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