I'm sorry! This was supposed to have published a couple weeks ago! Well, better late than never, I guess...



Howdy, howdy! Things are much the same here: wonderful! I haven't been mustering as much anymore, instead we've been busy fencing, fixing water troughs, feeding animals, and everything else that needs doing! But rather than tell you all about it, I'll just throw a bunch of pictures up for your viewing pleasure :)

 Little Mac and Cheese

 This is sweet little Brisket, unfortunately I didn't get to keep her, she is causing mayhem for my boss's 9-year-old niece. She should really be called Houdini for her amazing ability to get out of any enclosure!

 Some of the ladies waiting for their calves to get branded and vaccinated etc.

 My ever growing poddy family

 Some of the horses, that short, fat white thing is Trumby

Hello again! Sorry for not posting anything for a while. We've been busy mustering cattle which has been a new experience! We do it all on horse back and I've now realized I'm not a very good horse rider haha, I've fallen off a couple of times already. We're also busy branding, tagging, vaccinating, etc etc all the calves that get mustered in. I've got a little group of poddy calves I get to take care of everyday- poddies are calves that for whatever reason don't have a mother around. Every day is different and we stay plenty busy! We've been fencing, fixing windmills and water troughs, putting out mineral lick... All sorts of stuff! Sorry I don't have many pictures, we get busy and then I just plain forget!

 Some of the "weaners" that have been brought back to the home place, they're about 6-8 months old and we feed them hay and get them used to people, dogs, and getting mustered.

 This is Buster, one of my main horses

 These are my poddies

 Mustering a big mob into the yards

Rookie, this is the horse I ride most of the time

Guess what! I've got a job on a cattle station!! But I haven't posted a blog in about a month so along me to catch you all up on what I've been doing...

After getting to pick up Dr. Kreykes from the airport, I brought my car in for a quick service and get just get a few things fixed on it. Well that quick job took over a week during which time I pretty much just sat around twiddling my thumbs. Some friends from church were super kind and allowed me stay with them. Definitely not what I had planned but it was a good week nonetheless. Saw my first snake! Albiet a roadkill one, I don't think I need to see any more of them up close. Also saw an echidna and LOTS of kangaroos. I was also able to send out job applications during this week and that's when I landed the job I've got now!

So once my car was out of the mechanics shop, I started driving and took a few days to drive from central NSW to central QLD. Along the way I toured a camel dairy which I thought was super cool! Did you know camel milk will cure all your ails and will save the planet!? 

The area is called the Scenic Rim; this was my view while driving to the camel dairy. Unfortunately these clouds didn't drop any rain but it was still quite pretty!

I would drive for a while and then stop at roadside parks to sleep in my Hotel Barina for a while. One night I pulled in after dark and parked beside what I thought was a large tree stump. I was a little surprised when I woke up and saw this strange creature looking in my window!

When not driving, I would stop and read a book on the beach. 

And I would treat myself for breakfast by going to a coffee shop, yum!

And then I got to my new job! I'm a "jillaroo" on a cattle station. Basically that means I do whatever I'm told to do and hopefully soon they will let me on one of their many horses and get in on the mustering. So far I've been busy helping with the drafting, branding, etc of the animals that get mustered into the yards and following along as they all get brought back to their paddocks picking up any calves who can't walk all the way there. Been fixing fences and putting out quite a bit of mineral lick- and man do those bags get heavy when you are out in the heat! Feeding calves, a couple horses, and a pig are part of my daily duties. Oh and trying to not get lost in the maze of paddocks, "quick roads", mining tracks, and miles upon miles of barbed wire fencing!

No mice for roommates this time! Just cockroaches, giant spiders, and a little white toad who lives behind the toilet.

 Some of the calves on the homestead who I get to feed hay to everyday.

 Following the mob of cattle on their way back home.

These guys decided to help me as I was mucking stalls... Names are Princess, CutCat, and Marilyn (Monrow)

I got to spend the day yesterday with Dr. Kreykes and am so very glad. Didn't realize just how homesick I am. To everyone back home, I miss you and wish I could be with you all. But I am also very excited about being "down under." This has been such a cool experience so far and I'm excited to see what God has in store for me during this chapter of my life.

Sorry for being so AWOL as of late. Here's a quick update of what I've been doing!

I'm all finished up at Moxey's now. Not sure how I feel about it, I really enjoyed my job working with the calves but I'm quite excited to see more of Australia as well. This week I've been trekking all over New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and even got down to the Victorian border.

I spent two days at Kosciusko National Park, also known as the Snowy Mountains. As far as I know, this is the one place in Australia that gets enough snow for skiing etc and there were lots of people doing just that! I skipped out; as some of you may already know, I have impeccable skiing skills and didn't feel a great need to carve up the slopes this time around. Mt Kosciusko is also the highest point in Australia.

 This is my "hotel" Barina

 Lots of pretty streams and bridges, there's platypus (or platypi??) in these waters though they were being shy when I was there

 In the morning, all the valleys between the mountains we're full of clouds, it was really cool!

 Wild emus!!

 And plenty of kangaroos too

 There's a picturesque little cattle station snuggled into the mountain range as well

After that I went to Canberra, the capital of Australia. Toured the Australian War Memorial which was very very cool though I didn't get any pictures as my phone was dead. And visited the Australian National Museum. Also quite interesting though not many pictures, most of the museum was on Aboriginal history and they don't allow pictures of those exhibits.

 Can see the old and new parliament houses here, old is on the left, new is on the right

 Slightly better shot of the new parliament house

 It's a platypus!

 And the world record for wooliest sheep, haha

Quick story... Australians are not very entrepreneurial... At all! There was an exhibit in the museum of the Australian car, the Holden. You see, Australians came to realize that it would be a good idea to have a car suitable for the Australian climate rather than always importing from Europe, America, and Japan. So what do they do? They go to General Motors in Michigan and have the GM guys design one and start building them. Once the Americans made a suitable vehicle, they moved the assembly of the vehicles to Australia, but who will build them? Well, they hired workers from all over the world to come and work in their factory, over 50% of their workforce was foreign and it was still under GM management. The whole venture must not have gone very well though because there are no Australian made vehicles anymore. I have a Holden but it is made in Germany.
Canberra is also Australia's "designed city" but it was designed by or inspired by (I forget) an America city planner. Haha, the Aussies are great but that is one of the big cultural differences I have noticed; they are not in the least bit entrepreneurial. Even at Moxey's, they are partially owned by the Chinese and have Americans help plan much of their operations.

Ok, so that short story went a little long, sorry! Let's continue... I went back to the Blue Mountians! I spent an afternoon here when I first arrived and still think it is a beautiful part of the country.

 Quite a few pretty waterfalls, though there's still a drought here so they weren't very full. These two ducks were just casually walking along the top of this waterfall

 A lot of the land below the cliffs is actually classified as rainforest

And for some reason my phone doesn't want to load any of the pictures I took today sorry! I spent the day seeing the touristy things of Sydney. Went to Bondi Beach and saw the Harbor Bridge and Opera House. It was very hot, still is too even though it's dark now, lower 90s pretty much all day and not a cloud in the sky! Very different from the snowy mountains. Needless to say, I also got a little sunburned haha.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to do more like a weekly post while I'm travelling. Adios!