Ooops I Did it Again, well nearly!

---

DAY 548

We are out of practice doing the blogs at the moment we are finding that the weeks are not going to be exciting enough for you and we are sure that you don’t want to hear about the boring work stuff, we have a good weekend planned ahead of us so hope that it will be a little bit more exciting for you, so here goes.

With the sad news of the death of Jack still heavy in our hearts we had planned to go to Woodstock to see Helen and Robert this weekend and we both wanted to get away from work as early as possible and get on our way to Nangus, a good couple of hours drive from here, but it is really an easy route from Canberra, our route takes us to Yass where we pick up the Hume Highway toward Gundagai, then to Nangus and into Woodstock.

I was at my desk at 6.20 so when I left at 4.00pm I did not feel so guilty; during the day Caroline emailed me to say that she was getting away at 4.00pm so we had a coordinated effort.

Before we left we needed to fill up with Diesel, grab some flowers, then hit the road, destination “Woodstock”.

We had a very uneventful journey but we were so excited to be heading out there and eventually got to Woodstock at just before 7.30, we parked the truck and Robert came out of the homestead from the light in to the darkness to greet us.

The night was as black as your hat, the stars twinkled, in the magicians cloak of darkness, it looked amazing, we grabbed our grog and Helens flowers and went into the warmth of the house, it is a cold night here, but indoors Helen has the heating on and we are welcomed into this nice cosy house.

Well, it was great to be back, it seemed only 5 minutes ago, we were last at Woodstock, in the comfort of the big house, with all the fun and laughter that always seems to gravitate here, just looking back through the blog’s, the last time we were here was the 24th January 2010, Blog day 443, Fishing for Mice, gosh how time has flown.

As we all know, the connection with good friends is easy to rekindle, and in the blink of an eye we had all sat down and were chatting as if we had never been away, how fantastic.

As if by magic, Helen had pulled a piece of lamb from the oven and soon we were all tucking in to our delicious evening meal, heavens its good to be back.

We talked and talked, and drank and drank, for the time we had before bed, like Caroline and myself, Helen and Robert had both had extremely busy days and we were all looking forward to our beds.

As we have said the season here in the land down under is half way through autumn and it is definitely colder, we have always been baking hot when we have been at Woodstock so we are excited to be here in a different season to see and feel the changes in the landscape.

Just as we said our “good nights” Helen said I have put the electric blanket on, and we scampered off to bed, oh joy a warm bed to jump into on this cold night, we were surely nice and toasty!

Well that was that for both of us, after a great nights sleep, I managed to drag my backside out of bed at about 7.00am and went out to the kitchen and sat and chatted with Helen, Robert had already gone to do some farming stuff and we sat and looked at the beautiful morning.

Caroline soon joined us and after we had a bit of breakfast and a cup of tea, then were excited to go up and see Kimba’s new puppies.

Up in the pen were 4 little new faces all pressed against the wire, oh they were so gorgeous, four little sets of eyes looking inquisitive and full of mischief, it was just great, unfortunately their Mum, Kimba was out with the others with Robert on the ute, somewhere on the farm (Helen said that Kimba was grateful for the work to get away from “the kids” for a while).

So we went in to their pen and were mugged by four little girls all trying to pull our laces, and climb our trousers.

With the puppies seen we walked up to the Woodstock doggie Hilton but only Toby and Tiny were up there so we gave them both a fuss and promised them we would be back for another fuss when the rest of the dogs got back. I am not sure that they were excited to see us or was it maybe they thought we would let them out.

Helen appeared at the front of the house, in one of the Landcruiser’s and we started loading all the farm rubbish on to take down to the tip and when it was all loaded I said that me and Caroline would drive it down, getting to the tip we pulled up for easy rubbish evacuation and as we were unloaded the I heard Caroline shout, “The utes Rolling!”

I turned around and the ute was not where I had left it and it was rolling towards the creek I could see that Caroline was hanging on the back of it. Sh*t! I started to run and managed to get in front of the ute and round to the drivers door and opened it then stomped on the brake, wow that was a close one, I had to laugh when Caroline told me that she was holding on to the back of the ute, she was standing on the towbar clearing out the remainder of the rubbish and when she realised it was rolling jumped off to hang on the back trying to stop the Cruiser rolling.

That’s enough excitement for one day so back off to the homestead to see what else needed doing thankful that the ute was saved as neither of us wanted to tell Robert and Helen that we had trashed the Landcruiser.

Helen, Caroline and myself headed up to the farm sheds where we found Robert washing the other ute and also found Wally and Trixie sitting on the back.

We were swapping vehicles but Kimba was being sneaky and wanted to stay in the front seat, Helen grabbed hold of Kimba but she was trying to crawl out of Helens arms across the seat in defiance.

We swapped vehicles and were soon heading down the track to go and shift some sheep from one paddock to another to put them on to better feed, we could see plenty of lush green paddocks around us.

These sheep all only had single lambs, so we did a quick drive around the perimeter to see where they all were, and to make a plan. Helen was going to shoo from the left and Caroline was going to push them from the right, my job was to just gently keep the cruiser moving along with Kimba and Trixie hanging on each side of the ute woofing their heads off.

It made me think about the local Parliamentary constituents, when it was close to polling time and they drove down your street with a vehicle with a PA system saying vote for me etc, well I had the same, I was gently driving the sheep along with two dogs barking like crazy so it was a fairly easy task.

The little lambs dutifully followed their mothers and the ones that were slow or inquisitive and held back were chaperoned by their mums until they were ready for their little walk, it was a slow job but with the lambs in tow, it could not be any other way.

It was fairly easy and done within about ¾ of an hour, then we moved to another paddock were we were to move about 400 sheep who each had 2 lambs.

Again we drove around the paddock to size them all up and to see if we had any new born lambs which there was a couple. Again tactics were discussed and with a recent success of shifting 200 sheep each with one lamb we went for the same strategy.

I dropped Caroline off as she was going to walk some of the small groups of sheep towards the dam and onto the gate off I went with Helen.

While Andy was off to the other end of the paddock with Helen I set about walking around to collect the small groups of sheep and woosh them along toward the dam and so the gate where they were to walk down the lane towards the next paddock.

Easy! The lambs and their mums dutifully moved on toward the gate, however when they neared the gate they realised that a bulk of the sheep were not there so they wandered further up the paddock to join them, no problem I thought, at least they are now all together so I will walk up the side and toward the back to help push from the back.

Of course it was not going to be that easy, for quite some time I could not even see Helen or Andy until eventually I caught sight of the Landcruiser over the brow of the hill and eventually I could see Helen, a tiny blob in the distance and dutifully the sheep were slowing doing what they were supposed to be doing. Wally was doing his thing along with Helen and Andy still had his tannoy system of Kimba and Trixie on the back telling the sheep to move.

Unfortunately now the sheep and the lambs were all quite content with spending time in the shade and they were slow at moving, some lambs were more inquisitive of us and stood to watch us rather than move. Then some of them had become separated from their mothers and decided to walk back to where they were to look for them.

Now realising that with two lambs per sheep this was not going to be an easy task, even as some of them got to the gate they were not going to go through, and then a splinter group seeing a gap made a break for it along the bottom fence, I went round to shoo them back, fortunately Andy went round in the Landcruiser to cut off their path, they then started to move back.

Some of the lambs were trying to escape through the large holes in the wire fence, they were easy to catch, half in and half out of the fence, they didn’t struggle very much, I just carefully eased them back through the fence, put them on the floor and they skipped off their look for their mum’s

Eventually some of them started to go through the gate, it was a slow old job and when some of the lambs went through they decided that they could squeeze back through the fence and believe me with some of them it was a squeeze.

By now we had a cluster of lambs with no mums at all at the back, so Helen made the decision to leave them for a while to regroup and settle down before we could tackle them again.

So we head off back to the sheds where Helen picks up another vehicle and we follow her out to see Robert on another part of the farm, where she is going to leave the vehicle for Robert and jump back in with us, by now Helen has thought of another strategy with the sheep, so she explains our next move and that includes picking up Toby on the way through, apparently Toby’s skills lie in pushing up so he will be most welcome on this next effort.

Fortunately for Tiny she gets to come out for a spin too, she gets tied on with the others on the back of the ute and away we go for the second round. Helen further explains the plan so that we can sneak up behind the sheep from another paddock so they will remain settled until we can open the gates and push them up the lane. Andy and Helen jump from the back of the ute over the fence along with the dogs and I get the easy bit, for now I can stay in this paddock and make sure they don’t come through the fence.

Of course it was still not going to be that easy even with the dogs, the lambs only wanted to walk back to where they came from and obviously look for their mums, some even squeezed through the fence into the paddock with the lush green grass but fortunately they stayed close to the pack and walked up by the side of the fence, they were left until we managed to get to the top of the lane when we could open the gate and get them all out.

Finally, I don’t know how long it took but eventually we got them to where we wanted them to be. We were all exhausted, it was by now a hot morning and we felt the need for a long cool drink and a rest.

Andy walked off to retrieve the ute while Helen and I walked back to the house with some exhausted doggies around by our ankles, Kimba almost struggled to carry herself back to the house, I said to her that she could take a well earned rest and sit on the veranda a in the shade, but she had other ideas, as soon as we were at the house, she found some reserve energy and with head held high she put on a little trot and headed back to her pen and her puppies, by the time I caught up with her she was sat waiting patiently to be let back in.

It was lunch time and Josh and Erica were coming to the farm, Josh wanted to show Erica around and had brought his dirt bike with him so he and Erica could ride around Woodstock and see what it is all about, Josh has spent a fair amount of time here in the past helping out and we think it is nice that he wants to show Erica where he spends some of his time.

Well we sat down and all had lunch together, Caroline, myself, Robert, Helen, Josh and Erica. It was a fantastic lunch, we sat for a while, then Robert went back to finish his work, whilst, we all went off to do various things, mine was having a nana as it had been ages since I had had the luxury of one.

Later in the afternoon we decided to go down to the big dam and have a look at the water level, we have seen it at its most parched and were interested in what it looked like with water in it.

Well it looked amazing it was pretty full, but the water was definitely now going down, a lot of it is lost through evaporation but there was still about 110 mega litres left in the dam, Robert tells us (110 Million litres).

The country side around Woodstock is absolutely breathtaking and I am never bored of the view. I so wish you could all experience the joys of been at Woodstock, no jokes about the chaser bin please, though we did nearly trash the cruiser as well.

Anyway, The evening was here and it was set to be as fun as usual, Helen had prepared a feast which included glazed honey chicken, a beef Stew and other delicacies, she is a fantastic cook and along with Josh and Erica we were also having Roberts brother John and his partner Cathy coming around so once again the dinner table would be full.

Everyone turned up and we sat and ate and talked the whole evening, John and Cathy told us that they had purchased camper trailer and were off on an adventure in June heading up to the Northern Territories. We discussed all the goods and not so goods with camper trailers, they also said that they were a little unsure of setting up their trailer. Well as we are always so enthusiastic about people and adventures we said we would drop by in the morning to have a peek and to offer any help we could.

Soon it was time for bed, Josh and Erica were first to leave, we wished them goodbye and watched their lights disappear into the magicians black cloak, at some point after Cathy and John disappeared into the same magicians cloak, no sooner than the door was shut we all headed off to slide into a warm bed again was just blissful, the blanket was on and we were “Dog Tired” after our fantastic day at the farm.

Sunday morning arrived just too quickly, and we were both up pretty early, we had agreed to go and see John and Cathy at 10.00am, but first we had a little chore to do for Helen.

After our breakfast of crumpets we headed off to Yalleena, which is a part of the Woodstock empire, and strangely enough, the very first place I ever drove a tractor, so it does hold a whole raft of memories.

We drove down the lane and found a suitable place, armed with some heavy duty fertilizer sacks we started to collect bags of fallen pine cones, being every mindful that despite the cooler weather there could still be snakes around, as soon Helen and Robert would be wanting the wood burning fire on and these pine cones were just the ticket to get the fire started.

It was great just being out side, on a beautiful morning, the morning was sunny and warm and it was just going to be another fantastic autumn day. It would also be fair to mention that there is a “hairy panic” problem over in this part of Australia. It is like a tumbleweed that grows rapidly out of control and it just tumbles around into huge clusters until it blocks lanes, takes over peoples gardens and tangles up the fences and because of the fire bans and high risk in these parts (still!) they cannot burn it to be rid of the problem, we have even seen it reported on the news as a big problem for home owners in Wagga, she cannot even find her dog in the back garden!

We loaded the bags n to the car, and headed off towards Wantabadgery, where John and Cathy live.

We had been given specific instructions on where their house is and soon found it, I was looking out for a lot of calf’s next to the house and drove down the drive.

As usual you can’t formulate a good plan or have a good chat without the aide of a cup of tea and a piece of cake, and soon we were boring John and Cathy with our adventures and how we came to get to Woodstock etc.

We talked for ages then went out and had a look at John and Cathy’s camper trailer which they had purchased and it was excellent, what struck me was the quality of the canvas and really everything that went with it.

We did our very best to give them what we both considered our best advice and said we would keep in touch via e-mail if we thought of anything that would be useful to them.

When we arrived back at Woodstock it was just after 12.30 and Helen offered us some lunch, which we gratefully accepted and had lasagne eat ’em ups from the day before.

Sadly time was against us and we had washing to do and getting ready for work so we needed to get off back to Canberra, but thankfully Robert had come back for his lunch so it gave us the opportunity to say thank you for having us and thank you for an excellent weekend.

Our journey back was ok, it was nice and sunny and we were back just after 4.00 pm but as soon as we got back the washing machine was on etc. It was all chores for the rest of the evening, then we eventually had time to sit down and recap on what was just an amazing weekend.

The farm has such a place in our hearts, and we so enjoy being there, like I have said I so wish you could all experience it, its like its own little universe, thriving in a special part of Australia.

So that’s it for the blog for this week, until the next time, when we find that there is a surprise in store for us

---

Photos

Caroline & Coco
As we had named her

The Woodstck Hilton
With Toby, Wally, Trixie and Tiny in residence.

Woodstock
Its great to see it so Green

Hairy Panick
Down at Yalleena

Friends for dinner
As usual Woodstock is full of people all having a great time

John and Cathy
Their new camper trailer

John & Cathy
And there new camper trailer

Erica and Josh
Ah, loves young dream

Poddy Lambs
Arn't they beautiful

Kimba's Snout
Jst peice and Quite away from the kids