Another week spent out at the luxurious camp that is No3, although I am pleased to say we didn't go out there until Monday morning, which meant Anne and I could watch Grey's Anatomy on Sunday night - it's about the only hour of TV we watch over the whole week, and is much anticipated. It was so nice to be back at a civilised camp again with electric light and flushing toilets and a real shower. Not that I mind roughing it for a while, but the amount of time we spend out at No3 it would be a bit of a nightmare without the basic amenities.

It was a pretty relaxed week this week, well, as relaxed as it can get out here, in that we weren't loading the road trains until Friday, which meant we had plenty of time to get all the cattle in and processed. Monday we mustered the top paddock, where all the cattle had been put that had been trucked back there from No2 and the house, and we began drafting, which continued into Tuesday. We drafted bullocks and fat cows to go to the meatworks, and heifers and breeding cows (some with calves) to be sold. Once we sorted out the ones we wanted we put them out into the starvation paddock so they were out of the way, and carried on with other jobs like fencing etc. Wednesday Anne, Josh and I went out to muster horses from the bull paddock, as Anne needed 3 fresh horses, Alan needed 1 and so did I as unfortunately O'Reilly is still lame and not showing any signs of improvement as yet. It all started well, we found the first mob of horses which included a couple that we needed, and Josh took them back to the bore, while Anne and I continued on. It didn't take long for us to find the next mob, and Anne told me to tail them while she just went and checked the treeline in case there were some more hidden in there. That's where things started to go wrong. My mob took off flat stick and galloped a huge semi-circle in the complete opposite direction from where Anne was expecting to meet me. They finally pulled up at the other side of the plain in some trees, so I stood on the plain and waited for an hour in case Anne was able to find me. She was the only one wearing a radio and I had no way of contacting her, and wasn't even sure where I'd come from as I'd been concentrating on keeping these mad horses in sight. I wasn't too worried though, as the horses had helpfully pulled up next to a cattle pad (path that leads into water), and the only water in that paddock is at the bore, and I knew which way along the pad I needed to go. After an hour, I decided she wasn't going to find me and I should head back to the bore, and that I may as well try and take the mob of horses I had with me. If they'd come, fantastic, if not then I hadn't lost anything. So I put them on the pad, and they walked along like little angels, one behind the other following the pad for an hour until we reached the bore. I was very lucky that they hadn't been into water yet that day, or they would have been a lot more trouble. When I finally arrived at the bore, I was met by Bev, who was thesearch party that Anne had called to come and look for me, and just had to wait a few minutes for Anne and Josh to come back from yarding up the horses they'd brought out between them, to help me with the 9 that I had brought up. They seemed pretty impressed that I'd found my way back at all, let alone bringing all the horses with me. So that was the main drama of the week.

My new horse, a grey mare called Just Right, seems to have settle a bit now. It was Anne's birthday on Thursday and she and I spent the whole day shoeing 6 horses while the men were out fixing bores and turkey's nest (water holding tanks, bit like big ponds, made by piling up earth in a circle). None of the horses were particularly cooperative, and Just Right was the last, and got herself into a complete state - she pulled back twice and galloped off, and it was very good timing when the men arrived back to help put the last shoe on. After that, PJ rode her for me just to check she was settled and wasn't going to buck or anything as she hadn't been ridden for a while. Just as well he did, as as soon as he got on she started rearing up and nearly went over backwards twice. He then took her out to get the rest of the horses so we could bring in the cattle from the starvation paddock, and he said she'd had a good buck and seemed more relaxed now, and reckoned that I'd be ok with her. So I decided to trust him, and rode her to bring in the cattle and she was actually pretty good. She took a while to relax, but once she had done we got on ok. She's not Afra, but I think we'll be ok.

Friday morning Peter the cattle agent arrived at breakfast time as did one road train, which we started to load once it got light. It took a long time, nearly 3 hours, as Peter had to draft the cattle as we went, as they'd obviously all got mixed up again since being in the paddock. By that point the other 2 road trains had arrived and we were able to load them a lot more quickly. After lunch we packed up camp and headed home, and I spent Saturday at the station with Bev and Anne while the men went out to fix 2 bores that weren't pumping. I was meant to spend the day helping Bev in the kitchen and with Nacho and the new piglet (the supposedly barren sow had 8 piglets out of the blue, and we've got the runt in a box in the kitchen, who's doing very well, but just looks too small to be allowed!), but we had a call to say that Twinkle Toes, one of the mares out with the stallion had had foal but had no milk for it, so Anne and I went out to pick her up. The foal is a bag of bones, but seems to be doing better now he's in Anne's yard with his mum, and occasionally sucking a bottle, although hopefully we think Twinks is coming into milk, which would be fantastic. Once we'd brought them back and tried to feed the little fella, we left again to go out to the neighbouring station, Morella, to pick up a steer and a heifer that had gone over the fence onto their land, and dropped them back at No3, which meant we didn't have lunch until 3pm, but these things happen!

Today has been a nice relaxing day off, even more so as the power was off between 9am and 2pm so there wasn't much to do except read and sit about.

I'll try and update next week, but it's the campdraft (rescheduled from June) all weekend, so I'm not sure if I'll get chance.