Sorry for the lack of update last week - I spent 45mins writing a long entry, and then just as I went to post it, the computer threw a strop and deleted all except the first 2 sentences which made me very cross!

So, quick round up of the week before last - out at No3 most of the week as the road trains had been rescheduled to pick up the cattle, as they'd originally been due when we had all that rain, which meant that a) they wouldn't have been able to get down the dirt road to the yard, and b) we wouldn't have been able to muster the cattle in the first place for them to pick up. We ended up being a day ahead of ourselves, as there were some crossed wires as to which day they were meant to be arriving, and we only realised we'd got it wrong when Peter the cattle agent didn't turn up when we expected him. But we got everything sorted in the end, all cattle dipped and tagged, the usual, and 4 road trains loaded up before smoko. We all came home on the Wednesday night as it was the last State of Origin game on the TV, which everyone follows around here. Can't remember if it's rugby league or union, but it's different to the one Jonny Wilkinson plays if that helps! State of Origin is particularly well supported as it is Queensland vs New South Wales, which are where the best players in Aus come from. It's a 3 game series, and I'm pleased to say Queensland won the first 2, so we won overall. This last match was a really good game, as Qld wanted to go for the 3 match win, and NSW had something to prove. To cut a long story short NSW won, but there was a lot of shouting at the TV from all corners, and it was pretty close run for a while.

The end of that week we brought the horses home and spent a couple of days mustering around the house, which we continued this week after day off last Sunday. It's been a busy week and we've processed a lot of cattle - one day we had a mob of about 700. Some days are more stressful than others - one day Billy left the gate open to the yard, and overnight we lost all the cows and we had to waste all of the next morning rounding them up before we could let them go again with their calves that had been shut in a different part of the yard - nightmare! And last Saturday wasn't too good, as while we were processing the calves, Josh got kicked in the face and there was blood pouring out of his nose and mouth. The flying doctor was on his way to Townsville, so wouldn't be with us for another 5 hours at least, so it was quicker for Anne to drive him into Mt Isa hospital which she did. We thought he had a broken nose, but turns out he just had cartilage damage, and a big rip between his gum and insidetop lip where it joins his nose. He was very sore, but it didn't stop him eating and it's well on the mend now.

I gained a new horse the other week as well - Hairyman, an ex-racehorse, who you have to keep a very tight hold of if you get off to go to the toilet as he has a habit of pulling away and disappearing into the distance. And no, that's not the voice of experience, well not yet anyway. I got him as we had to send Grumpy back to the stallion as we think she's pregnant, and also she's been stumbling a lot in here back end, which is a remnant of an illness she had last year. Hairyman's cool though, and Afra and O'Reilly are still going well too. O'Reilly lost a shoe this week though, unfortunately on a day when we were mustering a really rocky area, and now she's lame so I can't ride her for a bit, which is a shame as she's a fab little pony.

Otherwise, this week's been pretty uneventful, although I did have an argument with a barbed wire fence yesterday, as Afra spooked at something and leapt sideways into it. The left leg of my jeans is pretty much shredded and I've got a few nasty scratches down that leg, but nothing that won't heal!

As for my little calfie, Nacho is doing reasonably well. It's been very nice to be at home for the last 10days or so and spend some time with him, especially as it seems he's more willing to drink for me than anyone else. He's not drinking anywhere near as much as he used to, most days he doesn't have more than a couple of litres (bear in mind this is the calf that could down 9 or 10 litres a day no problem). We think that little horse did him some permanent damage when it chased him, knocked him over and pawed at his stomach. But fingers crossed he'll be ok. He's a really affectionate little fellow - I sat with him for about an hour yesterday after we'd finished work, and he was trying to lick my face and climb over me, while making little nuzzling noises (not unlike the one's Bess makes!).

Day off today, not much doing except getting ready to go out to No2 to camp tomorrow. Not looking forward to it in this weather, as it's like Big Lagoon in that there's no toilets and the showers is the rain tank with a hose coming out of it, which is going to be flipping cold! Ah well, it'll be an experience, and that's what I came for after all...