NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!!!

Well it was bound to happen...

I crashed on the Motorbike! I know I know! I'm supposed to be safe and careful. I want you all to know that we were not doing anything we weren't supposed to and we were only going 15 to 20 km/h. It was just a freak accident and I'm ok and on the mend. Whathadhappenwas... Scotty and I went out mustering Goats and couldn't find any to bring back in see the money is with the Billy's so we were headed back after looking at the gorges and caves! Beautiful I must say and all on his land. So amazing all the different land scape's and such. We had visited them early that day to take pics and walk around then it was off to work... This was Saturday by the way so it was a pretty leisure day so anyway. I went with Scotty on the bike and I usually sit on back and the sheep dog sits behind me... picture that! Hahahaha it's quite cute and funny to me that he sits back there until it's time to "Push 'em up!" Well we saw this amazing Eagle Hawks nest and some Kangaroos and went down into the gorge to set a goat trap. Don't worry nothing that hurts them just traps them in a gated in area to must up later on. On our way home Scotty said I could drive and put me in front I controlled the clutch and handle bars and he controlled the gears which are controlled by the foot on the left side. It was really cute because I put my shoes on his boots like you dance with your dad at a wedding or something when you are a little girl. We were going along great on the open road and we turned along side a fence just going along and he said something and then motioned for me to go to the left so I started that way not wanting to jerk the bike afraid of crashing or something and sure enough it didn't matter next thing I knew we were skidding along the gravel and Scotty was smooshed on top of me! Yikes! Apparently what he yelled was wire and it had a hook on it. It grabbed hold of the speedometer cable and yanked the bike out from under us. OUCH! I shot up and made sure he was ok to find out that I was not so good myself. My whole left side screamed in pain and I instantly thought I was going to faint as I went into shock and decided it was a good idea to sit down for a bit until I could regain myself. I got it together and we rode home this time Scotty drove. He was so scared I hurt myself bad and convinced I was dying or something the poor guy he just felt so bad. It wasn't his fault it just happened. We got home and I laid down Scotty immediately got on the phone to call the ambulance. From my knee to my elbow on my left side was just stiff and hurt like crazy. I had a little gash above my left pelvic bone and that was the most sensitive place probably because that's where Scotty landed on me and he is pregnant with a baby elephant so you can only imagine the rock and a hard place I was between for two feet of skidding. So the funny thing was that we are way out in the outback as I've painted for you already and I'm thinking who is going to come get me and how will they know where to go?! Besides I HATE Doctors and I know I will be fine if I can just calm down the screaming muscles I haven't broken anything it's just a major shock to the body! Scotty says the ambulance can't come for a couple of hours because an accident just happened in Eulo (84 KM from here) and so he calls the Flying Doctor... hahahaha it's dark at this point and the poor bloke says he can't make it out because they don't fly at night due to the kangaroo's and cattle, too risky and dangerous! Believe me guys I'm fine just give me a day or two! Hahahaha so I stay the night here and that's what I want and Scotty decides the next morning we are going to Cunnamulla (2 hours away) to get me some xrays. My hand is swollen and hurts like heck and my pelvis is tooooooooooooo sensitive to touch and he just look petrified that he's internally killed me or something. Do you know that doctor looked at me for 5 mins poked me asked if it hurt and pushed on all my bruises and sent me away with 400mg of ibprophan... however you spell it. I was ok with that then because I hate doctors as I've said before but now that's it's Wednesday and although all my immediate pains are healed and as I suspected just bruises and shocked muscles my left shoulder decided to scream out in the most unbearable pain when I tried to put the Ute in first gear yesterday! So now I'm fighting that and I hope it's nothing serious but yikes it hurts and I'm afraid to use it because any time I put a little pressure on it it yells back at me to stop. So free health care is cool and all and only paying $7.30 for your meds is even cooler! BUT you get what you pay for and right now I'm pulling the I want my American doctors card because I want a second opinion. Hahaha I think I will be fine in a few days actually I just think it's weird that it took until Tuesday to realize that my shoulder was hurt... so strange and poor Scotty has developed a blue belly as he is now discovering his belly is bruised. He hopes his baby elephant is ok. :) I just hope I'm tip top for the new job starting Monday. Scotty has been really good taking care of me and he just worries so much I try to tell him I will be fine but he just shakes his head. So just send some extra prayers to my shoulder. The rest is almost completely healed so yay for all that! :) Oh the adventures of Motorbiking and Station Life! Scotty says he falls off at least once a week, it's just the break and like our saying for cycling... it's not a matter of IF you are gunna fall it's a matter of WHEN!

So now that I've got you all worried about me I'm going to give you two things to think about... Tivo and Costco!

Tivo is just now being talked about for Australia and they are all in aww of it's capabilities and wonders of the recording and rewinding world of Tivo. It's cute but so sad that they are just now discovering this wonder that we Americans have had for many years now.

And Finally Costco... they are talking about getting it here next year and you should see the looks of shock and amazement at the bulk quantity options. Even Scotty was amazed to see cereal come in such big boxes he's only seen 2 inch boxes before this will do wonders for us in the outback he says... too cute!

Life in Australia... Outback Style!

Fencing is hard! I'm not talking about the Olympic sport either but to be honest I can't follow that sport it's so difficult oh has anyone tried to play it on Wii?! Way hard! Hahahaha anyway I forgot to tell you that Danielle and I are now a part of Australian History... well Dundoo Australia anyway these fences last up to 60 to 70 years! Fun stuff! We finally finished the 7 k of fencing and I survived with a busted blister on my palm, two bruised feet from pulling wire up the gullies and gorges and back down again (stupid crappy boots) and some pulled muscles in my lower back... hahahha I'm a mess I know but I had fun, learned a lot and now we are signed up to do 45 k of fencing for the month of August. The bloke up the street at this Pub called Toompine (the pub without a town) just called and offered us a job with them... our job here is up in two weeks and so they need help in the Pub while one of their workers takes her son to the doctor and so we will be Publicans as they call them out here and fencing as well. I'm totally excited because I was not looking forward to looking for another job so quick after our last experience with all of that mumbojumbo! Anyway, after that his exwife has work for us possibly down in Victoria and he has offered to take us down there when he goes in the middle of September! Two jobs in one day! Things are finally working out! So keep your fingers crossed for Victoria it's really pretty down there and we wanted to make it that way we want to see as much of Australia as we can and working our way around is the best way and this totally works out so that we don't have to pay for another many hour bus ticket to somewhere in the middle of nowhere Australia! :)

So anyway as the title of this blog suggests I'd like to take some time and describe for you a little about the outback and it's peculiar ways... Lets start with the radio:

Here is the line up of songs I heard yesterday while I sat in the Ute while Scotty cleared out an old fence so we could put a new fence in it's place this week.

Some Pop song by Avril Lavine followed by When you Believe in Miracles by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carrie from the Prince of Egypt then a country song by Sarah Evens, With Me or with Me or whatever that song is by Chris Brown, Then on to Ghost Busters, A country song about heart ache.... ok lets be honest what country song isn't about heart ache, then the all famous We will We will Rock you, Working my way back to you babe... Last Waltz with you by Engalburt Humperdink... who is that!? Elvis' Don't be Cruel and an array of very old country songs with a lone guitar and a banjo accompanyment with the crackle of record recording in the background then You're the one that I want from Grease and then some Patsy Cline.... Can you say random! That's everyday... some oldies, some new pop music, random classics and just strange listenings all day long. The news is fun to listen to with many different reports of all the unjustices and crazies in the world and then a story for all those who missed that back in the 40's!

Anyway on to food! You already know about the steak and beef every day for every meal so I won't go there even though I fear getting the stomach that Scotty has but my dad has taught me well and I've seasoned the heck out of this meat to give it some flavor and Scotty was very impressed says he's spoiled now. :) But really they don't use seansonings here everything is bland I don't understand. steamed veggies and grey steak, at lunch steak and onion sandwiches and that's at the cafes too! but they do have Ketchup but it's called Tomato Sauce, No mustard and an attempt at Mayo... Yuck! But we did have some very delicious Yabbies one night... a Yabby is a crayfish and this guy Mitch that was staying out here at the quarters made us a cocktail... divine! And full of flavor! It was oh so good! I want some more but Mitch left to go back home and that makes me sad. Scotty makes fun of us for taking Chips and Cookies as "side dishes" with our PB&J sandwiches for lunch. Americans are strange he says! But lunch is about my favorite part of the day. We gather a bunch of sticks from the ground and make a fire, toast our sandwiches and eat in peace without the black flies buzzing at our ears and noses. They are insistent on trying to get into every nook and cranny of the head! What is that!? The smoke of the fire deters them and it's peace and warmth for a good 30 mins then back to the fence. Fun fun!

So some new words for ya:
Swag means Tent
Stop off... this has many meanings... Danielle stops off at my house in the states meaning she is my room mate, or it could be stay in between the lines of the road, Scotty uses it for everything so you have to figure out the context of the sentence... we say Huh a lot here! From both sides it's quite funny.
Getting Charged is getting drunk.
Pinch means to steal something or nick it means the same.
Overtaking Lane.... that would be our passing lane I think it's quite funny overtaking! haha
There are many more but for now I think that 'ill do... hahahaha I always feel like Babe the pig from the movie because Scotty says that to us all the time... That 'ill do. Righto is his other favorite phrase. So fun... he makes fun of us for saying cool and awesome!

I have learned a little about welding which was quite fun and very different than I expected and now I can drive a manual vehicle! Very proud of myself! We clean out lots of water troughs for the cattle and we have mustered up goats and drafted them... I'm here to tell you that's a lot easier than cattle! My word! They scream and cry though and it's sad because it really sounds like a toddler crying for it's mom but if you can get past that... which we can't, it's really fine.

Opal are a big deal here as they are a part of the natural surroundings and you can find them almost anywhere. So there was this big Opal festival in Yowah (just up the road) and we went this past saturday. We got Opal studded earrings some strange characters out there and they are serious about their Opals let me tell you. Too funny but it was fun to see what the locals get excited over and their one treasured event a year so I'm glad we went.

The locals here don't appreciate the Aboriginal Culture which is very sad. They talk down about them, call them the black man tools, or water holes or caves. They just don't give them the respect they deserve and I find it very interesting but we have the same back home with our Native Americans. We are more advanced in at least now appreciating them and understanding that we took their land and trying to rectify that but still the same situation but as far as Outback attitude they just don't get it and it makes us very sad. Scotty and his family have so many Aboriginal Tools and just fascinating artifacts and they just have them because they find them and put them in a box or a corner but they don't give them to museums or anything like that. Scotty took us to one of the water holes. So very interesting we could still see their tool sharpening marks but to them it's just an everyday find and no big deal. Sad.

Out here there is just a one lane road that everyone uses and when a car is coming at you, you pull off to the side of the road and let them pass going the other way and roll back onto the road to continue on your journey... very interesting. There are no dryers... you hang your clothes and there is a town out here called Texas!

Well I should go I think I have shared enough. I have to go clean the colonies of daddy long legs out of the cupboards. I'm telling you extended families and friends of the family and village officials of daddy long legs moved into his cabinets! We get so freaked out every time we open them to find a pot to cook in so we decided it's time to move them out! Well I miss you all and I will keep you all posted on more adventure to come.

Later

Dundoo Station

Well we made it! After 15 hours of travel West of Brisbane we found our new temporary home. Scott Haig is our boss and land lord and a funny guy he is. I would post pictures but unfortunately our friend Scottie has a slow and old computer. So old infact that I can't email anyone from this computer. So sad but that's the breaks right.

At any rate I must point out that this is not a farm. It is rightfully called a Station and he owns 130,000 acres of land and it's all red with green trees and rock and just amazing. He has cattle in the thousands and goats and sheep. We see wild emu's and kangaroos. There are many breeds by the way. Red, Blue, Wallaroos and Grey... within the Grey breed are many other subbreeds like Western Grey... anyway enough of that.

We are building an electric fence and let me tell you we are learning a lot. I get to drive the tractor while Scott pounds in the pegs (if I line it up right haha) and Danielle steps it out, runs for the car and helps Scott get the pegs to be lined up. It's quite an operation. So far we have put together 244 pegs, placed 3 straigners (to tighten up the wires every 700 km) all at 17 paces in between per peg... now I say 17 but those are my paces, Danielle's paces are 19 so if you feel up for an adventure go for a walk and either use 17, 18 (to split the difference) or 19 paces 247 times and see how long that is. :) Again as I said we aren't done but can you imagine our long cold days... OMG it's cold here. Apparently we are on a ridge and so the wind gets us and it's friggin cold! I don't know the temperatures but I reckon I like it that way so that I don't really know how cold I am. Hahaha oh the power the mind has over us.

Needless to say it's a lot better here than at the training farm. Scott is amazing and very sweet. He works in little shorts it cracks us up. Look up any picture you want of Australian Bus drivers, mail men, you name it they wear short shorts because it gets so hot here. Too freakin funny. Our first day out Danielle and I just looked at each other and tried our best to keep our laughter under our breath. Minus the short shorts he is a great guy and has really taken great care of us. We cleaned out his house though the first day after work. Hahaha he is a a bachelor and about 50 something and the house was a wreck so we took it upon ourselves to clean things up and make it livable so that Danielle and I wouldn't be grossed out at every corner. So now that we have it liveable there are just two things to get past... water that smells like rotten eggs and grey meat.

Rotten Egg Water: Let me explain. There is this layer of water 1,000 meters under the Australian soil in most of Queesnland called the Artesian Basin. It flows in from the Great Barrier Reef and if you are lucky enough to have land over it then you can drill for your own water and at least give water to your animals and have water in the house... now as it implies it comes at a smelly cost... although if you are like our new friend Scott you eventually become immune to it over time. The bloke (I can say this because he calls everyone a bloke) drinks it, cooks with it, cleans with it you name it and is not phased at all! Crazy! I only use it to shower because I have no choice and that is a nose plugged shower I tell you... so sad! But it's still not bad enough to go back to the training farm.

Grey Meat: Scott eats beef at every meal and by meal I mean tea. Hahahahaha he always asks whats on for tea and he means dinner. Makes me laugh everytime. Anyway beef is great and I love it I'm a carnavor (sp sorry) but holy cow! hahahaha I made a funny! He cooks it so that it's grey and rubbery and almost near tasteless and steemed veggies and that's all you have when you eat at Cafe a la Haig! We went grocery shopping today and I think Danielle and I have decided to take up cooking from now on! Wish us luck!

Ok so now on to serious matters! I so stand corrected! I thought there was nothing that could beat a Texas sunset but I'm here to tell you I've never seen one in Australia before and I've got to say Texas sunsets stand no chance against the sunsets of the biggest open sky I've ever seen! We stayed working late on Friday night and it was a bit over cast and cold all day and soon it started to get dark and the sun popped under the clouds on it's way down and I don't know that my words can give it justice but the most brilliant yellows, purples, pinks, oranges and blue set before us catching all three of us by surprise and we just stood and watched the beauty unfold before us for as long as we could. It was amazing and although we didn't have our cameras I will always take the sunset with me it was just breath taking.

We watched Rugby League the other night too! That was fun... it's actually different than Rugby so we learned a lot I'm thinking it's the equivilant to our Arena Football but at any rate the Titans were fun to watch and they beat the Roosters hahahahahaha I've yet to watch an All Blacks game but Scott says next weeks so I'm holding my breath and ready for The Haka! Woo hoo!

Well I'm sure there are many other stories I could tell you but right now I'm done writing don't forget if you want the more eliquent (if I even spelled that right) version of my stories click on Danielle's name to the right of this story. That will take you straight to her blog and you can get the rest of the story.

Love you guys and for the time being remember I can't email or read your emails so continue to email me all you want it will be fun to catch up when I can.

Farm Training Hell!

For you Beth... and how I felt ALL week!

Where we stayed... at sunset! :)

My Nemesis

You can't really see it but those are the paddocks with the

cows we mustered and chased us all week.

Ok so this Farming business is HARD! Hahahaha I knew it wouldn't be easy but I don't think we were prepared for all of this. We were thinking more physical labor in regards to hauling things, fixing things, loading, and things of that nature... but animals aren't my thing. To start off cows are scary and our trainer was horrible at communicating what he wanted of us and then yelled at us for not doing something right... how am I supposed to learn like that?!

At any rate we survived and without a scratch so I guess it was all fine but there were some moments let me tell ya. Richard, our trainer, started off by telling us every way you could kill yourself on a farm then just expected us to figure out the rest on our own. Chain saws were fun, horseback riding not so much, I pissed off the brown horse pictured up top and Richard wanted me to just keep riding and get the hang of it! Hello! I am so intimidated by big animals I'm small and never grew up near big animals what do you expect! Motorbikes were amazing fun and great to get away from the horses, but mustering cattle! Now that's a different story. Sitting in the Ute (Utility Vehicle pictured on Danielle's Blog) was easy and fun watching the kids that knew how to ride horses work their magic but once we got them in the paddocks we had to all get out (6 of us total) and chase them from one paddock to the other to try and get them up to the branding, tag checking and injection area of torture! Needless to say things were all going great until I was chased over a fence after a steer squared off with me and decided I looked like something fun to play with. 5 broken fences and two days later Richard said it was the worst 2 days he's ever had on the farm and that he was embarrassed his cattle were acting that way... made me feel better I thought I was just bad and the job and they were performing to my weakness. At one point Richard got in the Ute and chased the steer that thought of me as a play toy around the farm trying to get him back to the paddock but was unssuccessful and we broke for lunch. Yeesh!



Learning to drive the tractor was fun and something I could handle and fixing fences was great and so up my ally! We finally got a job in Dundoo by way of Cunnamulla (hahhahahaha yes that's a real word it's Dr. Seuss world over here!!!) doing maintenance, fencing and a little bit of cattle but he says his cattle are quiet... ahhhhh we shall see. To say the least it's been stressfull and worrysome but we are on leg three and 3 is both of our lucky number so we are going to pick up our chins and hope for the best! Judy (Richard's mom) took really good care of us. She is so sweet and understands how crazy all of this is and feed us amazing meals! I ate 3 meals a day! I haven't done that in... well I can't remember when I last did that. Hahahaha

Wish us luck!

Sand Blow on Rainbow Beach

We had one last adventure before we left for training... unfortunatley the computers all crashed the day we tried to post this so it's a week late but at least I can do it now... we hiked for about 15 minutes into this forest and then seriously out of no where a sea of sand was before us. It's so hard to explain and the pictures don't do it justice but the top picture is of the whole thing and the second pic is from the edge of all the sand looking down at the ocean you can barely make out the people walking on the beach. I tried to give you guys some perspective of how high we were. I'm guessing at some point there was water that high because its just sand for days and when you walk to the back edge it looks like the sand is being propped up by tree tops. It was like being in the middle of the dessert but with ocean and trees surrounding it hahahahhaha. So not explaining any of this well enough but maybe you can google it or something. Sandblow at Rainbow Beach. So beautiful and so fun to walk in we took off our shoes and just explored it all. The sand was many different colors some dark some light some inbetween. We just happened upon it and it was totally worth the walk out there. We didn't end up going into the ocean it was so cold outside of the water we knew we would freeze if we went in and got wet. We are here for a year so eventually I will attempt to brave it... sorry to disappoint.

At any rate it was gorgeous and so fun and I'm glad I got to see it so random and like nothing I've ever seen before.

Later Mates! :)