Tuesday 12th March - Friday 26th July 2013

Well we have finally completed our regional work, we did a total of four months rather than the required three months. We enjoyed it that much!

Well after our first week of milking morning and night we finally got onto the rota! The first week was hell! Having to do the morning and afternoon shift for a whole week nearly killed me! I had milked so much that I was having nightmares about cows, which turned into sleep talking to Stu that the cows weren't milked out. Then it got even more serious and I start sleep walking trying to put the cups on the cows and trying to stop the platform! But since we got onto the rota, I have had no bad dreams about cows! Stu had managed to upgrade himself after two months of milking to doing herding! Which is much better as milking is kind of boring by yourself!

I managed to land myself the job of looking after the calves, which I really enjoyed, despite the lack of days off! The calfs were dead cute, and I loved every single one of them! (I miss them so much now!!)

Its hard work, which is expected on a farm, some people don't realise! The people here are great, and its always a laugh! We had some wild nights, the only bad thing was that I didn't get too many days off so drinking and waking up early to feed noisy calfs was not ideal!

We both enjoyed our time on the farm, and there is so much that happened and we did, it would take me just as long to write it all down!!

We learnt a lot about farming, cows, grass, vehicles, tractor driving, thistling (which is cutting down giant thistle with a spade, Stu is a pro!) and everything in between. We had a lot of rough days when the cows just want to do their own thing and ignoring what you want them to do! I spent many a day running around fields chasing after cows and escaped 'teenage' calfs. I think the best times I had was going out into the paddocks and catching the new born calfs and being chased by angry mums and even more angry surrogate mothers!!! Chasing escapee cows in the neighbors land in the bush, searching for hours.

I've been kicked by calfs (in the chest!), kicked by angry mums, bitten by calfs, head butted once (that was the worse, nice black, swollen cheek bone after that!), fallen in mud, puddles, lost my wellies, been peed and pooped on several times! After a while it doesn't really bother you, after the first week you just deal and accept that this is how it is!

The weather got worse as it hit winter, if anyone tells you Australia is in drought go down south and it is far from a drought! We had some major flooding across the farm and tracks, so much water I had to use the tractor to get to my calfs in the paddock at the back of the farm!

We got rid of the 'teenage' calfs, thank god, little s***s! They went off to another farm to get nice a fat ready to come back and be mummies. We got a delivery of 22 bulls, when they came off the truck they made so much noise it sounded like jurassic park (properly didn't help that it was pitch black!). They are the most scariest creatures ever! They didn't have massive horns, but they were built like brick s*** houses! Absolutely HUGE! It was enjoyable working in the milk shed and watching them having a fight with one another!

I had to 'round them' up one day in the Suzy, the tiniest car on the farm! They wouldn't move and kept giving me the evil eye, two of them wouldn't stop fighting and one decided to bail in a fight and ran towards the car! Well, the foot was pushed to the metal and we shifted out the way pretty damn fast! Scary moment! Stu came on the bike and got them easier! The cows don't like the motorbike as its really loud and moves faster than the car can! So they get a shift on pretty fast!

I think the worse moment yet funniest moment was when I dropped Vinny off in Busselton so he could catch the bus back to Perth. I managed to get a good day off and picked up the farms shopping, less than 1 km out of Busselton the car died! Luckily I had phone signal to phone up RAC to get me towed back to the farm! Everyone was worried at the farm, but I reassured them I had PLENTY of food to keep me going! I managed to get home in the end after cursing at the bloody car. We have left it at the farm to be taken to the car grave yard...where it belongs!!!

The milk shed had also managed to get a blockage in the pipes, which took about 1 - 2 months to build up a real serious block and another 1 - 2 months to unblock! We shoved pipes in the drains in the shed, a pipe out the back under the yard, water blasting it. Nothing made it budge! We got a massive pressure system and the block was that bad it blasted off the system and still didn't unclear it! Two days before we were leaving it unblocked, the cause of the blockage...a dead cat. Must of got it self stuck down the hole and drowned. Poor thing.

We had a few wild parties at the houses, there wasn't much to do other than watch TV all day, so alcohol was a good time passer! We had a few BBQs and bonfires and a couple of 4WD trips to the beach and Lake Jasper with Andy. I got to drive the truck 4WD once, it was epic! Damn hard to drive on sand I'll tell you!

All in all no two days were EVER the same! Which is good as time seem to fly by so fast and before we knew it we had done our three months and then our leaving date. We both wished we could stay longer, but we both need a break and we are very much looking forward to seeing Mark and Chelsea in Melbourne! We have got an open invitation for us to return in a heartbeat. So there is always a back up plan! We will miss the farm life, and won't be forgetting it very quickly!

All my photos (there are so many I want to post!): https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151820000848986.1073741830.501883985&type=1&l=f9784ab8db