Blog Update
Well since I last wrote to you all I have been keeping myself busy doing various things. My knee is still a little sore after the motorbike crash down at Cunnamulla, but it is definitely on the mend. Had a couple of weekends at Quamby and also went to the Canoe races at Gregory – 3 hrs NW of Quamby. In true Gregory style my bag was stolen! Ended up wearing the same clothes all weekend, but thankfully we were camping near the river so while we didn’t have a shower we were able to go swimming as and when we wanted. I will have to make a claim on the travel insurance. Conrad (Broke his neck last year) is back out here for 3 weeks just catching up with everybody so it was has been really good to see him. I am currently back down at Clio – the manager here is away so I am looking after the place for the next two weeks. Checking waters and poisoning prickly bushes. There are around 3500 cattle on Clio at the moment and so far they are all behaving themselves. Something I forgot to mention last time I was on here is that I now have my own horse. He was born unexpectedly! And when we were getting ready to send some of the old unbroken ones for dog food Tom gave it to me to break in. We castrated it (different to castrating cattle as horses bleed a lot more so you have to cauterise when you have cut). After castration we branded it. I don’t have my own brand so we put the Jessievale brand on it. So while Tom gave it to me, technically he still owns it. Not really sure how it is my horse but there you go. I have called him Jack and he is the ugliest horse you will ever see. We have been riding horses and working cattle and it’s been good to get back in the saddle.
News today that the Australian government is to cut the Skilled Migration Visa numbers by 7000 next year. I hope this will not affect me, but you can’t be certain! Latest news last week is that we had to write a letter to explain why the McMillians employing me would be of benefit to the Australian economy during the current crisis. I think that the Australian government has got the immigration policy pretty spot on. There have been a number of cases of asylum seekers being found by the Australian Navy, and rather than being taken to the mainland of processing they get taken to a place called Christmas Island. Cool name for a place, but apparently it is full of asylum seekers! If they are granted leave to stay in Australia they are then allowed in, if not the get sent home without ever setting foot in Australia. While I am getting more and more frustrated about my current status I can understand why the process is taking so long.
Now after ranting on about immigration and what not, a joke to lighten the mood. While I can’t verify that this is a true story, I’m pretty sure it will be.
Three Aussie guys were working on a high rise building project Steve, Bruce, and Kevin. Steve falls off and is killed instantly.
As the ambulance takes his body away Bruce says “someone should go and tell his wife”
Kevin says “OK yeah, I’m pretty good at the sensitive stuff, I’ll do it.”
Two hours later he comes back carrying a slab of XXXX.
Bruce says “Where did you get that Kev?”
Kev replies “Steve’s wife gave it to me”
Bruce says “That’s unbelievable; you told the lady her husband was dead and she gave you the beer?”
“Well not exactly” Kev said “When she answered the door I said, you must be Steve’s widow”
She said “No, I’m not a widow”
And I said “I bet you a slab of XXXX you are”
Other things that have happened since the last update. We were out clearing a fence line of grass for two reasons 1) So you can drive round the fence to check that it isn’t broken. 2) As a fire break. Tom was on the loader and I was following in the car doing up the fence where the flood waters had broken it or washed it away. Suddenly between me and Tom there was fire. I alerted Tom and we spent a mad 10 minutes putting the fire out. We ended up only burning an area of about 20SqM. Seeing how quickly the fire took hold was pretty scary and Tom had to drive through the fence twice to get around it in the loader. I can only imagine what it would have been like to have been in the bush fires in Victoria at the start of the year.
I now have my own computer at the quarters too. No internet yet, but hopefully I will have it within the next couple of weeks! I will let you know.
Today we have been out spraying prickly bush, and went to check the waters. On the way around one of the paddocks, we found a mob of goats, and thought it would be a nice surprise to catch one of the goats and give it to Ian & Del (Mangers of Clio) as a welcome home present. After a little chasing, we managed to catch one of the smaller ones and it is currently tied to the cattle grip outside the house. Does anyone know what goats eat?
Ed
xx
