The boys didn’t need much convincing to get out of bed, even
though it was 7am as they were off to work the cattle! It was a bit brisk and
the sun hadn’t poked its head over the horizon as we jumped in Izzy and drove
to the yards. As we came over the rise we could see plenty of dust around the
yards so I knew there was plenty of action. We headed over and met with Dustin
who was a super affable bloke, in his early to mid thirties, who was more than
happy for us to join in. They were drafting of the cattle so we decided we were
better of keeping out of the way and had a wonder around the yards.
Once the
cattle were sorted we were given the job of keeping the cattle in the race and
pushing them into the cattle crush. As they were weaners we were putting two or
three in the crush at a time with the added problem being that they could turn
around in the race. Er whooped, haaed and get up there’d for the next few hours
as we ran through 130 odd head, branding them as well as dipping, tagging and a
few other things. Sam stood back a bit for the first session watching the
action from the top of a gate while Jack and I were bust racing back and forth.
As we got the last few in Dustin grabbed Sambo and got him
to brand one of them. I could tell he was pretty nervous but he did a perfect
job with but the ECT brand as well as the 4 showing the year it was born. Jack
followed and his effort will trick most people into thinking they are having
double vision, but these aren’t exactly show cattle!
After smoko De joined us and we ran another mob through with
Jacko taking over the running of the race while Sam and I jumped into the
holding yard and pushed them forward for Jack. Sam was having a ball running
around pushing them forward while I looked after the gates and everything ran
like clockwork!
With the mornings yard work done the horses were brought in to
move them for tomorrows work. Once they were in Dustin offered the boys a
chance to have a ride around the yards which the both jumped at. Luckily two of
the contractors were petite ladies so they boys almost fit in their saddles!
For the next half hour the boys rode around in the yards having a great time.
There were another 10 horses in the yards so they had to work pretty damn hard
to get them to do what they wanted so it was a good experience for them.
It had been a massive mornings work and I was feeling a bit
weary so we headed back to camp, had a late lunch and a nana nap before we
headed out for a fish in the afternoon. I had be given the tip and headed west
in the ‘puddle’, as I called it yesterday, motoring along for a km or so and
then trolling for around another 2 kms. I was pretty amazed that in places
there water was going down to 18 and 19 meters in depth, it was about 100m at its
widest and must have been 5 or more kilometres long....this is one huge puddle!
We trolled some more as well as dropping a live bait we caught all with no
success. The painful part was I could see some absolute monster fish on the
sounder but couldn’t get them to bite!!
 |
| I think the fish around here have appetites bigger than there mouths! |
It had been an awesome day so after putting Rufus back on
the roof with us we headed back, the boys got the fire going as we relaxed
around the fire. We were due back at the yards at 7am tomorrow to help load a
double B double (4 trailers that is) so we were all tucked in nice and early
ready for another big day!
POSTSCRIPT:
After 190 days I have refrained from advertising any service that we have used as I wanted to remain as imaprtial as is humanly possible, but the experience we had was worth its weight in gold and the people made it possible because they wanted to. So if you are ever up that way make sure you drop in for a couple of nights http://www.kingfisherresort.com.au/
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