helloooo so a very long time since i managed to get enough internet time to write on this, but as i am stuck in Emerald for the foreseeable future with nothing to do while they fix the ute it seemed like the perfect opportunity!!

So as this is the first post since i started my new job 3 weeks ago i feel i should fill you in as to whats been going on, and if you've seen my photos on facebook you should have a vague idea already!

So for starters, i live on a property called Yarrawonga which is about 20 mins outside of a small mining town called Blackwater where i get to go once a week to woolworths (apparantly its a full on supermarket out here so maybe thats where the uk went wrong!) to stock up on food and essentials which is rather handy. I live in a small bungalow with a french girl called marion who is lovely and we have to go outside to get to the bathroom.. avoiding the frogs, toads and lizards on the way, and as of last night a rat as well! haha. so yeah normally we start work at around 7 o'clock when the weather is nice, although its rained lots recently so we started later as the ground was wayy to wet to do anything! I work for the son of the main grazier, a guy called matthew, so we spend the whole day riding around either mustering or doing a lot of mainenance work, which i am awful at and have had all the blisters to prove it!

The most exciting moment so far has to be my first ever muster where we brought in a load of fat bullocks to the cattle yards from their paddock so that we could draft them as to which were fat or which ones needed a bit longer to fatten up and ended up with over 100 which were ready for the meatworks. i never realised how scary cattle could actually be as i watched poor marions face as she had to get in amongst the bullocks whilst i stood nice and safely in my little yard opening and closing a few gates!! after a few near misses and some extemely dodgy counting of my the b******s were sorted ready for the road train to come and pick them up at 7 the next morning!! meaning we had to be out of bed even earlier then normal!!

my favourite part of the job has to be the opportunities i have to go riding, as we now ride every day in the morning to get the competition horses ready. the property im at has loooaadsss of horses but i get to ride 2 of them.. one called camilla (named so as apparantly shes ugly like prince charles wife =/) and the other is a gorgeous bay gelding called ted who really reminds me of a horse called horace that i used to ride at shey copse! whilst we are out riding we have to concentrate on getting our horses to stop and turn correctly as though we were trainings for a camp drafting competition, (look it up as its quite exciting and i get to go and watch one at some point!!) so you have the horses actually sliding to a stop from a canter then turning without moving their back feet.. its surprisingly hard to do although matthew and colin make it look easy!

our recent project is the new horse yard that they wanted to build so we have so far spent the time digging holes, putting in the steel posts and then me and matthew spent the whole of yesterday cutting steel to size in order to start making the fence, it looks pretty good if i say so myself.

a lot has happened in the past 3 weeks and even now it feels as though i have been there longer, both nugget and molly have had their puppies, i have seen many kangaroos and wild emus and i saw my first dingo the other day.. right before matthew shot and scalped it as apparantly you get $20 when you hand the dingo ears into the local council as part of their get rid of the dingoes campaign. we also collected a bullock from the butchers which didnt feet in the brand new, bought for the occasions, pretty large chest freezer so i will be eating steak for the next 3 months, i reckon i wont be able to eat beef again for a while after this!!

now all i have to do is wait for the phonecall to tell me my ute is ready, try and find the garage where it is at in a town where i have no idea where i am, then drive the hour home and hope that i am going in the right direction or who knows where i might end up!!! its all getting a bit stressful, meanwhile matthew is off in brisbane going to a The Script concert so its alright for some!! hopefully i will have time soon again to fill you all in.

alsooo one final thing.. if anyone wants to text me feel free to text me on my aussie number which is +61487236482

hope you are all okay xxxxxxxx