Fun and games at the Station!

Hello again family and friends. Wow, another blog the day after the last- I must be bored!! No, actually I have just put 2 loads of washing on at Greg & Kerry's place and want to hang it up as soon as it's finished, so I currently have some spare time. The last lot of washing I did was here in the caravan using our little washing machine. I put it out on the small clothes line we have, which attaches to the side of the van. The 4 potty calves must have liked the look of them as they pulled most of it down onto the grass and dirt below. One of the other guys here told me what had happened so I ran over to pick it all up. Kerry told me to just use her washing machine and line in future so nothing gets damaged. Funnily enough, nothing was damaged but Anthony's silky boxers were a little wet. Maybe from potty calf licking?! Everything was washed again at Kerry's but I won't be using our set up again until after we leave!!

The hungry potty calves- and there's 4 of them!

Since we were here last year, Kerry has had a huge general/all round tidy up and has put all the books she owns into a book case at the back of the school room. She mentioned it to me and I said that I could catalog them into some sort of order, if she would like. “That would be great”, she said and what a job it was! I did it all on an Excel spread sheet so it would be easy to access, print off and use. I started at one end of the bookcase and typed in the author, name of the book, the genre it was and the ISBN details for every book in the bookcase- all 986 of them!! I sorted them while I was doing this so that all the children's books, fiction, health & fitness, biographies and the like were all sorted and filed correctly. I even did it while Zandra was teaching her 4 kids their school classes, which was very interesting. Those kids are sooo cluey!!

The middle 2 rows are the kids section, 

complete with hand made bunting!!

Most of the time I was there on my own though, so I would have my music playing from my laptop while I slowly worked through the mountain of books. It really was fun and I enjoyed every minute of it. I even decorated the children's section hoping to inspire all the kids to use the library (see above). Soon I will start on a new cataloging request- their DVD's, of which there must be 1,000's. They really do have a collection like a DVD shop!! It does need be done though as the M+ ones are all mixed in with the G rated ones, and Kerry wants them to be stored in separate places.

3 rows of books- the folders (left side) and the top shelf is Jervoise filing,

and the bottom is tubs of school items and stationary.

There is one more bay not in the photo (see photo above) 

and some of the books are 2 rows deep! 

On Saturday 11^th June, the local pub hosted the 2^nd annual Greenvale Cattleman's Ball. It is sponsored by the Uniting Church, Charters Towers Council and the Queensland Government as of the community drought support program. Tickets cost $10 pre-paid and cans of beer were $5. Men HAD to wear a tie (thank you Vinnies @ Charters for Anthony's purchase!) and ladies had weren't allowed to wear jeans. The whole back area of the pub was brilliantly decorated and looked gorgeous. It was a fantastic night and everyone was sooo dressed up. They even had a fantastic girl singing heaps of great music as well as recorded dancing music. We even got up for a boogie!! It was a fantastic night.

Anthony & Greg ready to party- photo taken outside Kerry & Greg's house

Cattleman's Ball decorations (L) and Kerry & Julie at the ball (R)

Jervoise have an area on their property called the Junction. It is about 6 km from the house and it is a lovely area where two rivers meet- the Dry River (which flows next to the house and is their water supply) and Spring Creek. A couple of kms downstream it flows into the Burdekin River. The Junction is used for Jonsson family and friends as a holidaying spot or as a party spot, as it has a wood fired pizza oven and a huge old veranda complete with tables and chairs. We wanted to visit the Junction last year but just as we arrived, Greg called us from the house saying some friends were about to arrive that had already booked in!! We ended up staying in a cleared area half way between the house and the Junction for a couple of days, but as soon as we got to Jervoise this year, we reserved a weekend down there before the school holiday requests came through!!

All set up down at the Junction

The island (L) and the river- 

it's more like a stream at this time of the year

So on the weekend following the Ball, we headed down to the Junction for a few days in the van. It had rained a bit in the days before going down there, but the weather was superb for our weekend. We read books, went walking along the rivers edge and checked out an island in the middle of the river. We even had home made pizzas which were cooked in the pizza oven. We were due to leave on the Sunday afternoon, but it rained heaps on Saturday night. Anthony went for a walk along the track to see how muddy it was and came back saying we won't be leaving today!! The track was very muddy and saturated and we would do more damage to it if we drove through it now with the car and van. So we waited, and waited.... The sun did not reappear until Monday and the track was pretty dry on Tuesday, so we headed home. Two places were still an absolute mess so we had to go around them on the grass but it wasn't a huge problem. When we decided to leave on Tuesday morning though, I was still in bed in my pj's. I couldn't be bothered getting up and dressed, so said I would stay in the van for the drive back to Jervoise. Well what a scary trip that was. When you go over a bump, it feels like the van is going to flip over. When the mud hits the mud flaps or the side of the van, it's so noisy you think something has broken off the van!! I don't think I'll be doing that again any time soon as it's not a nice trip at all!!

The well used pizza oven

Even though we are away, I have still done some great online shopping. I really like Coles Mix clothing for trackky dacks and windcheaters so when they e-mailed me with a winter sale, I promptly ordered 2 windcheater jackets, a pair of tracksuit pants and 2 long sleeve tee shirts. They were delivered here 10 days later and although it's not freezing at night, I have used the tees and jackets! I also found some RM William moleskin pants on E-Bay for $40 including postage. Again, I had them posted up here and they are just b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!! I'm a real cowgirl now!!

A few weeks ago, Jervoise had two 3^rd year vetinary science students from James Cook University Townsville (JCU) stay and help out on the property. Jervoise's labrador dog, Honey, had 9 puppies a couple of days before we arrived so the girls were able to check them out and give them all the shots and tablets they needed. They also checked out some of the horses and cattle on the property and will come back in about a months time with all of their class mates to a pregnancy testing lesson on the cows. Sounds like fun- NOT!! They are lovely girls though, so it will be great to see them again for a few days. The boys working up here are excited too!!

One of the puppies- lab cattle dog x

We just play all day long- or sleep!

One night at dinner, Anthony and I were chatting to Carl, the head stock man, and his wife Zandra. Both are fantastic horse riders (as are their 4 kids) and own about 25 horses, all with different personalities and levels of riding ability. Anthony and I asked if they could teach us how to ride while we were here, if they had time. They said yes and a few days later we were having lessons on Bobby, who is actually one of Jervoise's horses but he is just perfect to use for beginners and lessons. I had a few issues kicking the horse with my left foot (old MS war wound) but Anthony took to it like a duck to water. 

Julie (top) & Anthony (below) learning how to ride

Since learning, he has helped out mustering- both bringing a mob into the yards then walking them out to a different paddock 2 days later- on a huge gentle horse called Turbo!! I went out on a quad bike for the mustering- I just plodded behind the walking horses and stayed out of the way when the cattle was close by, as the noise of the quad can make them flighty. It was a brilliant day and one we will never forget. Thank you Carl and especially Zandra. You are a great teacher and such a lovely couple!

Anthony & Zandra just before the muster.

Check out Turbo's unusual coat

The mob of cattle we mustered

Pushing the mob back to the yards- Anthony (L) & Mackenzi, 8 (R)

Every month I need to have my blood and urine tests done and this month we decided to go to Townsville to have them done- just for something different. Jervoise have a property in Townsville which is run by their eldest son, Shane, but it does have a 100 year old house there that is used by the family when they visit Townsville. Kerry quietly said to us that we could use it if I wanted to have my tests done in Townsville instead of going to Charters Towers where we would need to find accommodation if we wanted to say overnight. So we gladly accepted their offer and headed to Townsville last Monday.

We headed out to a local Chinese resturant for take away dinner on Monday night, but we got heaps done while we were there. My blood test, a huge shop at Coles, a visit to Bunnings, Jaycar, Telstra shop, JB Hi-fi (Anthony was able to buy a new phone), Coles Express and Liquorland was all done in 24 hours. Thank goodnes for GPS!

Whilst sitting here today doing my blog, we have had a NBN guy here putting another NBN dish in- 2^nd of 4: they only do one each visit!!! And we have had some fellas up here putting in solar panels on 4 of the houses. It is like grand central station here at the moment!!

Oh well, it never rains but it pours!!

'til next time, xx

Now, that's a blow out!!

Yes, friends and family, we are still alive. I finished the first blog 3 weeks ago and I did promise that the next one would be sent out really soon, but that just never happened. Yet again, we have been really busy. My apologies to all! Xx

I'll continue from where I left off though...

We left Dirranbandi and headed towards Roma. Big place, but we only stopped so I could buy some more milk at the local IGA. Anthony and I had decided that for the next couple of days we would do longer driving days and stay in road side stops overnight, as the distances in between towns was either too close or miles apart. Today we did 450 kms and our overnight stop was a place called Wallaroo truck stop. There was a really long road side parking area for semis, but behind that was a huge cleared area where about 50 caravans could park for the night. He found a lovely 'corner' and got set up for the night.

The main street of Emerald- we're in the tropics now!

The next day we traveled towards Emerald (nice sized town, 270 km west of Rockhampton). The day was warming up and I needed to change into shorts while we were filling up the car in Emerald. I think it got to 30 C today- woo hoo!! We arrived at tonight's road side stop, know as 'gravel pit south of Capella', at 1.15 pm. Once we were all set up (about 15 minutes later!), I gave Anthony a hair cut. A few other caravans turned up during the afternoon but, again, this cleared area was huge so you never saw anyone else!!

The following day, we were on the road at 9.15 am. Again, the roads today were awful. They are so lumpy and bumpy, and with the van on the back you really do start to porpoise down the road after each bad section. After one really big bounce there was an awful big bang and we realised that we had blown a tyre on the caravan. Just ahead of us was a cleared spot on the side of the road which we headed for, so we could change the tyre. So many Queensland outback roads have a drop off besides the road to assist with drainage in the rainy season. This drop off makes it very hard to exit the road, so to have a cleared area right now was a true blessing!!

The blown tyre just after we stopped- wow!!

We both got out of the car and the passenger side caravan tyre had been shredded beyond repair!! Anthony got the spare off the back of the van, jacked up the van, took the shredded tyre off and put the spare on. The accident happened at 11.10 am and we were back on the road at 12.05 pm. What a brilliant job, Anthony. You are my hero!!!

We stopped 1 hour later at our next overnight spot- Blackwood National Park rest area. Anthony desperately needed an beer and a shower, and he also wanted to looked up on the internet for a tyre place in Charters Towers, as we would be there tomorrow. He called Bridgestones in Charters and they said they would be able to help us. Who said travelling was an isolated, lonely thing to do. Not with my gadget man!!!

We were both up and off early the next day- we were on the road at 7.55 am. We arrived in Charters at 9.50 am and went straight to the Bridgestone store. The guy who came out to help us saw the tyre and said we certainly destroyed that one. There basically was nothing left of it. Anthony said jokingly “Can you put a patch on that?”. The guy laughed and said that that they wouldn't have enough patches in the whole store to fix that!

The tyre after it was taken off the rim- not much left!! 

While we were in Charters, I needed to have my monthly blood and urine test done. After my hospital visit last November to receive my latest MS treatment, a drug called Lemtrada, I need to have a monthly blood and urine test done. While in Queensland, I need to visit Sullivan Nicoladies Pathology. We found their offices and I went in to see if I needed to do anything before having my test done. No, nothing needed to be done so I decided to have the test done then and there as I had my paperwork with me. Wow, what a productive morning and it was only 10.30 am!!

We checked into the same caravan park we stayed at last year, headed into town during the afternoon to do some shopping then had a relaxing couple of hours back at the van. The day was a bit humid and it did rain for about 15 minutes, but it was just lovely sitting under the caravan veranda watching the world go by.

The following day, Thursday 2^nd June, was a big one- we were heading back to Jervoise Station today. We got up early and we were on the road by 8.40 am. We did get a text message from Krissy, one of the Jervoise girls, who asked if we could drop into Repco to pick up something she had just ordered. We did that then headed towards Greenvale, the small town 35 km from Jervoise Station. We dropped into the pub to pick up some beers (supporting the local pub!) and bought 2 tickets to the local Greenvale Cattleman's Ball that was going to be on the following weekend.

Welcome back to Jervoise- the whole homestead

Finally, we arrived at Jervoise at 1.00 pm. We were warmly welcomed by Greg and Kerry (the owners) and one of their daughters, Krissy. Whist having a cuppa with them, their eldest daughter Michelle and her husband Peter come over to welcome us back (last year, we met them in Charters Towers where they were living at the time (and we had just left Jervoise). Now that their son, Sam, has finished high school, they have all moved back to Jervoise. Their daughter, Ashton, was here last year working, but is currently in Scotland with her boyfriend, Elliot. Then Lucinda, who was working up here last year when we were here, popped over to say hi. She never thought she would see us again, but was still loving working up here so she was still here- a year later!

We set up the caravan on a grassed area near Greg and Kerry's house. The area where we set up last year was already full- with a working Council road crew from Charters Towers!! The dirt road from Greenvale to Jervoise, which continues onto neighboring Conjaboy Station, is finally being graded after 4 years of rain and abuse!! The 55 km stretch of dirt road is used mainly by the nearby stations but the Charters Council only ever grades it every 4-5 years. Our timing was faultless though as they had just finished the Greenvale to Jervoise section the day before we arrived! They would be here for another week finishing the road to Conjaboy Station, then they would leave.

Since last year, Greg and Kerry have employed a new head stock man, Carl. He has a wife, Zandra and 4 school aged kids, and he works with the cattle using horses. They believe in low stress livestock management techniques and are a wealth of information about farming, stock handling and how to ride a horse. The day before yesterday, both Anthony and I had a riding lesson with Zandra. Anthony enjoyed it so much that he went on a small mustering trip the next day and again yesterday!! There's another thing ticked off the Bucket List!!

The following day, after we had checked out the place and met everyone staying here at the moment, we sat outside the van and had a quiet cup of coffee. The biggest difference between visiting last year and now is the green grass. Everything is green and the grass is full and lush. It needs to be mowed regularly even though there are 4 potty carves (small calves who have been rejected or have lost their mothers and need to be partially hand reared) eating grass from around the homestead, as well the occasional horse. They had a very good wet season and it's still raining every now and again, and it's June!!

Sometimes the grass IS greener on the other side

Since we have arrived, Anthony has fixed their computer problems, printer problems, numerous faulty lights, the gas oven in the commercial kitchen (which was hard to light and keep alight while in use), the oven door and handle in the main house (he made the handle himself!!), has fixed the electric fence keeping the pigs in their pen as it was cutting out and the pigs were escaping, re-learning to ride a horse and participate in a cattle muster on a horse, all while working on his telemetary systems (which will be used to remotely monitor the water levels of the many tanks all around this property). Every day he is busy and always has a smile on his face, especially when he was mustering! I'm now thinking we may never come home if Anthony has his way!!

Meanwhile, I have cataloged a 1000 book library onto a computer, done a heap of clothes mending- about 6 pairs of work pants all with multiple holes in them- and have adjusted the length of all the curtains in Michelle's 3 bedroom house!! I have also finished a blog on my latest MS treatment which involved a hospital visit- you can read that blog at

http://juleslemtrada.blogspot.com.au

I never seem to have enough time to work on my family tree site or do this blog. Time just flies when you're having fun!!!

Next blog soon, I promise....

And so the trip begins......

OMG- I just can not believe that we left home 4 weeks ago! Where has that time gone- it has just flown!

For those of you that don't know, Anthony and I are on another long caravan trip. 'And where have they gone this year?', do I hear you say. Funnily enough, it is the same place that we spent a couple of months last year whilst doing our bigger-than-Ben-Hur Cape York trip.

On our trip last year, we really wanted to find a place to “hide” for the mid year school holidays. Being Queensland, the weather around mid year is normally fantastic so everyone wants to be a part of it and go on holidays with their whole family for the 2 or 3 weeks of the mid year school holidays. This time last year we were just heading South having made it to the top of Australia, Cape York. Heading South we were passing an awful lot of cars, 4WD's and caravans and thought 'this is only going to get worst during the school holidays'. Not being ones to book that far ahead (if we like somewhere, we just stay until we feel the need to move on!), we sort of figured that all the road side stops AND caravan parks will be 100% full and we would never be able to get in anywhere, even if we wanted to.

It was about this time that Anthony read in one of his online magazines that there was a place, south of the Atherton Tablelands, that was looking for grey nomads to call in and help them out for a week or so. We called the phone number on the ad and spoke to a lovely lady, who we now know- Michelle, and she said to come and pop in and see if you like the place.

We arrived about 2 weeks later and instead of staying for 2 to 3 weeks, we ended up stayed for 2 months. We just loved the place and the Jonsson family that own and run the station. At the time they also had about 8 back packers there, who were all staying for 3 months to get a 2^nd year on their visas, who were also great fun and fantastic people. How could we leave- we were just having way too much fun!!

Around the middle of August though, I said to Anthony that I really didn't want to be here for my birthday. Whenever they found out it was someone's birthday they would have a huge celebration and I just didn't feel comfortable doing that here. So we left Jervoise a day or so before my birthday, but it really was a lot harder that I thought it would be. Everyone came out and waved us off. The kids, who were at school when we left, said their very sad goodbyes the night before. But everyone, including us, were very sad to be saying goodbye. We did promise though, to stay in touch (which we have) and that we would come back next year (if we were invited). And here we are.....

We drove out of Adelaide on Sunday 22^nd May and headed through the Barossa to Barmera. We stayed the night at a friend's house, Andy, where we had a beautiful meal with Andy's neighbor joining us. We then headed East the following day to Balranald. It's Monday morning and it was a big day- we drove out of South Australia at 10.30am (AEST), then we stopped, had a coffee and filled up with diesel in Mildura, Victoria, to only cross the border into New South Wales at 12.15pm (AEST). Phew, I was buggered. 3 states in under 2 hours. Good thing Anthony was driving!!

This is our "Caravan Park set up". Very comfortable.

We arrived in Balranald around mid afternoon. We checked out the Visitor Information Centre, which, like a lot of them in small rural towns, was very interesting, and also the adjoining free RV camping area. It was very basic so we decided to stay at the local Caravan Park (see picture above). We found a lovely spot and had relaxing afternoon, as it was a glorious autumn day.

The next morning, Anthony needed to put the heater on in the van as it was freezing. Thank goodness we did stay in the caravan park, as we were already hooked up the their electricity. If we had stayed in the RV park, Anthony would have had to get the generator out and start it up before putting the reverse cycle air-conditioner on! Way too hard- he probably would have had us on the road at 6.30am instead!! Yay! for caravan parks on cold nights and mornings, is all I can say!!

After leaving Balranald, we headed across the Hay plains. There really is nothing out here and it is a flat as a tack. There also was not much wind so we had a brilliant drive. We passed through Hay, Gunbar, Goolgowrie, Weethalle and North Yalgogrin- all brilliant Aussie names! We stopped mid afternoon again at a free roadside stop just near North Yalgogrin (see picture below). Had a beautiful curry with rice for 'lunner' (lunch & dinner- eaten about 3.30 pm)- there certainly is no slumming on our caravan trips!!

This is our "rural set up". 

Added bonus: always try to get a nice view from the windows!

On Wednesday we drove through to Parkes. We were both quite impressed with Parkes as it was a lot bigger than we thought it would be. We checked into the caravan park, then went for a walk into town. Anthony had noticed that there were 2 “Telstra Air” places in along the main street, so we took our computers, phones and tablets with us to get all the awaiting updates downloaded for free- and quickly as it's using Telstra's latest and greatest free Wi-Fi. We also realised on Tuesday that we had missed taping the final Blacklist program on Channel 7. Anthony sat on the bench under the “Telstra Air” sign and downloaded the program from our media server at home (as we were still taping it at home), while I went grocery shopping and had a quick look at the shops along the main drag. We then walked back to the caravan and watched it- and it was bloody fantastic!!

Overnight was again freezing but we must have overdone it a bit yesterday as we both slept in until 10.30 am!!! I got up and rushed over to the caravan park's office and paid for another day as your normal check out time is 10.00 am. It had also rained quite a bit overnight and it started raining again soon after we got up. I needed to post a letter so we decided to drive into town as we would have got saturated if we walked. I also wanted to pop into the Vinnie's store that I saw yesterday, as I realised that I did not bring any “dagy” clothes with me to do “dagy” jobs at Jervoise. I picked up 2 pairs of jeans (one of which was a Sportscraft pair) and 2 men's long sleeve business shirts (they will protected me from the sun and they are light) for $12.00- B-A-R-G-A-I-N!!

The fella at the caravan park office had mentioned that the CSIRO Parkes Satellite Observatory was on the way out of town so we decided to go there as we left. We arrived just after it opened at 8.30 am and had the place to ourselves for the first 45 minutes or so. Anthony loved every aspect of the place, but I loved the display they had which was full of photos taken by the general public about space, the stars and the sky. It was brilliant, especially one fantastic photo taken by a 12 year old!!

CSIRO Parkes Satellite Dish

We also stopped at The Dish cafe and had some morning tea before we hit the road again. We shared some scones with fig jam which had just been cooked and were delicious!! We also bought 2 of their beef and red wine pies to heat up and have for 'lunner' later in the day. And they were exceptional- I can see why they have won so many 'Best Pie' competitions!

After leaving Parkes we headed to Dubbo then on to Coonamble. By now the rainy weather had caught up to us again and it ended up being a cold and wet afternoon. We decided to get up early the following morning and head straight for the Dirranbandi Caravan Park as they offered free washing machines and I had a pile of washing to do. We knew the weather was improving, so we were aiming to get there by midday.

Check out the emu made with spare parts, like a car for his body.

The electricity poles behind him gives you some idea of how tall he is!!

We normally always have an eagle eye looking out for roadside stops so we can have a coffee around mid morning, but this particular road did not have any. The road was really, really bad though. They had huge sections with bumps so bad that you started to bounce along the road but with a caravan following, we got such a rhythm going I thought we were going to crash. It was really scary! Anyway we got to Dirranbandi at midday and I did 3 loads of washing (2 in their free machines and one in our caravan washing machine) and they were all done and hanging on the line by 1.20 pm.

Check out the bumps on the road!!

After being on the road for a week, we had a relaxing afternoon complete with a lovely G&T! Well, we were in Queensland after all!!

The next installment should be in your e-mail in boxes soon!!