The past two weeks have seen the culmination of a few things. Baling has officially finished and the balers have been cleaned off and parked in the shed. I must say I am a little pleased about this as there will be no more days bouncing around in the field for me! It did mean, however, that I spent a few days rowing bales, although I don't really mind this job. But it also means there are now about 2400 straw bales and 600 hay bales lying around various parts of the yard. There is a relative order to it I suppose with the barley straw, canola straw and wheat straw all kept separate from each other. It is crazy to think of how many bales we have made in the past month or so though, and even crazier to think that most of them will actually be needed over the winter. The straw will be used as bedding and the hay/silage/grain will obviously provide food.

With harvest all but finished things in the area are starting to look quite desolate, and the arrival of fall has added to this. There have been a few frosts the past two weeks, with the coldest temperature I know of being -6. The scary thing though, is that night it was still technically summer! I have come to the conclusion that fall here is pretty much the same as our winter, with temperatures around 0 overnight and getting up to 20 during the day. The leaves have started to turn and most have fallen off, leaving the tress looking quite barren. This change has happened quite quickly and everyone has been saying it isn't normally like this. Apparently they usually get some rain in late summer which keeps things going for a bit longer. Oh and the other night I heard them say on the news there was a possibility of snow, although I'm not sure if that was locally or not.

Last week Perry and I went to see if we could round up some rogue heifers that had gotten out of a paddock. When they saw us coming they hightailed it in the opposite direction and three of the four ended up getting into another paddock with some cows. That left one for us to have some fun with!! The only instruction Perry gave me was to stay on the offside. So we went flat gallop after this poor heifer and eventually he managed to rope it, although I don't know how considering the speed we were going. I then went back to the trailer, loaded my horse and headed back over to where Perry had the heifer restrained. It's a matter of then roping it around the leg, running the rope into the trailer and through the window, then trying to pull the cow onto the trailer using the horse. After much cursing, manoeuvring, Perry almost being dragged off his horse and protest from the heifer we eventually managed to get her on. I think Perry was secretly pleased we didn't have to worry about the other three, although I will admit that it was quite fun and I wouldn't have minded getting another one!!

Other than that nothing overly exciting has been happening work wise. There has been more Gopher poisoning, fencing and general maintenance in the feedlot pens. We have also taken the tarps off the trucks and put the racks back on, ready to chop corn next week. After that all the cows will be brought back from agistment, although I won't be here to see that. They will wean the calves at the same time and put them straight into the feedlot to be fed for the winter. The cows are taken to pasture to graze before it starts to snow. Then they are brought back to the yards, preg-tested and either put into the feedlot or out in a pasture where they will be fed.

Oh actually I saw another moose. I was off duty at the time and didn't have my camera on me. But because I wasn't far from the house I managed to run back (literally) get the truck/my camera and go get a photo. It was almost dark so lighting wasn't the best but it was cool to see him up close. He wasn't very scared of me at all and I managed to get about 20m away. It was funny to watch him eat because when he found a good patch he knelt down to get at it. I'm not sure if this is normal behaviour (Pa would probably know), but it was funny to see.

Last weekend I went to a hockey game in Virden. Perry and Kristy are part-owners of the Virden Oil Capitals and it was the first game of the season. I must say it was quite exciting and even though I am not the biggest hockey fan I managed to get quite involved in the game. The Oil Caps scored the first goal in about the first 5 minutes, which was pretty awesome. At full time it ended up being 3 all, which meant it went into overtime. They ended up winning the game with an awesome goal, which Perry was quite chuffed about! It was a double header weekend and they ended up winning their next game as well, so overall a pretty good start to the season….Go Caps Go haha!!! The NHL (National Hockey League) is actually in lockout at the moment, which means they aren't playing. There is some disagreement about player salaries or something so they are refusing to play (don't quote me on that though because I don't know the full details). The junior teams (like Perry and Kristy's) are excited about this though because they are hoping more people will go to their games as there won't be any hocky on TV.

This weekend I went to Beechy rodeo which was heaps of fun. It was Sheridan's last weekend in Canada and she heads home tomorrow, so it was good to catch up with her one last time. The rodeo itself was pretty awesome and a lot bigger than I expected. There were two days of competition and then there were finals on Sunday. It was a pretty crazy weekend, but great to catch up with everyone one last time. I also met about 6 Aussie cowboys who are over here riding at the moment. Was pretty crazy actually because one of them was Luke Chaplin who I know from back home so that was pretty funny to randomly see him there. I also ran into some cowboys who we met at Ranchman's in Calgary and had a pretty fun time with them. They even shouted me breakfast the next morning!! On Saturday afternoon we all went out to Dallas and Janelle's so they could practice some roping. It was a pretty fun afternoon and the boys got a little carried away bulldogging and stuff. We then had supper there before heading back for the rodeo.

So now I am getting ready for my last week in Canada. I head off on Sunday but don't get to Australia until Tuesday. There is another rodeo this weekend pretty close by so will probably head to that as well. Jim and Tom who are Aussie friends of Sheridan's over here at the moment will be there so will catch up with them one last time. Other than that I will be busy with work and packing up 6 months' worth of stuff.