Friday's work just finished up and I thought that while I sit here mellowing out to Kenny Chesney's most recent album I'd write up another post for the ol' blog. I do that on paper now cuz my internet time is sporadic and sometimes very limited.
I remember putting so much emphasis before I move here about some of the statistics... 4 hours from a decent town, 2 hours from the nearest town of 200, mail and ambulance by plane, ect.. Yet now that I'm working out here, the isolation doesn't even seem to cross my mind for weeks at a time. Sure, I look forward to the day that I'm back in Texas and the big cities (God I never knew how much of a Texas guy I was until I left the state) but right now I'm exactly where I should, and more imporantly WANT to be.
It's another month or two before the contract musterers get to the station, at which point there will be 12 other jackaroos/jillaroos about my age to spend some of the evenings with. Mustering season (rounding up the cattle to the stockyards for sorting from all over the station) will last about two hard months, and there is plenty to do as we Tony and I prepare for it.
Most days Tony and I work side by side, recently either putting new timber into the stockyards here at the homestead or riding out all day for work on the miles (and miles and miles) of barbed wirce fences. During the wet season of Jan. and Feb. the waterways swell and mess the fences up something awful, so I think with 600 miles of it and MANY waterways it's fair to say that there's enough work to keep a few men busy year in and year out.
The weather is amazing, very few clouds and plenty of sunshine. Granted, the sun in the afternoon hours sometimes feels like an oppresive deamon straight out of hell... but hey, welcome to the Australian Outback eh?
Tony, my boss and manager, is 45 and a good man in all measures. He moved from Cairns out to the bush when he was about 18 to find life as a stockman, and he's very good at what he does. He's a hard worker no doubt, but lucky for me he deosn't have any desire for us to overwork ourselves. He says there's no point in running ourselves completly into the ground out here, and I couldn't agree more. He expects good work tho, so every time he leaves a job for me to do by myself, I make sure that I do it right. I decided the first day I got here that I was never going to make the man repeat himself or point out something done half-way. It's not like I can just make new friends out here or anything...
Lisa, Tony's wife, is an amazing cook. When you're on an isolated cattle station, you better be prepared to be in love with steak. Luckily I fit that bill. Even better, I have never had a predictable meal since I've been here. It's been nearly a month already (and MAN has that flown by) and almost every dinner has been something different. Heck we even had a great curry the other night. Speaking of eating cattle, the second week I was out here I had my first experience actually cutting up a beast. We drove out into one of the paddocks nearby and found a good fat cow with no calf, and an hour later we had a month's supply of cut up beef in the bed of our Toyota Landcruiser. Btw- I'm driving pretty well on manual these days.. after my lesson on the Gold Coast with my Auntie Jo and Uncle Jeff it's been a piece of cake.
I'm working 6 days a week right now as there is a lot to catch up on (seeing as Tony and Lisa didn't have any station help for a few months), and I told them that I had no problem at all working Saturdays.. "seeing as I don't have any hot dates lined up". When we knock off around 5, I head straight to the shower and mellow out to some good music. Uusally a 4X Gold Beer (the local favourite) is in order back near the main building as I chat with Tony and Lisa. I've been putting in a little less than an hour a day on the guitar, at which I'm still a beginner, as I decided that I might as well utilize my free time in the evenings to get much better at that. Dinner is accomanied by the show 'Two and a Half Men' which comes on every weeknight, and unless there's a good Bond of Indiana Jones movie on TV I'm out before 9pm.
While riding back from fence work yesterday I was thinking about the fact that I may go see the Great Pryamids of Egypt before I get back stateside. And then I thought about the fact that I COULD do that.. or darned near anything else that comes into my head. I'm enjoying it so much here that I might just end up staying here longer, which will help me put plenty of money away to make my trip back go through South Africa, Egypt, Italy, Germany, France, and Ireland a real possiblility. As long as I have enough away to get my own feet on the ground for a car and my own place when I get back (to wherever it is I decide to call 'home' for the next phase of my life).. anything goes.
Don't spend a second worrying about me out here, I'm having the time of my life out here.
I remember putting so much emphasis before I move here about some of the statistics... 4 hours from a decent town, 2 hours from the nearest town of 200, mail and ambulance by plane, ect.. Yet now that I'm working out here, the isolation doesn't even seem to cross my mind for weeks at a time. Sure, I look forward to the day that I'm back in Texas and the big cities (God I never knew how much of a Texas guy I was until I left the state) but right now I'm exactly where I should, and more imporantly WANT to be.
It's another month or two before the contract musterers get to the station, at which point there will be 12 other jackaroos/jillaroos about my age to spend some of the evenings with. Mustering season (rounding up the cattle to the stockyards for sorting from all over the station) will last about two hard months, and there is plenty to do as we Tony and I prepare for it.
Most days Tony and I work side by side, recently either putting new timber into the stockyards here at the homestead or riding out all day for work on the miles (and miles and miles) of barbed wirce fences. During the wet season of Jan. and Feb. the waterways swell and mess the fences up something awful, so I think with 600 miles of it and MANY waterways it's fair to say that there's enough work to keep a few men busy year in and year out.
The weather is amazing, very few clouds and plenty of sunshine. Granted, the sun in the afternoon hours sometimes feels like an oppresive deamon straight out of hell... but hey, welcome to the Australian Outback eh?
Tony, my boss and manager, is 45 and a good man in all measures. He moved from Cairns out to the bush when he was about 18 to find life as a stockman, and he's very good at what he does. He's a hard worker no doubt, but lucky for me he deosn't have any desire for us to overwork ourselves. He says there's no point in running ourselves completly into the ground out here, and I couldn't agree more. He expects good work tho, so every time he leaves a job for me to do by myself, I make sure that I do it right. I decided the first day I got here that I was never going to make the man repeat himself or point out something done half-way. It's not like I can just make new friends out here or anything...
Lisa, Tony's wife, is an amazing cook. When you're on an isolated cattle station, you better be prepared to be in love with steak. Luckily I fit that bill. Even better, I have never had a predictable meal since I've been here. It's been nearly a month already (and MAN has that flown by) and almost every dinner has been something different. Heck we even had a great curry the other night. Speaking of eating cattle, the second week I was out here I had my first experience actually cutting up a beast. We drove out into one of the paddocks nearby and found a good fat cow with no calf, and an hour later we had a month's supply of cut up beef in the bed of our Toyota Landcruiser. Btw- I'm driving pretty well on manual these days.. after my lesson on the Gold Coast with my Auntie Jo and Uncle Jeff it's been a piece of cake.
I'm working 6 days a week right now as there is a lot to catch up on (seeing as Tony and Lisa didn't have any station help for a few months), and I told them that I had no problem at all working Saturdays.. "seeing as I don't have any hot dates lined up". When we knock off around 5, I head straight to the shower and mellow out to some good music. Uusally a 4X Gold Beer (the local favourite) is in order back near the main building as I chat with Tony and Lisa. I've been putting in a little less than an hour a day on the guitar, at which I'm still a beginner, as I decided that I might as well utilize my free time in the evenings to get much better at that. Dinner is accomanied by the show 'Two and a Half Men' which comes on every weeknight, and unless there's a good Bond of Indiana Jones movie on TV I'm out before 9pm.
While riding back from fence work yesterday I was thinking about the fact that I may go see the Great Pryamids of Egypt before I get back stateside. And then I thought about the fact that I COULD do that.. or darned near anything else that comes into my head. I'm enjoying it so much here that I might just end up staying here longer, which will help me put plenty of money away to make my trip back go through South Africa, Egypt, Italy, Germany, France, and Ireland a real possiblility. As long as I have enough away to get my own feet on the ground for a car and my own place when I get back (to wherever it is I decide to call 'home' for the next phase of my life).. anything goes.
Don't spend a second worrying about me out here, I'm having the time of my life out here.
3 comments:
Dakotah,
Life sounds just like it should for you at the moment. Enjoy and take that long trip home when you have finished your experience here in Australia.
Take care from one Aussie to another Aussie/Texan.
Bloody awesome. I hope I get to do something as satisfying when I move to Australia.
If you keep traveling around instead of coming home I am flying out to see you. ;-)
Miss you!
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