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Published: September 27th 2015
Easy like a Sunday morning.
Where's my mum, she was here a minute ago!!Easy Like a Sunday Morning.(NOT)
We were pretty late to bed last night with the wedding which was sensational, and today (Sunday) it was time to recoup.
The night had been cold, we put an extra doona on the bed, someone forgot to put the electric blanket on (low) before we went out, Helen reminded us at the wedding as she had done hers,so when we got home late the bed was cold.
As there is no external light pollution the milky waycompletely filled the night sky as far as the eye could see just envelopedthe black night andwas just truly amazing, as we put the car in the garage and pulled the door shut the night creatures were making a bit of a din, frogs and toads in the creek were calling out, the odd sheep baa'd, but all the dogs were asleep, not a single woof to tell us they were listening out for us.
Sunday started out as a beautiful day, I think Helen said there may be rain, and as long as we have known the Riverina and our favourite farm Woodstock, their water availability has been a story of not enough, to
Easy like a Sunday morning.
The beacon of Woodstock, the post box too much when we first arrived on the farm nearly seven years ago they had been 10 years in drought, the earth was scorched and we were feeding sheep by hand, now is a completely different contrast, the farm dams are full and water is in abundance, everything is green and lush and the grazing creatures have plenty to eat.
We had had breakfast, Helen, a bacon and egg sandwich washed down with numerous cups of tea, I had published a blog and was catching up with a few emails and Helens mobile went off, it was Robert wanting Helen to assist getting a flock of sheep across the Gundagaito Junee Road, down by one of the Woodstock properties.
Helen is always on call for these little jobs and they say, never work with Children or animals, Helen was heading for the door and said she just needed to pop out and move some sheep, I asked if she wanted me to assist, and she said "yep" lets go.
We drove up to where the entrance is to Kilarra, my favourite house, and there was Robert and four of the working dogs, the John Deere Gator and
Easy like a Sunday Morning
The dogs who are selected to work for their skills are playing around in the back on the crate the sheepy trailer, Robert had herded all the sheep together and was holding them at the start of the lane, with the dogs keeping all the sheepin check.
Helen went far side and I went near side, I stood in the middle of the road so hopefully any traffic would slow down, though it would be something you couldn’t really miss when a 100 or so white sheep cross the black road.
Even though signs had been put up to give drivers enough warning from both sides, some drivers seem to miss the signs and don't slow down until it is too late.
I turned around and had my last look, nothing coming Helen did the same and the sheep started to move, they only did have the width of a two lane road to go, but there was a fare did of dawdling, I had visions of a couple of lambs doing a bit of fancy foot work on me and getting past me, then I envisaged running after them then the whole thing would have turned to shit.
Seen one sheep, seen them all, yep that’s about the size of it and when they
Easy like a Sunday morning
This is Roberts medium sized tractor, as you can see its big against Caroline all managed to cross the road, the dogs came over to me as if to say, look Andy how clever are we, and wanted a fuss in return, Wally, Trixie, Hoover and Smokey all looked for reward.
Robert brought the few stragglers over in the sheepy trailer and I watched him get the ewes and the lambs out of the trailer, one of the sheep kept falling over which concerned me, every time Robert got here on all four hooves she just fell over.
I asked Helen what was wrong with her and Helen said if they have been laying down for too long they lose their self-levelling internal balance and it takes them a while to regain it, after about ten minutes she was good to go.
Helen asked me if I had seen two 20 Litre drums by the machinery shed, which I had, Robert had placed these strategically as a prop for any wonky sheep he had, so he would carefully place them between the two barrels and leave them alone to regain their balance.
Robert went off with all four dogs on the gator Wally (Head Sheep Dog) sits in the passenger
Easy like a Sunday morning.
Some of the Woodstock Rams, they are gorgeous boys, such sweet faces. seat likes he’s human whilst the other three sit on the back, I happened to have my camera in my pocket and managed to get some pictures.
Robert went off on yet another busy mission and Helen and I had to collect all the Warning notices from along the road, I sat in the back of her car (on the tail gate, with my legs dangling) whilst she drove along and I jumped out of the tail gate every time I had to collect a sign and load it in to the back of the car, then we drove back to the machinery shed and stored them for next time.
We got back to the homestead and Caroline (could only just talk this morning) was working on the photo’s she had taken of the wedding all 1100 of them and as the Wemyss family were coming over for dinner tonight including the new Mr & Mrs Wemyss (Mr and Mrs Wemyss no 3 would be wanting to look through the memories of their wedding day). Caroline seemed pleased with her efforts so far, deleted a couple that she knew the bride would not like (you know the ones
Easy like a Sunday morning.
The sheep at the bottom of the lane by Killara waiting to cross the road, the dogs were keeping them from straying to far. where the camera catches those moments that everyone wants to forget).
I left Caroline doing her job and asked Helen if she had any red paint, as I wanted to give the Woodstock Post Box a bit of a refresh, this post box is the beacon into the Woodstock estate and something that means a lot to Caroline and I, it sits out there in all weathers and the red had faded so I thought I would just give it a touch up.
Armed with a tin of red enamel spray, a roll of masking tape, a wire brush, knife and some newspaper I walked down the lane from the homestead to the post box which is about 20 minutes away and once across the cattle grid I set myself up with all the things I needed to do the job in hand.
Soon the project was all prepared, as I was doing the masking up, cars would see me working on the Woodstock post box and toot their horns as they drove past, I would have thought they were friends or neighbours of Robert and Helen.
I applied the paint and it just
seemed to lift the whole mood of the post box, it made me happy, just a bit of paint and hey presto.
Gathering all my materials and headed off back down the lane towards the homestead, the paper would need to stay on for the rest of the day to allow it all to dry.
Twenty minutes later, I was leaving everything in the machinery shed and got into the house where Caroline and Helen both were, Helen was doing the prep for tonight’sBBQ dinner and Caroline was again doing some photo work.
I sat and had a quick cup of tea then announced I was off for a snooze, the afternoon sun was beaming in to our room and I just could not resist a nana.
When I woke I was advised that I had been asleep a good couple of hours, but who cares, it was absolutely lovely, we still had time up our sleeve to get prepared for tonight. But first we had to head up to the container and put a few bits and pieces away with the rest of our belongings.
Helen asked me to do the food on the
Easy like a Sunday morning.
Wally and the gang, keeping those sheepy's all in check BBQ outside on the veranda, there was a great selection of lamb things to cook, chops, lamb patty’s and sausages, well what else would you cook on a sheep farm with around 20,000 of your own creatures?
Late in the afternoon Robert had popped over to the Wemyss property to collect the bales of hay he had lent them for the wedding, when he returned he told us that he had hit a Kangaroo in the truck on his way back, apparently it wasn't pretty, sad as it is, a fact of life out here.
The Wemyss turned up, slightly later than expected, but always on form, they had all their cattle to feed before they could leave the farm, what with that all all the wedding guests they had to feed and accommodate, their lives had been pretty full on.
Dinner was served and all ten of us sat around chatting and eating as we have always done it was great to be back in the bosom of the people that we love and our familiar lives “Over East”.
Everyone was exhausted, it had been a busy time for the Wemyss, setting up for the
wedding, the wedding itself and all day spent taking down the decorations, so it was time to break up the party.
Sliding into bed for our last night at Woodstock, tomorrow we head back to Perth. A short trip, exhausting but fun.
Kj
p.s. remember to switch the electric blanket on, so the bed was toasty warm.
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ThePass
Australia 2008
Woodstock
I always like it when you visit Woodstock. Would love to visit. Great job on the photos, Andy. How great that their damns are full. Such awesome scenery. Thanks.