This week we've been out at No2, from Sunday to Saturday, and it's been a pretty intense time. In total I think we branded about 650 calves (by we I mean PJ, Josh and me), and I've lost track of how many cattle came through the yard, but it must have been over a couple of thousand. The camp itself wasn't too bad, yes there's not much there, and the shower was a tin shed with a bucket and a dipper, but it was still better than Big Lagoon, and we actually had hot water for the shower from heating big buckets on the fire, so it was actually quite a pleasant experience. It does make you appreciate the simple home comforts of the station on your return though - it was so good to see a real toilet and a real shower again!

The days were pretty long, starting about 7am once it was light enough to see, and finishing about 6:30pm, once it was too dark to see! We mustered cattle from most of the surrounding bores, where we'd trapped them in the paddocks around the troughs, which made our lives a bit easier. Mostly the musters back to the yard weren't too long, about half a day but on Thursday we went out to No4 and had more cattle than we expected, and they just didn't want to walk. Every time you tried to push the tail along they just all splurged out the sides as we didn't really have enough men for the number of cattle. I had a big chase at the beginning of the day about a mile and a half after this crazy white cleanskin (unbranded) heifer. I would have stopped her earlier but Hairyman (my horse) decided to suddenly stop and spin mid gallop which nearly unseated me, and lost us a lot of ground. I finally managed to block her up in the middle of a plain, and the mad thing kept trying to charge me and I couldn't bend her back to the mob. I managed to get my radio out of my pocket to ask for someone to come and help me, but by the time they'd figured out where I was, they decided I was too far away and I should just leave her and come back. It was a bit frustrating after all that hard work, but fair enough - I hadn't realised how far away I'd ended up! I was just grateful that the windmill was so tall and I could actually see where the bore was that I was trying to get back to, or I would have been very lost!

Generally it's been a a good week. Things seem to have begun to click a little bit, and the ground we were mustering over was pretty free of ant beds, big holes, trees, fallen logs etc so I could practice chasing faster and wider without having too many obstacles to avoid, which gave me a bit more confidence. Also, I've begun to get some idea of where I should be when we're cutting out, as before I always managed to be in the way of where they were trying to send the beast out of the main mob. But now I can generally get out of the way and sometimes even go in and help! Doesn't sound much, but it's something I've found really difficult since I started and it makes me feel a lot better that I'm finally improving.

The cattle themselves haven't been too bad, we've had a few crazy ones (as always) but overall they weren't much worse than we've had before. Having said that, I did get charged by a big mickey calf when I was chasing up for the branding cradle and had nowhere to go to get out of his way. I managed to push his nose so he ran round me, but was still pretty scary when you're in a 2m x 3m yard with a mad half grown baby bull! That was the only problem with No2 yard, that the calf yard and crush were so small in comparison to the size of the calves, and it was very easy to get kicked or charged while chasing up.

Afra and Hairyman got worked hard this week as I had to leave O'Reilly at home as she was very lame, but hopefully she'll be better again by now and I can take her out to No3 this week.

I suppose I should go and find something to do with the rest of my day off, maybe more sleep would be a good idea, my back and shoulders really ache after this week!