bananas in Pyjamas, “are you thinking what I’m thinking B1?”, “I think I am B2!” We gathered up several tarps, an axe, 2 motorbikes, 2 guns, 3 eskies, 20 litres of water, fair few beers, and countless knifes and sharpening devices and were off in the two utes.
We heading north to a paddock where the wild cattle have been known to wonder and scouted the area using the bikes. With the radios on the farmer located one and took it down with a clean one bullet head shot. It was nice young heifer that was massively pregnant. There was a bit of guilt, but out here things become so much simpler; the taking of one life allows many others to live.
“There is an art to killing and slaughtering a cow” said the farmer without a moment’s hesitation as he sliced the hide from the chest down to the tail. He cut straight through opening up the cow into halves. There was no real blood everywhere which made the whole experience a lot easier to handle and amazingly the inside parts came out easily as one whole bag with just a few cuts and slices. The cow was completely empty with only a colossal sized rib cage keeping it all together.” It now becomes difficult” I heard. The farmer grabs his saw and axe. The saw was used to sever through the sternum and the axe to divide the cow into 4 manageable bits; through the middle of the spine then right down the spine from top to bottom. 2 front quarters and 2 rear quarters. It was such a spectacle to see the farmer just getting into this cow like it was second nature. Everything was done so quickly and clean. Dave loved the experience; he was right into it helping the farmer holding organs and random body parts. Me on the other hand had to step back for a few minutes to gain composer then once over the whole thought of it I jumped right in with Dave getting some great pictures. It took Dave, Will and I to lift only one quarter off the ground and onto the back of the Ute which puts it into perspective of how bloody big this cow was. By the end we looked at each other and laughed from all the blood all over our arms and random smudges on our faces; there was no way we would come all this way and not participate/help in this.
We took a lot of photos but for others people sack, we will not show them. These are full on photos which some people may find offensive (I sound like a bloody news presenter).
Dave and I must also respect what this family does out here and their way of life.
It was morning tea and the whole family were sitting around the outdoor setting relaxing when the topic of beef was on the table. The wife commented how low their stocks were and the farmer noticed how many more wild cattle were on his property. With a quick check of bullets, guns, and knifes it was decided as quick as it became a topic to slaughter one for the family supply. Dave and I looked at each other and instinctively knew; it was like Bananas in Pyjamas, “are you thinking what I’m thinking B1?”, “I think I am B2!” We gathered up several tarps, an axe, 2 motorbikes, 2 guns, 3 eskies, 20 litres of water, fair few beers, and countless knifes and sharpening devices and were off in the two utes.
We heading north to a paddock where the wild cattle have been known to wonder and scouted the area using the bikes. With the radios on the farmer located one and took it down with a clean one bullet head shot. It was nice young heifer that was massively pregnant. There was a bit of guilt, but out here things become so much simpler; the taking of one life allows many others to live.
“There is an art to killing and slaughtering a cow” said the farmer without a moment’s hesitation as he sliced the hide from the chest down to the tail. He cut straight through opening up the cow into halves. There was no real blood everywhere which made the whole experience a lot easier to handle and amazingly the inside parts came out easily as one whole bag with just a few cuts and slices. The cow was completely empty with only a colossal sized rib cage keeping it all together.” It now becomes difficult” I heard. The farmer grabs his saw and axe. The saw was used to sever through the sternum and the axe to divide the cow into 4 manageable bits; through the middle of the spine then right down the spine from top to bottom. 2 front quarters and 2 rear quarters. It was such a spectacle to see the farmer just getting into this cow like it was second nature. Everything was done so quickly and clean. Dave loved the experience; he was right into it helping the farmer holding organs and random body parts. Me on the other hand had to step back for a few minutes to gain composer then once over the whole thought of it I jumped right in with Dave getting some great pictures. It took Dave, Will and I to lift only one quarter off the ground and onto the back of the Ute which puts it into perspective of how bloody big this cow was. By the end we looked at each other and laughed from all the blood all over our arms and random smudges on our faces; there was no way we would come all this way and not participate/help in this.
We took a lot of photos but for others people sack, we will not show them. These are full on photos which some people may find offensive (I sound like a bloody news presenter).
Dave and I must also respect what this family does out here and their way of life.
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