Ten-four rubber duckie

Anyone ever watch The Convoy, or Smokey and The Bandit when they were kids? We did.  And I have no real idea of what ten four rubber duckie means, but it sounds cool over the two way radio!

Anyhow, the gist of all that is that the other day we had our own little convoy happening. With an over abundance of cattle populating our leased portion of Charley Creek (the inlaws property) and more knocking on the door, thanks to the "numbers building" phase of livestock production we are currently in, we had to find some more space.  An agistment paddock on The Downs was found, not far away. Decisions were made, paddocks mustered, and a line of four decks of pregnant cows was drafted off and loaded onto the truck.

My job on this day was Counter-on-erer (making sure I had the right number of cows per pen on the truck) and transporter of the mobile loading ramp to the paddock.

Cows loaded, we headed off, me being the sandwhich between two trucks. One to slow me down (apparently) and one to pick up any pieces. Ye of little faith, the men in these parts.

  The local contractor taking the lead...

husband in the rear...and me towing the un-aerodynamic mobile loading ramp (those bits you can see behind me) in the ute. I will admit to being accused of low level flying the past, but this trip saw me poking along at a sedate 76km per hour (any faster and things rattled alarmingly!)

Lucky for the kids, the route took us past Granma's house, so they were dropped off before we arrived at our destination (look at that grass!)

Loading ramp unhooked and set into place, ready for the pregnant cows (also known as PTIC, which means Preg Tested In Calf) to daintily step off and survey their new pastures.

which they did, with a minimum of fuss.

particularly this lovely girl, who was hardly flustered at all by the whole process. Always quite fond of Brafords with their white faces and clean red coats, I think I will be keeping a close eye on this cow and her progeny.

I'm a wee bit suspicious she may have been a poddy, as she looked at my like if I had had a bucket of feed she would have come right on over!

The unloading process continued uneventfully, and the mob was held by The Husband on the four wheeler, waiting for them all to be offloaded before he walked them the short distance to the water trough nearby.

    

after which they put their heads down and hoed into this beautiful body of feed - Mitchell grass (and some Flinders) which is very nutritious. They'll do well here!

And thankfully, my normal driving habits were able to be resumed, leaving the loading ramp behind and collecting the children (reluctantly) from Granma's house on the way home.

I didn't get much laundry done that day.

Ten four, rubber ducky, over and out.

inspired by...

pinterest of course, and the re-arrangement of certain parts of my house.

Painted chest of drawers for the boys' room. Seem to have an over abundance of timber furniture in this house (with a splash of white painted stuff, which is not so user friendly for grubby hands). And even though I am not a fan of painting (as in DOING it!), if I psyche myself up enough to get in and get it done, it will happen. I like the use of silver industrial handles on this one too...

this cool chevon pattern, which when you look closely, is cleverly made of triangles pieced into squares. Am thinking of having a crack at this soon, in the size of a cushion, for the chair that now lives beside our finally-installed-and-working wood heater/stove (see my instagram page up there at the top for further!). I am really enjoying the new arrangement of this part of my house now. See the old armchair below...which also could do with a coat of paint! and recovering as well, instead of being draped with a blanket....

Bought this. Love it. Its metal and is a nicer colour than this dodgy pic I found on the net indicates.  For those that are interested there is also a similar sign in yellow available ; "you are my sunshine my only sunshine" (on ebay or other places around the www)

speaking of yellow and coming back to the old paint thing, am considering applying yellow paint action (like the colour in the one above) to a plain old pine timber sideboard cupboard, that has had many lives. Not sure of its original start in life, but I first knew it holding leather working gear and horseshoes in my parents shed (and it was probably there for many years before that) Mum rescued it and turned it into a hutch with the application of an equally old book case to the top, it moved to my house as a hutch, after awhile I took the book case off and used it elsewhere, and the doors off the cupboard as they never shut properly...

Here she is, just waiting for some love and attention....(and see how much timber looking stuff is around, even the tiles behind the fire - which I love - are pine timber looking!)

Its been ffffreezing here in the far north this week, and this wood heater was installed just in the nick of time. Now the biggest problem is keeping the fire wood supply up!

Kids went back to school today, and with quite a few weekends of social activities and committee involvements happening in the next few weeks, its going to be a busy time. I've taken to pencilling in "cook x for x function" and "bookwork& BAS" into my calendar, just to remind of what needs to happen when. Possibly need to pencil in "clean office desk" to facilitate the bookwork part of the schedule as well ;-) Right now I need to action "bake some smoko food" as the cupboard is bare from the starving children stripping both the cupboard shelves and the freezer during the holidays.

(and don't get me started on the laundry, oh the laundry).

How's that for a well thought out and lucidly written post?!....and she wanders off aimlessly, whistling, thinking she might need a coffee and what was it that she was meant to be doing.....

superseded?

Last week we (using the term loosely, my involvement was minimal) mustered, preg tested some cows and weaned their calves. Because it was school holidays, and I had other things I had to do, the kids went and "helped" dad.

I had to go and help get the cows into the laneway one afternoon, but Kate had it all sorted with her dad, once the fast riding was done she was going to jump on my motorbike and take over coming down the laneway at a more sedate pace.  This was her first solo four wheeler adventure, and she was very excited about it all.

So was I. I got to drive home two hours earlier than I would normally, and sitting behind a mob of cows walking down a laneway isn't all that exciting when you've a. done it MANY times before b. got many other things that could be getting done and c. the weather was a bit chilly.

Here she is, keeping her eye on the job. More or less.

Mum in the toyota behind her though, was causing a bit of concern. I have yet to run over a child, although one of them claims I once ran over a cow. (I did not, I just gave it a gentle bump to persuade it to move in the direction I wanted it to. Unfortunately, it tripped over!)

My offsider in the ute quickly abandoned ship and went for a ride with dad while he could...

      Eventually I was able to get past the mob, and went on my merry way home (collecting the boy child on my way) reflecting on this momentous day, the day when mum starts to become superseded, in the off-siding stakes at least.

I THINK its a happy day?

But so far none beats that other happy day when I realised they were able to open and shut gates unaided!

I am pretty sure that one is on a par with the event of toilet training!