This is what you look like after Dan drives....
I'm not sure if this is legal but why not?
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Fun pictures
This is what you look like after Dan drives....
I'm not sure if this is legal but why not?
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Never a dull Sunday at Mellaluka
I figured I might as well keep the blogging on a bit of a roll as I have been going through our photos and realised just HOW much time has past since we updated you! Now I am going back a few weeks after the droving trip, just before the July muster started at Mellaluka. (Basically we rounded up all of the cows on horseback and brought them into the yards to preg test them, vaccinate the young ones and decide the ones that have left us babyless are going to the meatworks.) Before these hectic two weeks started Sam and Bruce thought we ought to have a relaxing weekend outing to go koala hunting. As you all know Dan and I have been a few times to seek one out and are STILL waiting. The day was pretty much Dan's fantasy outing. We all squeezed into their Argo - a 6 wheeled machine that drives on both land AND in the water and the best part about it? It was made in a little place called New Hamburg, Ontario. We headed down to the creek for a morning breakfast of pancakes on the fire and set the net to catch a few fish. While waiting for the fish to swim our way we headed off into what Sam and Bruce call "koala country" to try our luck. After a few hours of craning our necks at every gum tree known to man Sam and I were about to give up when we heard frantic cries from Bruce and Dan's direction. It turns out they had stumbled on to a litter? (perhaps pod, who knows) of baby piglets, probably 8 or 9 of them. Then we did what every family in the bush does on your average Sunday - we surrounded them and tried to catch as many as we could. Needless to say Dan and I came up empty handed but Sam and Josie both caught one while Bruce and Tom came back with one in each hand. We decided to keep one to eat for Christmas dinner but then got into a heated debate over whether or not it would be lonely, so ended up trekking a couple of miles back to the truck with three tiny piggies in our hands. They were quite cute but of course covered in ticks and mine peed on me (a recurring theme with animals and me). We named them after the recently deceased Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson and named the third Vicki in honor of Vicki Goodson's birthday*. After dropping the pigs off to a safer location we went off for an afternoon of clay pigeon shooting (as I said, Dan's dream day). All went went well and I even managed to hit one albeit after firing a shot straight into the ground 3 feet in front of my feet. FOrtunately no one was injured during the escapade except perhaps a few earth worms.
As the sun was about to set we got back into the argo to check on the progress of our net ... and found one measely fish in it which we proceeded to take back home in an old potato sack. Bruce then forgot about it and left it in the sack overnight so although he ended up in the garbage we could still say we caught a doozy.
All in all it was a very exciting way to spend a Sunday and although I am not much of a shot Dan has been shooting at anything without a first name and is improving at quite a rate! Enjoy the photos and look for an update of our trip to the Whitsunday islands - coming soon to a blog near you! Much love, ash and dan xxoo
As the sun was about to set we got back into the argo to check on the progress of our net ... and found one measely fish in it which we proceeded to take back home in an old potato sack. Bruce then forgot about it and left it in the sack overnight so although he ended up in the garbage we could still say we caught a doozy.
All in all it was a very exciting way to spend a Sunday and although I am not much of a shot Dan has been shooting at anything without a first name and is improving at quite a rate! Enjoy the photos and look for an update of our trip to the Whitsunday islands - coming soon to a blog near you! Much love, ash and dan xxoo
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Blong over due...
THIS IS FOR YOU MOM! I had a rather curt email from my mom this morning claiming that her fingers were getting sore from checking our blog so she wasn't going to bother anymore - imagine that! So I have decided that since Dan has fallen off the blog wagon I will have to jump back on it for the both of us. I am going to go way back to the second week of June and give you all a long overdue update on the infamous droving trip!
Dan, Sam, Tom, Josie and I packed up our swags and horses and headed off early Monday morning to meet up with the rest of the drovers. In case you were wondering, Sam's father had donated nearly 1700 cattle to a local camp draft (rodeo style event). The drove consisted of walking these cattle from a station 80 km outside of Clermont into the showgrounds in the town. In total there were about 30 people involved (and over 50 horses) and Dan and I were very lucky to be the only foreigners so we really got the outback experience! I rode my horse, Gorie and Dan rode the new love of his life, Bow. In fact, I often found Dan snuggling and hugging Bow when he thought I wasn't looking but we won't tell anyone else about that.
We would rise every morning around 5 and be greeted by our cook, a lovely VOLUNTEER named Vicky who would cook 4 meals a day for all 30 of us on a camp fire. Pretty impressive work if you ask me. After a hearty meal involving as much beef as you could ask for we would set off for the day. There would always be 5 or 6 people leading the cattle, 6 or 7 on the end bringing up the tail, while others floated along the side to keep any strays off the road or to chase any back into the mob that were brave enough to escape. Needless to say I usually stuck to the rear (where the cattle were especially slow) but did manage to chase a few back in from time to time (which was pretty tricky as Gorie was more interested in eating than chasing). We would stop for a couple of hours at lunch time to let the cattle rest and would take turns eating and being on "lookout" for any wanderers. At this time I would get out of lookout duty as I would watch the kids while some of the parents would go back to our previous nights camp, pick up the trucks and any spare horses and take them ahead to our new spot so they would be there upon our arrival. We would usually roll into camp at around 5 or 530, just in time for a few beers around the camp fire and a necessary strech of the legs. It was definitely a shock to my system to ride a horse for 8 hours a day (considering I had been on one about 6 times at that point!). Sore knees and raw backsides are definitely an inevetible part of a droving trip. In the evenings Dan and I slept in our tent while other people slept under tarps or in the backs of their trucks which they used to carry their horses. It was definitely different to camping in Childers as we did EVERYTHING (and I mean everything) outside, including eating, sleeping and showering.
I think the highlight of Dan's trip had to be when a group of backpackers pulled over to the side of the road and asked if they could take a picture of us... as we had on our full bush get-up* we blended right in - I guess they didn't notice the accents.
After 5 solid days on horseback hearing Dan say "This is the life" we finally arrived in Clermont, very dusty, dirty, tired and in desperate need of a hairbrush (we lost ours a while back). We then headed back out to Mellaluka, enjoying the prospect of a bed, shower and toilet but very, very thankful for the experience and all of the amazing people we met along the way.
Needless to say a lot has happened since the second week of June and I will add some photos this evening of the trip and some more details and goingson in the world of Dan and Ash. Until next time ... the cowboys.
*When dressing in the bush it is compulsary to wear the following, with absolutely no exceptions: blue jeans, collared shirt, cowboy/riding boots, spurs, bandana around the neck for ladies, widest/biggest cowboy hat imaginable, leather belt.
It also helps to fit in if you have a sun burn/tanned skin on the lower half of your face and a stark white top half and say the phrase "fair dinkum" as often as possible.
Dan, Sam, Tom, Josie and I packed up our swags and horses and headed off early Monday morning to meet up with the rest of the drovers. In case you were wondering, Sam's father had donated nearly 1700 cattle to a local camp draft (rodeo style event). The drove consisted of walking these cattle from a station 80 km outside of Clermont into the showgrounds in the town. In total there were about 30 people involved (and over 50 horses) and Dan and I were very lucky to be the only foreigners so we really got the outback experience! I rode my horse, Gorie and Dan rode the new love of his life, Bow. In fact, I often found Dan snuggling and hugging Bow when he thought I wasn't looking but we won't tell anyone else about that.
We would rise every morning around 5 and be greeted by our cook, a lovely VOLUNTEER named Vicky who would cook 4 meals a day for all 30 of us on a camp fire. Pretty impressive work if you ask me. After a hearty meal involving as much beef as you could ask for we would set off for the day. There would always be 5 or 6 people leading the cattle, 6 or 7 on the end bringing up the tail, while others floated along the side to keep any strays off the road or to chase any back into the mob that were brave enough to escape. Needless to say I usually stuck to the rear (where the cattle were especially slow) but did manage to chase a few back in from time to time (which was pretty tricky as Gorie was more interested in eating than chasing). We would stop for a couple of hours at lunch time to let the cattle rest and would take turns eating and being on "lookout" for any wanderers. At this time I would get out of lookout duty as I would watch the kids while some of the parents would go back to our previous nights camp, pick up the trucks and any spare horses and take them ahead to our new spot so they would be there upon our arrival. We would usually roll into camp at around 5 or 530, just in time for a few beers around the camp fire and a necessary strech of the legs. It was definitely a shock to my system to ride a horse for 8 hours a day (considering I had been on one about 6 times at that point!). Sore knees and raw backsides are definitely an inevetible part of a droving trip. In the evenings Dan and I slept in our tent while other people slept under tarps or in the backs of their trucks which they used to carry their horses. It was definitely different to camping in Childers as we did EVERYTHING (and I mean everything) outside, including eating, sleeping and showering.
I think the highlight of Dan's trip had to be when a group of backpackers pulled over to the side of the road and asked if they could take a picture of us... as we had on our full bush get-up* we blended right in - I guess they didn't notice the accents.
After 5 solid days on horseback hearing Dan say "This is the life" we finally arrived in Clermont, very dusty, dirty, tired and in desperate need of a hairbrush (we lost ours a while back). We then headed back out to Mellaluka, enjoying the prospect of a bed, shower and toilet but very, very thankful for the experience and all of the amazing people we met along the way.
Needless to say a lot has happened since the second week of June and I will add some photos this evening of the trip and some more details and goingson in the world of Dan and Ash. Until next time ... the cowboys.
*When dressing in the bush it is compulsary to wear the following, with absolutely no exceptions: blue jeans, collared shirt, cowboy/riding boots, spurs, bandana around the neck for ladies, widest/biggest cowboy hat imaginable, leather belt.
It also helps to fit in if you have a sun burn/tanned skin on the lower half of your face and a stark white top half and say the phrase "fair dinkum" as often as possible.
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