Work hasn't changed too much, I've been able to stay working with the calves for the most part, yay!

I've gone “kangaroo hunting” a couple times but haven't actually gotten a picture of a real, live kangaroo. I don't even see them until they are hopping away through the trees, I'll keep trying though! I have seen plenty of wildlife in my shack though… there's been a tick in my bedroom, slugs in the shower, hornet-sized wasps, and of course the mice… and mosquitos… and flies… but there are some nice wildlife that come to visit.

This colorful bird was in the yard, I'm pretty sure it's a wood parrot.

There's lots of strange birds around here and I don't know the differences between them all set which the kookaburras find hilarious. There's cockatoos and cockatees. There were black swans swimming in the lagoon at the farm a few weeks ago. Various ducks and geese too. Then there's these black and white birds all over.

This is what most of the landscape looks like.

Lots of sheep grazing, hills in the background, quite a few vineyards as well. If you go into the hills there's lots of trees and some nice hiking trails.

And where I failed to get pictures of kangaroos, I did manage to snap a few pictures of some wallabies! Wallabies are very similar to kangaroos but have more of a mouse-shaped face, a little smaller, and at least around here are darker colored.

Did you spot them all? There's one in each picture. Sorry for the low quality pictures but I couldn't get any closer before they jumped away and my phone doesn't take the sharpest of pictures. Guess I'll just have to go hiking again!

I've started a new job on the farm. I'm working with the calves now and I love it so far! There are around 1000 calves at any time with new ones coming and going nearly everyday. I'm taking care of calves between 10 days old and 9 weeks old. All automated feeders so once the calves have learned to use the feeders they are pretty easy to take care of. Just need to clean the pens and take care of the sick ones.
I've also seen my first live kangaroo! It jumped across the road while I was driving to work so I haven't gotten any pictures yet. I'm planning to go "kangaroo hunting" this afternoon though so I'll hopefully have some pictures soon. Have a new roommate too. I woke up the other night to a new mouse scurrying around my room.

They may look sweet and innocent, but when you go into their pens they all attack you!

Work is going well. I get along with my shackmates really well and my coworkers are all pretty nice. I'm the only person from the states on the farm. Most of the backpackers are Irish and the rest are primarily from the UK (both my roommates are British). I've been working 10-12 hour days doing sick checks, sorting cows, and working in maternity.

I was naughty and took some pictures too. Shh, don't tell anyone!

This is of the 50x50 parallel parlor

Above 3 pictures are taken in the tunnel ventilated barns, each pen has around 550 cows so finding a single cow can be like finding a needle in a haystack!

Not sure if the video will work on the blog but we will give it a shot!

Got the day off today so I'm using the McDonald's wifi in order to write this. Things are going well on the farm. There's so many cows everywhere! I've been working in a couple different areas of the "herd team." I've helped the repro/breeding team, the health team, and in the maternity section. I'm not sure if they plan to keep moving me around or not. It doesn't really seem like they need me right now but maybe they've got some backpackers leaving soon or something. All this week I'll be on the health team.
It's very warm here and they are in the middle of chopping corn silage. The weather is beautiful! It's very dry and gets up to 80 degrees about everyday.
I'm living in a shack, house thing with two roommates. It's pretty nice cause it's quiet and just 3 people. In the cabins where pretty much all the other backpackers live it's very very crowded and I've heard the Irish like to have loud parties. Our little shack is built onto the back of an old gas station and looks like if you'd light a match, the whole place would be burned to ashes in 10 minutes. But it does come with a pet mouse who lives under the fridge so that makes up for it.
And I've seen my first kangaroo! My roommates hit a Joey on their way to work which was still on the side of the road when I went past. Then I hit a dingo on the way to work. And at the farm, there was a contracted gunman shooting the flocks of cockatees that are all over the place here. It was a bad day for the wildlife in Gooloogong.

I made it to Moxey Farms! It's seems like a really great place so far. Everyone is very nice. The place is huge! I was told that pictures are not really allowed here so I won't be taking any. If you want to see where I'm working you can go browsing their website or YouTube. I'm living in a house in Gooloogong without WiFi so I probably will not be updating the blog all that often.

I know I had said the blog posts probably wouldn't be daily but enough happened today to warrant its own post.
This morning I bought my car. A simple little car, my one complaint is that they put the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car. Got out of the city as directly as possible and stopped at a town called Katoomba which is inside the Blue Mountains National Park. Quite touristy but still very beautiful. They are called the blue mountains because of the bluish haze which is created in part from all the oil in the eucalyptus trees, like a giant diffuser, no one should get a cold here! Speaking of cold... its really hot here, around 80 degrees all day today, fairly humid and not a lot of wind. The sun is also very strong. I've got quite the odd tan going so far, my right arm and side of my neck is completely burned from driving today and everything else is still white, haha.  I was told Sydney never gets snow, sometimes there will be a light dusting at the tops of these mountains but it all melts by noon. If you want snow you have to go down south to the Snowy Mountains.
Staying in another hostel but this one is way nicer than the one I stayed at in Sydney. I'm booked into a 6 person dorm but so far my only roommate is a really fun 60 year old lady. Bonus, the lights all work and the showers don't have mildew with bugs crawling out the drain!

 These are the "Three Sisters" Not sure if there is a story behind them but this was a big time tourist spot

 Ah! Selfie! Taken at the Honeymoon Point haha, Solo Por Siempre!

 Don't worry, Mom, I only fell once...

 The blueness didn't come up very well in the picture, its a deeper blue in real life!

 I wish I could somehow bottle up the smell here and post it on the blog. There's a definite fern smell  and eucalyptus and lots of other Australian plants that I don't know the names of. It smelled pretty good!

This is a stream bed but there was only a slight trickle going down. Australia is going into autumn and have been in a drought around here.

Ain't she a beauty

First blog post from Australia!
Sorry for not posting in a more timely fashion, the past few days have been a little hectic and my wifi has been spotty. So here is a rundown of the past few days.
Monday morning I said adios to Iowa and flew out of Sioux Falls. Final stop Monday was Honolulu and spent the night there. Had a "cheeseburger in paradise" but it was drizzling all afternoon so I decided not to go find a beach so as to have my "toes in the water, rear in the sand, cold *root*beer in hand." I found a nice chair and curled up with a good Louis Lamour book and a woman sat down near me, in a very girly voice she said "hi" so I said "hello, how are you?" In response, she said in a more normal and almost disappointed voice, "oh, you're a girl, I thought you were a young man." I knew this trip would have quite a few firsts but I didn't expect this to be my first time having a woman flirt with me! I embraced my inner hobo and slept outside, and man did I ever sleep like a rock. Well, actually, I slept on a rock. There was a designated area in the airport for people to sleep before catching their early morning flights and it was full of big slabs of concrete so that is where me and about 20 other people spent the night.
Tuesday morning I left Honolulu at 8 in the morning. 10 hours later, I landed in Sydney at 4 in the afternoon on Wednesday. Time sure does fly! At this point I was quite tired so I went in search of a hostel. I booked myself into the first one I saw and crashed for the night.
Thursday was spent shopping. Those who know me well can attest to the fact that I really hate shopping. I got back to my hostel and just wanted to go to bed. Now the first night it was just me and one other person in my room and she snored ALOT but I was so tired that I could sleep through it. Tonight though, three more people came into our room. So it was me, the girl who snores, and three other people. One guy came into the room and thought I was also a guy, took him a bit to figure out I was a girl. Guess I should grow my hair out or something so I don't have these awkward moments anymore! The light didn't work in our room so I went to bed around 8 since we couldn't see anything anyways. The girl who snores came in late at night. By 5 am, everyone else was awake because she was snoring so loud and by 6, we had all given up on getting back to sleep and just left the room. It was fine by me since I had gone to bed early but the other three were not so happy about it. I quite happily checked out after that.
Friday was also spent shopping. It was rather hectic but in the end I had found a car and a hotel to spend the night and that's where I am now! Tomorrow I plan to pick up my car and head out to the Blue Mountains to spend the rest of the weekend there. Then Monday I start at Moxey Farms. I'll be very glad to get out of the city. Give me country any day.

I've been to 5 different countries now! The USA, Holland, Belgium, France, and now Australia (just New South Wales is scratched off, we'll see how many other states I get to while I'm here!)

Goodbye USA! This is the coastline of California.

Darling Harbor

So many big tall buildings! Ahh! Its also the Year of the Dog so there's lots of dog posters and flags all over Sydney right now.

I got lost so this kind statue pointed me in the right direction.

These birds are really funny looking, they are fairly big, probably 2 or 3 times bigger than a pigeon, have long beaks and they strut like a chicken. Don't know what they are called though...

Did my devotions beneath this tree this morning.

Phew! That was a long post.