Oh Swan’s Lagoon…What can I not say about Swan’s Lagoon!!! I have the absolutely most amazing week at the Swan’s Lagoon Cattle Research Station!!! Swan’s can hold 3-5 THOUSAND head of Brahman influenced cattle! There is currently probably about 1.5 or 2 thousand head on Swan's. I have lived the dream over the past week and am going to be soo sad to see it end!!! Geffory is a repro guy that works with the UQ who I traveled with up here to Swan’s from Townsville. Once here I met the whole crew…Lisa, Tim, Tex, Poppy, Willy, Rooster, Tara. They are all the main people that work and live here on Swan’s. I also met Bob (from LA), Ashley, John Brown. Bob is the main Animal Science Research guy for DEEDI, Ashley works for a research company in Sydney and John is the manager but doesn’t live on Swan’s..Dodgy I know!!!
I spend most of my time with Lisa and Tim and they have truly taken care of me. Everyone has made me feel so at home and comfortable!! On the first day I got here we got straight to work! We fetal aged (preg checked with an age attached) about 300 cows. For cows less than two months we scanned for the calf. We also weighed, hip height and read teeth. We worked the first 117 or so and then went for smoko. I first thought this was a smoke break but no… here in Australia they take tea breaks like the English and smoko is the Aussie word for tea break. After that we finished off and did lunch. After lunch we drafted the culls to a yard pen and then moved in the weaners. By that time it was about dinner and we had a proper Barbie… Steaks, Onions, Potato Bake, and Beer what more could you ask for.
The next morning Geffory had to leave for a big preg check project and I decided to stay here on Swans and learn more about the station. Today the big project was to weight, ear tag, and draft weaners. We did the CRC calves first. (CRC is a big cattle molecular genetics research project that has been going on for 12 years and they just finished the last cow yesterday!!!) After that we worked the yards, put out hay, got some feed in the troughs and then off to shower up!! After a good shower Lisa, Tim, Ashley, Mitch (Lisa’s 7 year old) and I went off to the Millaroo Social Club. I met some of the locals there and we had a good ole time. Then back to Lisa’s for dinner. After dinner… SLEEP!!
Up early as usual, its winter here so mornings are pretty nippy!!! Today isn’t such a big day just feeding, hay, working a few more calves…ranch basics!! I got to go about the station with Tim and Lisa though and that was cool and fun to see!!! Went down to watch Ashley do some tick trial counting then back to the quarters to get washed up and back to the club minus Ashley tonight. Same as the night before a few locals and I played some pool with Mitch.
Same ole, Same ole today. With weaners in the yards its kinda just plain ole ranch work. I went with Willy and Poppy today to move a quite onery bull and pick up some raised feeders. Talk about an experience!!! The amount of scrub we drove through was RIDICULOUS!!! There were some paddocks you literally couldn’t see a foot into what you were driving into!!! After we got back it was time quit for the day and Lisa, Tim, Mitch and I went to my first Sugar Cane Fire!!! They burn the cane right before harvest just leaving the stalk with no leaves for the harvester. It was a pretty cool experience the way it starts up with a fury and then just quits. It was beautiful…. Like the coolest bonfire I have ever been too!!! To Lisa’s for dinner and then hit the hay for the night!!
Tim leaves us for Brisbane today….he lives there and works at Bryan’s Pastures. He comes to Swan’s 4 or 5 times a year but with the CRC cattle he had to come a lot more these past few weeks. He hates flying so poor thing drives 17 hours to get home!!! Before he left we set up and did flight speed on the CRC cattle and had a really cool drive around Swan’s. Him, Lisa and I got real close on the drive… literally!!! We were squashed into a 2 ½ seater Manual Toyota…. I was the passenger so I was gate girl. I really hadn’t had to open many gates since I got here everyone has been treating me like a queen so I was more than happy to finally open some gates. LOL Right before Tim left my lessons on how to drive a manual truck started!!!! I know, I know, I should already know how to do this but Dad never got around to teaching me before his Big Blue standard Dodge went out. I did pretty good for a beginner!!! I am not good by all means but I’m capable of driving one and that is all that matters!!! We did the daily chores and cleaned out some nasty water troughs and called a night. As usual Lisa’s for dinner.
Its the weekend!!!! We are off to Home Hill and Ayr today. Mrs. Jill, Lisa’s mom, has a hair appointment and we have to do grocery shopping. They are small towns but they are about the size of Clarksville I guess… maybe smaller. They have a lot of shops though. They are cute little towns I quite enjoyed them! We had lunch at the pub I had Veal Snitcheal with hot chips and gravy. Great thing about Australia EVERYTHING comes with a sauce or gravy of some sort!!! I love sauces and gravys so this is perfect for me!!! Once home we had an easy Saturday…unloaded the car and did a few chores then showered up for dinner. Luke and Laura and Rooster, LeAnn and Madison all came over dinner. We had garlic prawns, rice with gravy, and garlic bread…it was soo good!!! Prawns here are extremely good period. Had a few drinks and then off to an early bed… all these early mornings and long days are starting to wear me out but I am loving it!!!
Big Sunday today!!! We started out with breakfast and then a house project for Lisa. She has this really bad carpet on a small part of her floor so with the help of Mitch and Maddie we pulled it up to reveal nice hardwood floors. That took longer than expected but we had a good time doing it. After that we had to fix the float on a water trough that kept overflowing, feed and hay the weaners and then for education we ran all of the calves through the crush (head shoot). After that as a reward for Mitch and Maddies hard work we went fishing!!! Had a couple beers and caught only one fish but Mitch and Maddie caught quite a few… Lisa just watched LOL. I dissected a fish with Mitch and showed him the heart. Mitch then took over my fishing rod and caught an eel with it. After the eel situation we decided to call it a night and went to shower up. It was quite a warm day today so I was quite dusty and gross and soo ready for the shower!! The showers here are FANTASTIC too!! I don’t think you can ask for better water pressure!!! Off to Lisa’s for dinner. She did a fancy one tonight Honey and Dates Chicken with Asparagus and Mash Potatoes!! Once again an early night because the weekend is over and its gunna be an EARLY morning… Ok not that bad just 5:30am.
Early, Early this morning and I didn’t even do a whole lot today. We did flight speed on all the weaner calves… so probably about 250+. After that they went to chase cattle on horses and bikes which I wouldn’t mind doing but the scrub is so thick here you wouldn’t be able to see your way around on a bike and since I don’t know my way around getting lost would be an easy option. I haven’t gotten on a horse yet because they are strange horses I may have Lisa put me on one next time… just to say I did it. LOL So I did computer and paper work after smoko and lunch until I was done and then I went over to help Mitch and Jill cook for the Barbie tonight!! Jill made a mud cake with custard and whipped cream, we made a salami pizza for an appetizer, Lisa also makes this amazing Cob Loaf… so we made that as an appetizer, we had ham and cheese tortellini, and Steak and Sausages for the main… Sausages are a pretty popular thing here… but they aren’t great LOL Stu and Denise came up… that’s who I ride back with to Townsville to fly by to Brisbane.
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