Hello All,
Sunday 9th
August
Well it has been a few
weeks since my last Blog (I sent it on Friday 3rd July!!) and we
have fallen into a well structured lifestyle here on Jervoise Station. Yes, we
are still here- we’ve been here for 7 weeks tomorrow (Monday 10th
August) and boy has that time just flown by…. and we have had some very
exciting adventures!!
Every night there's a superb sunset!
Well, I have continued to
make a few more curtains (I did about 17 in all!) and have also become a bit of
a dab hand mending torn clothes, cutting off and cuffing jeans into shorts,
bringing in the waist band on jeans, shorts and good pants for the Manager (who
has lost a lot of weight) and fixed huge holes in jean knees and bottoms!! I
did end up getting most of this done after the kids went back to school because
Cooper, who is the youngest child, a boy and not at school yet, never comes near me while
I am sewing, unlike his sisters!!
The family dogs: Cody and Honey (she was bought a few weeks ago!)
Anthony has covered almost
all of Jervoise’s 71,000 acres since we arrived. Every day he heads out, mostly
with Greg (the head-honcho whose eye sight isn't too good) to fix pumps, water
troughs, solar panels and generators. Greg enjoys spending time with Anthony and, as he can’t see well enough to drive, he loves the fact that he is still
getting around his beloved property. I swear he knows where he is on any given part
of a trip just from the bumps, curves and washouts on the roads and tracks.
Anthony also has a new love
in his life!! Now come on people- it’s not what you think!! He is now
quite proficient at driving the station’s huge semi trailer and moves the
mustered cattle from place to place, usually over very rough station tracks.
Anthony has now had quite a few mustering days, where everyone (all the back
packers and grey nomads- I even did it once!) rides motor bikes, quad bikes and even
a horse, to move the cattle into groups and heard them towards portable yards,
which they had only put together the day before!! The days are long and
everyone works really hard but after this, they would all get 2-4 days off and
everyone would be sun baking, mucking around on the motor bikes and listening
to music- loudly!!
A day of mustering and a well earned lunch break- I had to cook the meat patties on a small BBQ on the back of the tray top ute.
One Sunday afternoon (and
evening) we all headed into Greenvale, the nearest town, to attend a local
fundraiser. It was held in the beer garden of Greenvale
It is a very quaint country
pub full of extremely hospitable staff. The local crowd was great- brilliant
storytellers- and we all had a fantastic time there.
Every now and again I like
to spend a day in the caravan on my own. Normally I would crank through some
washing, sweep and wash the caravan floor, read my book or e-mails and spend
some time on our family trees (I am doing one for my Dad’s family and another
on Anthony’s Dad’s family). The beauty of doing this while I am washing is that
I can hear the washing machine finish and get them on the line straight away.
The weather has been so glorious up here: most days are around 28C, but the
nights are cold around 5C!! I always get the washing dried and put away in a
matter of hours- I love it!!
2.5 weeks ago I found my
hair was out-of-control. You know what it’s like girls- it just didn’t
look good no matter what I did, mainly as it had grown too much. I called the
Greenvale pub to see if one of the bar staff/backpacker, who used to be a hair
dresser, could cut my hair. She was away, but I was told the Atherton Tableland
hairdresser, who comes to Greenvale every 6 weeks, would be there on Saturday.
So in I went and had it all chopped off. It is now fantastic- really classy and
everyone (except Cooper!) loves it- especially Anthony!!
Anthony and I are still
doing our 5:2 diet, although Anthony does occasionally eat dinner on a fasting
day if he has been hard at work as he needs the food/fuel!! I jumped on the
scales last week and am still my normal weight which is fantastic as we have
something to drink 5 out of 7 nights. There's nothing better than a beer after a hard days work!
Monday 10th
August
Well Anthony and I have
just returned back to Jervoise after being away on a weekend trip! On Thursday
night we both decided we needed a weekend away just to have some down time away
from everyone and I was really missing spending some time with my husband, as
he was always helping everyone else, so I loved the idea! Anthony finished
doing stuff about 4pm on Friday so we
quickly packed up the van and headed out. We found a lovely spot about 5 km
from the house and set up for our weekend break. It really was just lovely- a
quiet, pretty place and no one asking either of us to do anything! Over the
weekend we sat down and worked out the remainder of our trip, downloaded our
many photos off of our phones and cameras, watched a few things we had taped
off the TV (Landline a few weeks ago was excellent!!) and basically just
chilled out. It was a great weekend away.
Last Wednesday was a huge
day here at the station, and not really in a good way. Shayla, Pam’s 2nd
child who turned 5 just a few days earlier, experienced a seizure. It happened
just as Shayla and her sister were getting up in the morning. Everyone freaked
out and Pam called the RFDS. They were unable to come so the Emergency chopper was contacted. They flew in (that was very exciting, I must
admit) and they took Pam and Shayla to Cairns Base Hospital
Shayla's 5th birthday- cake made by Pam (her mum)
Emergency chopper
Well, we will be here for just over a week then we will go back to being Grey Nomads. On leaving here, we will travel to Charters Towers then head across to Mt Isa then down to Birdsville for the races on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd September. After that we'll head home. So hopefully I'll get 1 or 2 more blogs in, so I don't think our adventures are over just yet!!
Stay warm, love Jules and Anthony xx
