What wont kill me, will only make me stronger!

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Hello everyoneee!

Im am certainly settling into the joys of being a jillaroo now! Wow, where to start, the last two weeks has been well....interesting....

Basically the owners went away on holiday (and got engaged...awwww 😊 ) so I was left here with Mr Mental for 10 days (mr mentals real name being Robbie). We had a lot of motors breaking down and I had to learn to weld, service vehicles, drive an HGV truck, take out malaysis to the cattle, feed the weaners and generally learn to find my way around the big wide 500,000 acre unsignposted outback...all alone 😊 Several things went slightly wrong for me, the stallion I am looking after, Wizzy, decided he was feeling slighly randy one night and tried to jump the very high steel gate to get to a mare...and got stuck. Silly stallion. So I found the dumb bugger the next morning with his two back legs (amazingly NOT broken) but tangled up in a broken fence and cut up pretty badly. 6 hours away from the nearest vet, I have to deal with it. So i wash and cream it up as best as I can and give him a shot of 'Benasillin' and hey, hes doing pretty good now! I knew Id make a good vet!

We also had the most amazing electrical storm! The smell from the rain hitting the dust was incredible, the lightning bolts filled the whole sky and the thunder nearly sent me to my knees! We saw a lighting bolt hit the hill and start a bush fire which we had to go and see that evening. It was really un-nerving driving through a bush fire but pretty incredible to see! It burned for 8 days all the way across the hills. The storm also put the elecrticity out, which was fun in the middle of the night.

Now, because of the bush fire, the wild life was basically being 'spat out' of the bush, and made there way toward us. I realised this on Friday morning as i was sitting in the garden quite happily letting my brekkie digest when I see an 8 ft long snake looking at me about a foot away. Now everything in my head screamed 'RRRUUUUUNNNN'. BUT, a little australian voice said 'If you see a snake, back away slowly, mate', and amazingly I did. And then ran screaming for robbie. Now robbie, aka mr mental, went all Steve Irwin on me. He grabbed it by its tail, cracked the whip at it from on the table and generally, pissed it off (I have some AWESOME video of this! haha). Only after nearly getting bitten did he decide it might be clever to look in a snake book at what it was. The worlds second most deadly snake. Great. So unfortunately he had to shoot it because we didnt fancy getting bitten....we then cut open the big bolge in its belly and found a teeny tiny undigested baby kangaroo....
The next day we were clearing out the shed and Robbie casually says, 'Oh look...a redback'. Mental.
I also had a stand off with a Goanna, I was walking through the bush on my own and I heard a loud noise. Now normally, I dont look when I hear a noise out here becuase I dont want to know what it is. But it was a big noise so I turned to see a very very big Goanna (a large lizard) which looked slightly like a crocodile to me and was noticably NOT in a cage. Unsure what to do I hid behind a tree 😊


So I think thats about it.... we have to do a 4 day muster next week which im looking forward to as im itching to get back on a horse! We also get to do some yard work with the weaners like branding, injecting etc... AND i get to try my hand a shoeing a horse! ....never thought id get to try that!

I hope everyone is well! Im getting stronger every day and im used to the 40+ heat almost now! My lower arms have gone the best shade of brown...shame its only my lower arms! haha
Missing you all lots hope youre all well, and if anyone needs me my mother has a contact number!

Hopefully get back on here again soooon!
Lots of love from Hayley the Jillaroo xxxxxx

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