Cattle processing day. Never an easy job with handled cattle let alone crazy wild ones... dehorning, branding, tagging and castrating is the goal today. Then separating Mickey bulls from the others. Some of it appears brutal to say the least. I'm now on the branding iron, which in most cases works well. The odd beast moves before the three second count is up. This results in a double brand which is messy...
Roderick has cut his hand open with the power saw that is being used to dehorn. When the batteries run flat it's back to the hand saw. It's an interesting way, but for the safety of the handlers and horses that will muster them in the future it's really the only option. They had had a free life up until a couple of days ago. This has been an incredibly stressful and confusing time for them, not to mention the things that have been done to them.
There is one cow that has been trodden on and can't get back up, it's not looking good for her. Decision will be made tomorrow.
Once they have been processed we allow them to settle, then we will take the horses in and push them around the yards to get them used to everything, possibly tomorrow.
Sounds like they will get a road train in to take them home once they are good to go.

The afternoon was spent taking down the last muster site. I had to drive the truck to the yards which was a split gearbox, something I've never driven before. I managed to work my way up the gears ok but downwards was a disaster. Although once we were loaded up and coming home I managed two downward gear changes. Certainly not a road legal truck and others have had trouble with the gears as well so I didn't do too bad. Was pretty darn hot loading up the truck two. Sweat dripping off, so once back at the camp site it was nice to have another wash in the dam. Flies again today have been super bad and annoying.

The day has been mixed up with the word 'proper'. It seems that you can use the word with anything - it adds emphasis to something. It was hot today, or it was proper hot today, the later sounding more intense. The cow was proper angry etc. we have had many laughs about this today.

Yesterday the joke was about a rock. Have we seen any rocks? The place is covered in them making life difficult. Watch out for the rock, frequently the reply is we can't see any rocks. Might be a joke where you have to be here to see the funny side of it? I'll let you reserve judgment of that.