After the past massive week we had just accomplished, we were ready to have a lazy weekend around the homestead. The farmer had advised us of a waterhole only a stones throw away which could be a nice day trip. Packing a small lunch we went exploring. After an hour of walking we came across the creek and what we had thought the waterhole was (later finding out the actual “waterhole” was still 1km past where we had gone). Along side this beautiful place was the Basalt Wall which had been created by a local volcano. We were careful not to venture too deep, as one could easily lose their bearings on an overcast day with the surroundings looking ever so similar. It was indeed an amazing piece of The Brook.
Back to our working reality, Monday-itis was slowly kicking in. The final two weeks seemed to fly by as fast as the holiday had so far. We found ourselves in the house more regularily completing the jobs we were originally hired for. We were still never up for a boring day, doing such a great variety of work. From cleaning, mowing with a ride on, looking after the kids or just general handy work around the station, we were away from our standard 9 – 5 jobs and loving it! They quickly discovered that we were seasoned painters as well and soon enough we were outside giving the school a make over with a fresh coat of paint. We did however, only just hold back the urges of painting each other!
As the next weekend rolled in, we were given details about the Cattlemen’s Ball in Greenvale (still over 2 hours away). Deciding it could be fun, we packed our best flannies and went for a night out! Totally different from what we had expected, it was still good fun. As soon as we walked in, it seemed all eyes were on us as we were obviously not from the area. Needless to say we made friends with some local youngsters who knew of The Brook station and with that, we partied the night away. We also ended up being the only ones who actually camped behind the pub (making us stand out even more as tourists) as we were expecting a few swags from what was mentioned in the brochure.
Coming into the final week of work, we had really felt the last three had slipped by far too quickly. Slowly running out of meat, the farmer was in need of a kill. Mind you the meat before this seemed endless with delicious beef coming in all ways (even gigantic T-bone steaks!) Lucky for us we were able to head along with the farmhand for this fascinating process. He lead us through the complicated steps from when the cow was simply shot in the field, to the detailed process of making sure he didn’t taint the meat with any unwanted flavours. To our suprise, he even let us skin it! After enjoying a well earnt beer from this life changing process, we queried the farmhand in making a rug from the hide. His response was simply “It’s very easy! I’ll show you how to peg it out, salt it, rub it with a coarse stone and in time it will be beautiful!” This was definitely going to be one project to remember.
With the week wrapping up we finished the variety of small jobs around the house by playing more games with the kids and the odd handyman fix up. By this stage we had also gained quite a loyal companion by the name of Lucky who was their farm dog that spent far more time with us than at the homestead. Mark was even able to live another life long dream of mowing the airstrip in an old school tractor!! The final day we were in the yard Nay was able to drive the Bacho over to the far yards (took a solid 45 mins) but sadly we both just missed a calf being born. We watched in awe as the calf was standing and drinking milk from its mother in under an hour from birth.
As the final day arrived there were emotions flying around from both parties. Excitement was buzzing as we were onto the next stage of our adventure. It was a strange feeling knowing we would probably never return or hear much from these amazing people who had let us into their homestead. Even though we were there to work, we had gained such life experiences we could never have imagined. So jumping in the car (with Brook the cow hide strapped to the roof rack), we were heading away from the property and had our sights on Airlie Beach where the first of our visitors were coming to see us…
