We were welcomed with open arms at the airport by our dear
friend Carrie Morse. It was so nice to
see a familiar smile after being away from home for the past couple weeks. Their farm, Spire View, is actually located
outside a small town called, Coonabarabran, but the closest airport is about an
hour and a half away in a town called, Dubbo.
According to our friend, Carrie Morse, Dubbo reminds her of a mini
Chicago. Jessica didn’t really seem to
agree with this observation because it is to small to even be considered a
“mini” Chicago. Our first stop was the
Dubbo Zoo. We took bikes around the zoo
and saw elephants, giraffes, Galapagos turtles, otters, and a tiger. We were there around noon on a hot day so we
didn’t last too long, but Carrie kept up very well with us young folk. On our way to the farm, we stopped at Macca’s
(or McDonalds, depending on where you are from) for lunch. Macca’s is a special treat for Carrie because
there is nothing like this anywhere close to her so she was very excited. We made our way to the farm and got settled
in our spacious own rooms (Yay! Finally, some personal space! Jk. Jessica and I
aren’t sick of each other… yet). It came
as no surprise that it wasn’t long before they put us to work. First up, my very first experience driving on
the right side of the car and left side of the road. Luckily, it was the same car my mom has so I
was familiar with the car, but the only problem was, everything inside the car
was opposite. Despite my nerves as we
approached our right turn, I did manage to flick the turn signal (or so I
thought) to indicate our upcoming turn.
Unfortunately, no one would have known we were turning because I turned
on my windshield wipers instead of the turn signal. Don’t worry; there was no
one around so we made it to our destination safely. Carrie met us with an ATV and we picked up
another so Jessica and I both had our own.
We drove them down to meet Buster, Carrie’s Husband, and the three of us
mustered (or hearded) around 1300 sheep into their new padic for the
night. Of course, we were immediately
successful in our efforts on the farm. I
believe they called us “naturals” after the first day. We joined in on their afternoon ritual of
having a cup of tea and a shower after a long day of work. During our teatime we met Manuela. She is an Italian girl helping out on the
farm for a few weeks after the house she was originally taking care of burnt
down in the recent forest fire. The girls helped Carrie cook dinner, although
Carrie didn’t let me do much because I don’t think she trusts me in the
kitchen. Don’t worry, after I learn how
to cook in Italy she will be begging me to come back and cook in her kitchen J. Carrie and Buster’s son, Cameron, joined us
for dinner and we all enjoyed catching up over a lovely home cooked meal. We had an amazing chicken and rice dish, a
delicious fresh salad, and beautifully decorated fruit plate. Everyone goes to
bed pretty early on the farm because of the early mornings and long days, so
Jessica and I followed along.
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| Mustering the sheep |
Jess and I woke up early to go for a run before the day of
work began. Everyone thought we were
crazy to get up early and workout before the long day of work ahead of us, but
that’s just how dedicated we are to staying in shape ;). We enjoyed delicious, fresh farm eggs for
breakfast and headed out for our first task.
Cameron, Manuela, Buster, Jessica and I all started with mustering the
sheep from yesterday to a new padic across the street. It took us about an hour to move this mob of
sheep because it is a difficult road to muster and they have to go through a
tunnel under the road. After we finished
this mob we continued on to muster a few more mobs before we stopped for an
early lunch. Jessica had her first
experience with a meat pie and discovered that she could never be an Aussie,
because she doesn’t really care for them.
After lunch we were sent over to another part of the farm where Cameron
took us out for a drive to feed the cattle.
Jessica and I didn’t really have any idea what we were getting ourselves
into with this. We drove up to a few
cows and Cameron asked, “Who wants to shovel?” Well, I was siting in the middle
so Jessica rose to the occasion. The two
of them get out and he explains to her that she needs to get as much cotton
feed into this shovel as possible and drop it on the ground for the cows. She was meant to do 20 full shovels. After about three shovels, she wasn’t doing
them big enough so Cameron jumped out of the car (while it was moving mind you)
and told me to drive while he goes to help Jessica. I’m not sure exactly how we made it out of
there alive (and without me hitting a cow or two) because I was, once again,
behind the wheel on the right side of the car. To top it off this time it was a
manual car with a trailer behind it that Jessica was standing on. This was the moment I realized that at the
farm they believe that the only way to teach you how to do something is to
throw you right in. I have to say it is
a good philosophy because you tend to pick it up pretty quickly. We enjoyed the rest of our afternoon feeding
the cattle and before we knew it we were done with our first full day of work
and it was finally time to pick up the 4 week old sheep dog puppies I had been
dreaming about all day. Jessica and I
drove (yes, here I was in the driver seat again) to Cameron’s house to pick
them up. They were the cutest little puppies!
Jessica thought they looked like guinea pigs, but you can see for yourself,
they were so cute! We pick up the 4
puppies and put them in the car with us.
It felt a bit like 101 Dalmatians with our 4 “stolen” puppies driving
down the road in our 1980 manual pick up.
We managed to laugh the whole time despite the fact that we saw our
lives flash before our eyes when we were sandwiched between three huge semi
trucks. We did our afternoon ritual and got the house ready for our dinner
guests. Carrie’s cousin and his son came
over for dinner. We all enjoyed our
Spire View lamb chops, wine, and an early bedtime.
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| Feeding the cattle |
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| Farm Worker Outfit #2 (Duke Sucks ) |
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| Farm Worker Outfit #1 (Wake Forest Rules) |
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| Puppies! |
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| More Puppies... not guinea pigs! |
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| Can you tell i'm obsessed with them? |
Jessica and I woke up early to go for a run, again, the next
morning. Our first activity of the day
was horseback riding with Manuela.
Jessica was not very excited for the horseback riding because she is
allergic to them and she isn’t a very experienced rider. We eventually convinced her to come riding
with us. Of course, before we even got
on the horses, Manuela’s horse went crazy, broke down the fence she was tied
to, and ran away. Well, this didn’t
exactly give Jessica any confidence with these horses, but she still found the
courage to come with us! Our ride was pretty short, only 40 minutes, because
Manuela’s horse was going crazy again and we couldn’t risk our horses freaking
out too. Once we turned back, they all
calmed down and we made it back with no problems. Jessica and I were lucky enough to do more
feeding after the horses. We set out
with Cameron and this time we needed to empty two truckloads. Cameron said he would help us if we ever got
tired, but I bet you are not surprised to hear, we finished the job all by
ourselves. We even have the muscles to
prove it. After our arms were a bit
tired and the cattle were happily fed it was time for us to take our lunch
break.
After lunch we were finally taken
to the sheering shed. The semi truck had arrived and we had to help load the
bails of wool onto the truck. Now one of these bails weighed on average 190
kilos, so they weren’t really expecting us to do much but offer assistance in
recording the code numbers that were on the bags, which was pretty much a one
man job that Kerry seemed to have locked up. So I decided to give it a go. I
asked Finny if I could lend a hand and he seemed more than happy. I took up the
hook and gave it a go. I must admit, I was pretty useless the first couple
rounds, but eventually I got the hang of it and even loaded one by myself! I
even killed the poisonous red back spider during the process, without even
freaking out (ok maybe a little). After the truck was loaded and ready to take
off we were sent to “black-line” the sheep, which is where you spray them with
this blue spray that helps prevent lice. This was rather entertaining and
Cameron seemed to think that I just wasn’t doing it right, but I blame it on
the exhaustion of my previous work. When we finally finished the last round of
sheep we thought we would finally be let go, but no, we had to go muster
another mob of sheep to the padic down the lane. I must say it is amazing how
efficient one can be when exhausted and determined to be done. We finally
finished our last task and were given the go ahead to go home. On our way home,
Kerry insisted that we go pick up the four puppies over at Cameron’s. tried to convince them otherwise, but I was
outnumbered, Manuela and Kerry headed to go get the little rodents. We had all
four puppies in tow with the three of us side by side, and attempting to drive
down the road. As were driving down the road Manuela screams as she realized
that one of the puppies pooped on her! Of course I was dying laughing, because
it was on the greater “I told you so” moments of my life, while she is trying
to wipe it up. We finally made it back to the house, alive. After all of us showered
up and had our cup of tea, we were ready for the delicious meal that Carrie had
prepared for us! Carrie even opened up a bottle of Rymill wine, which I can say
is one of the best wines I have ever tasted (don’t worry Dad I kept the cork).
Carrie made a lamb roast served with fresh pumpkin and sweet potatoes. She then
out did herself by serving us ice cream drizzled with her special chocolate
sauce that was AMAZING. We may have worked hard but we definitely ate well,
very well. We were all pretty exhausted from the long day, so after dinner we
all retired to bed, because our wake-up call was bright and early, so we could
get a good start before having to leave for the airport.
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| Horseback Riding. We survived! |
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| Yeah, the cows love me |
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| Jessica showing off her big muscles! |
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| This is how we do it on the farm... Back lining the newly shorn sheep |
The next morning we woke up around 6:45, because we needed
to be “on-deck” at 7:30. At promptly 7:20 we were all on our bikes ready to go.
We had Manuela show us the way under the highway pass, so we could meet up with
Buster and Cameron, who were trying to bring a mob of sheep from a padic across
the highway. We had exactly an hour and a half to get this mob to their new
padic, because Kerry and I had to be back at the house by 9:10 to shower before
leaving for the airport at 9:30. I would like you all to know we had that mob
there by 9:05! We quickly raced inside, Kerry got the first shower, which makes
my getting ready time even more impressive (haha). We were all loaded up and
ready to leave the house at 9:30, ok if I am being honest, I was trailing behind
a little bit, but not much.
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| I have a new obsession with Sheep dogs... they are awesome! |
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| One of the many animals you find on the farm |
Even though it was just a short three days that we spent on the farm, I felt like I was leaving behind my family. Carrie, Buster, Cameron, and even Manuela all took us in with open arms. They weren’t afraid to throw us in and have us hit the ground running, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Sure, we were exhausted but it was honestly a highlight of my trip in Australian, and I can say that I will definitely be making a trip back in the future.
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| Jessica and Buster |
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| The wonderful Morse Family. Love you all. |
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| We had so much fun at the farm, highlight of our trip! |
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| How professional do we look? |
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| No security in Dubbo |
