It's hard to believe that it's been 4 months on the road. It certainly doesn't seem like it, and it's a joy to wake up in the morning at your own pace, gaze out upon the sunny country, and hear the birds calling and cows moo-ing as you leisurely sip on your first cup of coffee. Well, it would be if that's what we did. The reality is slightly more mundane. Winter has arrived, and the second doona has been broken out. Mornings are often about 5 degrees and, unlike a house, 5 degrees outside is about 5 degrees inside a caravan too, though the days themselves are still lovely and sunny. Mandy drags herself out of the warmth, downs some hot porridge, and strides over the paddocks to the schoolhouse for an 8am start, while Greg does all of the housework and chores, then heads off to see what he can do around the property in the oldest clothes he has.
Just like any home, there are stacks of things here on the property that are on the list to do one day when you have some time, but never seem to get to the top of the list, and Greg is trying to help by knocking some of them off. The front gates have been painted for the first time in yonks and look rather flash (something that Craig says will confirm their neighbours suspicions that they have people staying - they know he'd never get around to it), feed troughs lying about in pieces have finally been assembled, debris like old tyres, pipes and wire offcuts have been collected from around the property and sorted, bushes and trees threatening fences have been dealt with, and lots of other odd jobs taken care of.
For Mandy, it's the end of week 8, which even by prep arithmetic means that we have only two more weeks left of term, and our stay. She's going to miss the girls who are wonderful young souls, and of course their mum Sue. Mandy's birthday was almost the same day as Paige's birthday, so they shared a rainbow cake and party, though she was flattered with a modest number of candles to blow out.
A couple of days later we headed off to a very small, nearby town called Bollon to spend the weekend at the pub (yep, we were the only ones), explore the town, and have a birthday dinner. Had a lovely weekend, but we both agreed that the caravan was far more comfortable.
The real excitement of the month has been the fact that the council grader is gradually working it's way up the 50 km of dirt roads to the property. It's now done 30km, which has saved 20 minutes and most of a shock absorber each trip. It hasn't been here for over two years, and so is a really big deal. In typical fashion for us, the grader is due to pass our gates the week after we leave. Oh well.
The other excitement has been the goats. You may remember that we told you last month they they had a goat muster, and were preparing to truck them off to market. Well, the morning they went to load them on the truck, they found that they had 17 one day old kids in the pen, so they were brought to the house and hand reared for the next three weeks - three bottle feeds a day - before school, at lunch time and after school, so actual school hours were a bit erratic for a time. Of course they all had to have names, had to be patted and cuddled, and doted upon. As they got older they discovered how to jump out of the nursery pen, how to eat the vegetable patch, how to jump on the lunch table, how to break into the school room and so on, but they now seem to be reasonably content to venture outside the home fence and munch on the grass until its meal time. Being true country children, the girls are quite blase about the fact that they will end up as goat curry - just like the last lot they told us.
Whilst Mandy has been busy with goats, Greg has also been busy sorting out the local churches website. It had kind of been started over the Christmas break, but then everybody went back to work, and it never got completed, so a week or so of sorting, editing and styling meant that it's been completed and switched on. Not before time since the old site still had events from two years ago on its home page.
The real fun for Greg has been to develop a companion iPhone app for the church (can you really do that, the minister asked, his eyes widening??). Think that it's a little bit of a status thing - he was quick to show his colleagues - but the congregation can now tune in to his messages and daily devotions on their phones while stuck in their tractors ploughing, so it should be useful.
The church is very active in the community, and rather switched on. Last week they flew a minister from Adelaide for a week long program, and this weekend that are hosting a couple - Brad and Rebekah - who will be leading a weekend long workshop on music and worship, and a Saturday night concert for the town. We're going to be looking after the primary school kids so that their parents can attend. In three weeks time, the church is also running a holiday program for the primary school kids in the town, and have 60 signed up so far. The call it "Day Camp" as its a kind of cross between an adventure camp and an activities session. They bus the kids out to a local property each day, and run them ragged with activities and sports. We'll be staying on in town for the school holidays to lend a hand with the chaos.
It's all pretty impressive for a church in a reasonably small, remote town.
The other diversion for us this month was a few days in the nearest large town of Roma. Sue's grandmother is failing fast, and she wanted to take the girls to visit her in Brisbane before it was too late, so for the few days she was away we headed off to check out Roma, see the sights, do some shopping and, yes we'll admit it, pig out on fast food after 10 weeks. We stayed at the Roma Gun Club. Sounds unusual I know, but they provide the best and cheapest accommodation for caravans in the town, and we had a great time. Even watched some clay target shooting one night while the sun set and the full moon rose (cue the violins).
The highlight of Roma was probably the visit to the saleyards, where they have a guided tour of the auction process for us city folk. Really interesting to see the other end of the process once the trucks leave the property here. (Well, actually it's not quite the end of the process, but visiting an abattoir isn't on our wish list.) Seems average cows are fetching around $1500 each, and bulls up to $2500. Bet you didn't know that when you last bought some t-bone. Lot of money in them there cattle trucks thundering through town.
For something a little different, last weekend we were taken on a personal tour of a local peanut and cotton farm, where they were harvesting this year's peanut crop. It was a really interesting process, but it's probably easier to look at the pictures than have me describe it, and we even got to bring bag fulls home to roast. The dust would be an anaphylactic's worst nightmare. Everything about the land just has an obscene number of zeros on it for us city folks. It cost the farmer concerned $1.5 million to sow and reap his peanut crop, and a bad rain or frost can wipe it out. The new dam he put in for his cotton cost $3 million even before he began to fill it. The proposed kangaroo fence around our property here is in the vicinity of $300,000, and that's a bargain do-it-yourself price. It's a completely different way of thinking to what we are used to. In the city, if you are hard up you stop spending. Out here, if you stop spending, you go bankrupt.
On that cheery thought, we'll bid you farewell. This time next month we will have finished the term here on the station, be recovering from the holiday camp, and be heading off north on our next adventure. Till then, stay well.
If you would like to check out some photos:
The peanut and cotton farm
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregd999/16/1433749657/tpod.html
The saleyards at Roma
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregd999/16/1433394023/tpod.html
Trucking the cattle off to market
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregd999/16/1431820800/tpod.html
Mandy's birthday
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregd999/16/1432857600/tpod.html
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregd999/16/1432944000/tpod.html
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