This past week has been a little irregular so I only worked 3 days which means I've been able to do some local sight-seeing!

BORENORE KARST CAVES

Hiked for an hour with no reception, got to this sign and had 1 bar! Haha this place is very much in the middle of nowhere. Afraid the pictures inside the caves didn't come out very well, guess I'll just have to go back!

MT. CANOBOLIS

Afraid I wasn't able to do any hiking here, they had had a bushfire across the whole mountain recently

WYANGALA DAM

 There were lots of kangaroos here, yay!

 You can see how low it is right now, though it has been lower, there's still a few submerged trees along the shoreline

 The dam is built between hills covered in giant boulders, looks kinda like a scene from Lord of the Rings in places!

Well, I think I have done every job on the "herd team" and "young stock team" now! This past week I was able to work a couple days in the baby barns where they raise the calves from birth to around 2 weeks of age. All bottle feeding in individual stalls; right now there are a little over 200 calves with around 20 calves being born each day! Then they get moved to the auto-feeder barns until they are weaned. After that they are moved to the weaner barns until they are about 6 months old when the bull calves get sold and the heifers are moved to paddocks. Working in the paddocks is quite fun since rounding up the heifers is done on dirt bikes! Though trying to catch one individual heifer with just a "ute" (the Australian term for a pickup truck), a dirt bike, and broken fences is not so fun. There the heifers are bred and moved back onto the dairy into the dry cow pens, and the cycle starts all over again in maternity!
So that is the story of the young stock team; herd team covers maternity, hoof trimming, sheds (moving animals around), health, and repro. It's enough to keep you busy!

I've had much more success in terms of kangaroo hunting! Photos taken at Mt. Nangar national park.

See the car at the bottom of the cliff? Glad it's not mine!

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.