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Published: February 6th 2009
Day 90
It had been a very hot night, no not what you are thinking! The temperatures have been soaring here and the night time is no exception. It has also been the first time we slept indoors in a proper bed for over a month, what bliss.
Although with the heat I had not slept very well, so, it did not come as too much of a shock when Andy said to me it was 5.30, time to get up, I had anticipated an early call and it was surprisingly easy to get up and with the day. I was slightly behind the rest of the household though.
While I had a cup of tea and some cereal, Robert, Helen and Andy all went down to the shed to get the equipment ready in order to commence weighing the lambs ready for the… place that I don’t really want to mention. I saw Robert go past on the quad bike with the dogs and in front of him were a huge flock of sheep.
Breakfasted and feeling ready for the day (yes really, it was still only 6am and I was wide awake), hiking boots on
Jack
Sheep dog Jack overseeing the girlsand hat off I went to the shed, I could hear everyone but I could not see where they were so hunted around and right round the back there was a paddock full of lambs.
Getting round and into them was the first challenge, not sure of the boundaries and where the lambs were going and if I could open a gate or climb over. I soon found my way in and was introduced to Ross Jelbart who is a contractor and works for Landmark came to help with the weigh in.
Ross’ first job was to initially sort the lambs, by sight he could tell which lambs were close to the correct weight and therefore separate ones that were too light. Those that were too light were put into a separate paddock. Those chosen by Ross were then put into the paddock that had a narrow run into the weigh machine.
The weigh machine is basically a metal crate, big enough for one lamb; the crate is placed onto two pressure plates that are connected to electronic scales. The lamb then runs into the weigh machine, the front trap doors are closed as are the rear
trap doors, the weight is read and then if it is between a certain weight it goes off to market, if it is too heavy they go to a different paddock and they are sent for the export market.
The dogs were on form, Wally, Trixie and Jack did their job perfectly, never missing an instruction and bringing the sheep in and splitting them when required.
Sometimes two lambs try to get in and sometimes they try to run straight through but run straight into the closed trapdoors on the other side. The lamb will sometimes try to turn around but there is not enough room.
Andy is helping by manning the gate and will push the gate in the direction given by Ross, either the paddock for export market or the paddock to go to that unmentionable place, ok I will whisper it the abattoir.
Robert called my name and said “This one’s a poddy lamb”, you may remember from yesterdays blog, if you read it, that a poddy lamb is one that has been hand raised and fed by bottle. The poddy lamb is too heavy and gets into the export paddock.
It
Andy helping Helen
Andy helping Helen put the weighing machine away was already hot and you can really see why they start work so early to do this kind of job, there is no way that you can manage this in the current heat wave so the 5am start is the best way.
Once the lambs are sorted, some of them get sheared to remove any dirty fleece, so we went into the shearing shed and watched Robert and Jason do the tidy up. Nope, Bryan Brown was not in there either.
By now of course we have done a full days work, tee hee, well I hadn’t Andy helped more than I did, I just showed willing by turning up.
The main part of our day was getting the Patrol serviced in Wogga. (Wagga Wagga) So getting back to the house, we had a cup of tea, showered and changed so that we looked half reasonable getting into town.
Helen very kindly offered to take us around Wogga, so we followed her into town, dropping the car off at Jason Nissan and off we went on our whirlwind tour.
Our first stop was the sale yards, where sheep and cattle were penned ready for sale,
Wally & Jack
Two great Dogs Wally & Jack some really beautiful sheep were there and lots of buys and sellers.
We saw the University Campus, TaFE (Technical and Further Education), Botanical Gardens which also had a little zoo, had coffee, stopped for lunch and did some grocery shopping in Woolworth’s, in fact by the time we put the shopping in the car, the garage phoned to say that the car would be ready for collection.
Helen dropped us off and we were soon back in the Patrol, the only extras being a new air filter and they had to top up the radiator with coolant, we think it had become a bit diluted when we overheated on Fraser Island and had to keep topping up with cold water. A little cash lighter we headed off back to Woodstock.
On the way we stopped at Wagga Winery to buy a bottle of wine for dinner. Andy and I had offered to cook in return for Helen and Roberts’s kindness in giving us a roof for a few nights. I discussed options with the winery and narrowed the choice down to a sparkling wine and a Riesling, she said to me that I have to try them first
The Girls
Weighting to be weighed then I can decide. Well it would have been rude not to try so I had half a (small) glass of both and then decided that the sparkling would go down well with the chicken curry that we are planning on cooking.
Back at the ranch and after a little rest, Andy gets onto cooking the dinner, it seems that I did not help as for one thing I would have been in his way and the second thing was that I was typing the blog.
Helen had said that Robert didn’t like his curry hot, so Andy cooked two. A chicken Korma for Robert and a chicken Madras for Helen, Caroline and Myself. I was dreading giving everyone a deli belly, so made sure it was cooked to the best of my ability. When it was served it was a triumph and went down really well.
We managed to stay awake until 9.00 pm then went to bed absolutely shattered, again we have early start feeding the sheep in the morning.
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Darryl and Sarah
Wallaby Wanderers
Experience
.... fabulous experiences you're getting on your trip. How wonderful ... great to experience some real life. Let us know how you're getting on with mobile broadband aswell!! All the Best from Darryl and Sarah