Thanksgiving week

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kathrin trying to pry open a steer's mouth to see how
many teeth it has

   This week has been very busy.  This Sunday we loaded fifteen steers onto the stock truck and drove them into Wagga Wagga for the cattle auction on Monday.  The steers were pretty wild, and it took us awhile to get them all marked with paint according to their age and then loaded onto the stock truck.  To determine a cow’s age, look at how many teeth it has. 

 

Sunset on our way to Wagga Wagga

After we arrived in Wagga Wagga and unloaded all the cows at the auction yards, we spent the night at a friend’s house there on the outskirts of town.  We slept in our swags, since there were not enough beds.  Swags are the Australian version of portable sleeping equipment.  A swag consists of a miniature mattress (none of those inflatable air things), a bottom sheet, sometimes a top sheet, and then a small comforter on top with a pillow.  All of these are rolled up inside a large piece of canvas and tied together with either an old belt or rope.  Swags are not really made to be compact like our American version of camping gear, but they sure are comfortable. 

On Monday morning we watched part of the early sales at the auction grounds.  The auction grounds have the facilities to sell cattle and sheep, each on a different day of the week.  The sheep yards are shorter and the auction usually takes place right outside of each gate into the yard so the buyers can feel the size of the sheep.  The cattle yards are then separate across a small street.  There are off loading ramps on one side of the complex where the trucks back their gates up to and off load the cattle down a ramp into certain yards.  There are about eight different companies that sell all the cattle and each company has their own assigned set of yards for the cattle they will be selling.  And each company employs their own auctioneer and spotters.  In the middle of the complex is a large building with a small center arena.  Above the arena on three sides are raised benches and seats for the buyers and on lookers.  Across from the seats is the platform where the auctioneer stands to name out the cows and barter for their price.  Above the auctioneer’s platform are three screens.  Each screen has the information about where the cow was bred, how old they are, how much the way, etc… for the current, sold, and next to be sold cows.   There is also a small cafeteria inside the main building.  The cows are let into the arena through hydraulically operated doors.  There are two “pens” inside the arena: one for the next to be sold cows, and one for the currently being sold cows.  Each “pen” has an attendant with a stick who prods the cows to move on either to the next pen or once around the arena and then out the doors at the end.    Once the cows are sold, they are routed out into the yards in the back where they are then herded by men on horseback through the maze of yards to the yard that will hold them until their buyer’s truck comes to pick them up.

Cattle auction building

Everything in the auction yard happens quickly.  The doors open fast, the cows come in, the auctioneer keeps talking into the microphone and then the cows are out and herded by riders into a new pen.  The auctioneers in Australia just call out in a very fast, but normal tone unlike the American auctioneers that call out in a singsong type of tone. 

Cattle yards, notice the man on horseback moving the cows

After we had watched enough cattle being sold and bought, we drove to down town Wagga to get groceries, and look at the shops.   We stopped in a bookstore, but I was very disappointed because the book prices are about double what they are in America.  We also stopped at a second hand store, and their book prices were much better.  After stocking up on supplies, Kathrin also had to stop for a quick business meeting with a loan expert.  Kathrin met the loan expert at his home, and while they talked business, Mom and I had a wonderful time chatting with his wife and six year old twins, a boy and a girl.  The twins were very bright and enjoyed talking about all sorts of things, but especially about the different places all over the world were their Dad had been.  The boy was very interested in all the native animals that lived in these different places and he could tell us all about their habitats and their particular qualities. 

Kathrin grafting Kiwi plants

On Tuesday morning, Kathrin worked on grafting female kiwi plants onto a male kiwi plant.  When Kathrin first planted her kiwis, she thought she had a few males and at least one female, but it turns out that all of her plants are males.  Therefore no fruit without a female.  So she spent an hour or so cutting the leaves off the male and making an angled stem, so she could make the same angle on the female stem and then tape them together. 

Kathrin trying to find a pipe in the middle of a field

 Later the same morning Mom, Kathrin, and I took some of the heifers (which are cows with calves) to their neighbor Jianne’s house to mate with her bull.  While we were there, Jianne asked Kathrin to find where a pipe was in one of her fields by water-witching.  Jianne wanted to know where the pipe was before she began digging to put in another pipe in the same area.  Kathrin used two copper rods, one in each hand, while walking through the field, and when the rods crossed then Kathrin figured that if they dug there they would be close to where the pipe was.  While we were at Jianne’s, Mom had fun playing with Jianne’s two puppies.  They are both kelpies, one brown and tan, the other black and tan, so Jianne has named them Black and Tan. 

Mom with Black

Feeding Ranger powdered milk

When we returned from Jianne’s we found a surprise awaiting us.  Barry had found a little brumby foal, only a few days old, lost and abandoned, so he brought it home.  I have named the little foal, Ranger, and I am in charge of feeding him four to six times a day.  We have Missoula back from the Johansens and we have been putting her into the chute or tying her foot back so Ranger can get some milk from her without Missoula kicking him away.  Missoula feeds Ranger twice a day, and for the other feeding times I feed Ranger with powdered calf milk mixed in warm water with a little sugar. 

Ranger getting some milk from Missoula

   Most of Wednesday was spent in preparation for our Thanksgiving celebration for the next day.  I baked three pies: apple, strawberry rhubarb, and pumpkin.  And Kathrin helped me make homemade vanilla ice cream. 

Thanksgiving preparations

   We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Kathrin and Barry invited seven of their friends: Heather and Rob Johansen, Tulip and his dog Bridle Pup, Desiree and Andres with their dog Teddy, Jianne, and Barry’s friend Dick.  For dinner we had ham, stuffing with bacon bits, scallop potatoes and yams, asparagus, salad, and rolls.  For dessert we had pie and ice cream.  After dinner Barry loaded everyone but Tulip and the Johansens, who had to get back home, into the ute for a scenic tour of the farm.  He added an old couch to the back so everyone could ride in comfort.  We did an off road tour and saw wedge-tail eagles, deer, the cows, and plenty of blackberries. 

The Scenic tour on the Ute

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  Today I think of how many things I have to be truly grateful for and realize most of them are be back home.  But while I am here I am discovering just how wonderful and precious those things really are.

With Love,

     Hana

Spring Time

*Note: I tried to post this update last week, but we have been having problems with the internet connnection due to high winds and rain, so this post is for the week of Nov. 13, 2011.

Hi Everyone,

   Last week while Kathrin was gone, Madonna (one of the mares) had her foal.  It is a little filly.  Barry drove Mom and me up to the paddock to see the two day old baby.  This foal is very special because she let us come right up to her and rub her and touch her.  This is very unusual for foals; normally they won’t allow humans to come too close.  Madonna, however, was very proud to have her new baby, and she almost seemed eager to show us her new girl, so perhaps the reason for the filly’s friendliness comes from her mother.      

Barry and the new foal

 This week we have been very busy doing spring cleaning on the farm.  Kathrin arrived home on Monday night.  She brought with her a new dog that she has saved from being euthanized.  The dog is a border collie/blue heeler mix.  We have named her Sprocket because her original name was Sproete (with means “speckled” in South African).  Sprocket was the closest English word we could find so we could remember her name. 

The adorable and energetic Sprocket

On Tuesday Kathrin castrated the four male brumbies that we still have in the yards.  Three of the horses became geldings without a hitch, but one of the horses only has one testicle on the outside, and the other was inside his abdomen where Kathrin could not remove it without surgery.  To castrate the horses we loaded them into the chute and Kathrin injected them with anesthesia through their jugular vein.  Before the horses could fall down, Barry opened the other side of the chute and walked the horses out.  Once the horses were down, Kathrin then found their testicles, which look like large sacs of skin, outside the back of the abdomen and removed them.  When the horses woke up, they were none the worse for wear and stumbled like drunken sailors back to their pens. 

The camper with his two horses

We also had a packhorse camper come through on Tuesday evening.  This gentleman was following a trail for horseback riders and hikers.  The trail travels through the different National Parks and Kathrin and Barry’s property borders Kosciuszko National Park.   To do packhorse camping, the camper had two horses, one to ride and one to carry his packs.  On his way out the next morning he stopped by to visit with Barry.  Most Australian country folk are very friendly and they love to stop and chat over a cup of tea. 

Wednesday, Mom, Kathrin, and I got to drive into town, Tumbarumba, to take one of the mares in to be bred with Heather and Rob Johansen’s stallion (Heather is the one who picked us up from the bus stop on our first day).  While we were in town Kathrin ran some errands, and Mom and I got to look around at the shops.  On the way home, we stopped by to visit Kathrin and Barry’s friend Desiree.  Dropping in to visit friends and have a Cupa Tea while in the area is a popular thing here. 

Missoula and her foal on the way to town

            Starting Thursday, we began the big clean up down at Billy’s Cabin.  The cabin itself is complete, but around the yard there were large piles of old metal and farm tools lying around camouflaged by the tall grass.  It was a lot of hard, hot work to get all of the metal shifted, the tools sorted, and the junk thrown away.  We finally finished on Saturday evening.  While we were down there, we also planted cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins (which are actually squash, but the Australians call them pumpkins), and some more corn in the large garden Barry flattened. For the three days we were working, it was hot, humid weather.  But yesterday afternoon clouds formed and it began to rain and we had a small hail storm.  The weather has continued to be very wet. 

Barry (on tractor) tearing down one of the huts around
the shed while Kathrin looks on

            Even though the weather is sometimes a bummer and the work can be very hard, there are still some perks to living here.  For instance: I had strawberry shortcake with ice cream for breakfast this morning.  Everything in my lovely meal was either home grown or homemade, even the ice cream.  Remember: Life is short, Eat Dessert for Breakfast.

Homemade strawberry shortcake

Hana

Snowy River Festival and Challenge

   Hi Everyone,

     The Snowy River Festival was a lot of fun.  Before leaving, I was chosen to power wash out the back of the stock truck. 

The only thing about power washers is that water and, ah…other things, tend to fly about.  I am glad I wore plastic coveralls.  We left Thursday afternoon and drove for about five hours in the stock truck to the town of Jindabyne. 

The stock truck loaded with horses and gear

There we set up camp on the grounds of a small resort, called the Station, which has a restaurant, bar, hotel rooms, and lots of space to keep horses and set up courses for the Challenge.  The Challenge was the main event of the weekend.  There were about 80 contestants from 14 to 50+ years of age.  Each contestant must perform a series of challenges with their horse over a two day period (Friday and Saturday).  On the evening of the second day the top ten riders are announced to continue in the Challenge on Sunday.  There are six main events that everyone participates in. 

Packhorse Event

            1. The packhorse event: Two horses are required for the event.  The contestant loads a pack saddle which is provided with certain gear (which is also provided).  Then the contestant mounts the other horse and has to lead the pack horse through an obstacle course.  He or she must do all of this in under about 15 minutes.  The gear consist of a shovel, ax, pot, flour, sugar, hammer, horse foot trimmer, horse shoe nails, rabbit trap, dish towel, whiskey bottle,  an egg (which the contestant can lose points for if it breaks) and a can of poison.  After the saddle bags are packed, a swag (sleeping mattress) is loaded along with a horse blanket on top of the horse’s back.  Once the rider has gone through the obstacle course, he or she must unload the horse and packs, placing everything back where they found it. 

            2. Horse shoeing event: Each contestant must clip and prepare a front and back hoof on their horse and then shoe the hooves all in half an hour.  This is actually a lot harder than it sounds.  The hooves are suppose to be un-manicured and grown out before the event.  Then to put shoes on, the rider has the get the horse to cooperate and fit the shoe to the horse’s hoof. 

Whip Cracking Event

            3. The Whip crack Event:  This is an obstacle course with that has targets made of string that the contestant has to sever as he or she is passing on horseback while keeping the horse moving at a canter.  There is a free-style section at the end of the event where the contestant has 20 seconds to demonstrate their whip-cracking skills.  Many riders stand on their horse’s back while cracking their whip.

Stockhandling Event

            4. The Stockhandling Event:  Each contestant has to move three full grown cattle through a series of obstacles.  They must herd the cattle through a shoot, then around a tree, and lastly through a gate.  This is also a timed event.  The shoot is hard because it stands in the middle of the arena and the cattle usually just walk around it.  It is also hard to get the cattle to move around the tree because sometimes they will scatter and not all go the same direction.  The gate is probably the easiest, but the rider has to line the cows up, then open the gate, herd the cows through, then close the gate.

Bareback Event

            5. The Bareback Event:  This was a timed obstacle course that each rider had to do without a saddle and their choice of reins or just a string around the horse’s neck.  For obstacles, the riders had to canter through some trees, have their horse put their front and then back feet on a small drum, open and close a fence gate (they pull the top bar out, jump the lower bar, and then replace the top bar), ask their horse to wait while they get a coat, then replace it from the top of their horse, and finally side pass along a log which is buried in a ditch.  Some of the riders were amazing, just using their whips around the horse’s neck and steering with their legs.  At the end of the obstacle, the rider could do a free style stunt to show how trusting the horse was.  Many riders crawled in and out of their horse’s legs, while others did tricks on the horse’s back. 

Last jump of the Cross Country Event

            6. The Cross Country Event: The final all inclusive event.  Each rider rode out and had to go through an obstacle course at a canter while being timed.  There were logs, rocks, and tires that had to be jumped; extra points were awarded if the rider also cracked their whip as they went over each one.  Then the final obstacle was a log jump on the side of a hill right above a pond of water.  Many of the riders rode their horses through the water at the end since it was a hot day. 

Tent Pegging

   Besides the challenge, there were venders with their stalls, exhibits about different breeds of horses, tent pegging (which is where a team of four horsemen ride down a straight stretch at full speed while attempting to pick up blocks of wood at the end of their poles or in some cases swords), the world champion whip cracker gave a demonstration and a competition, bush poetry, a dog high jump competition and entertainment. 

Kathrin and Barry working with Sambo and Jimmy in our Brumby Display

   We were part of the horse exhibit for brumbies, and we also did a demonstration of what brumbies are capable of learning.  Our main goal was to show people that wild brumbies, once caught and trained, are just like other horses.  Brumbies are even better than other horses for trail rides because they are used to the bush, and many brumbies make good kids’ horses since they are smaller than most other horse breeds.  From working with Sky, I have learned that brumbies are very smart, affectionate, and extremely lazy.  But even though the truck ride and festival with all its noises was new for our brumbies, they were very calm and behaved admirably for horses that had just left the paddock a week before.

The Animal Wranglers

  I also got to watch the dog high jump challenge.  The winner jumped to 6 ft. 10 inches. On Friday night there was free entertainment in the bar restaurant.  Our entertainer was Pete Denahy, who sang funny songs as well as some more serious songs about older Australian life.  Besides playing guitar, he also plays a mean fiddle.  It was a lot of fun to listen and learn a bit more about Australian music.  Another wonderful source of good family entertainment was the Animal Wranglers show.  One of the contestants was the presenter and he had a fellow animal trainer, known as Bazza the Clown, who played a miscreant and tried to steal the stage light from his fellow wrangler.  Both men are very good with animals, sometimes they would ride bare back, or lay a horse down and crack whips over its head, other times ride a horse with nothing but a string as reins.   The show had audience participation, funny stunts and a cop car chase, although the car being chased was actually a horse with a steering wheel and lights, and the cop was astride a bullock with two humps.

Brooke with the coolest shirt ever

Me attempting to crack a whip

During the weekend I meet some new friends.  The first is Brooke, a twelve year old horse lover from South Australia.  She wants to go to an agricultural college so that she can one day own and operate her own station.  One of Brooke’s other dreams is to come to American and tame her own wild mustang while seeing different parts of American, especially Wyoming.  Brooke helped us with the brumbies and she taught me a bit about whip cracking.  I will have to practice a lot more before I am as good as Brooke.

  My second new friend is Carol Heuchan, horse lover as well and renowned bush poet.  I bought two of her books and I really enjoy her poetry and the stories that her poems tell. 

Carol Heuchan reciting a poem for her audience

Australia has a rich history of poetry and poets.  Their most beloved and famous poet is A.B. Banjo Paterson, who wrote the poem “The Man from Snowy River” which the movie is based off of.  During festivals Australians always incorporate poetry and often hold poetry reciting contests.  I participated in the non-original poem contest at the festival along with two other Australian gentlemen.  I recited the abridged version of the Beowulf saga by Susan Wise Bauer, and “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert Service.  The other contestants recited two poems each.  One was about road workers in the Great Depression, another was about Cattle Droving, the third was about the aboriginal people and the troubles they face with alcoholism, and the last was a love poem about a bush rider who took a chance to come back and see his girl, but got shot by the posse that was after him (this one was my favorite).  I, amazingly enough, won first place and a hundred and fifty dollars for my recitation of the Beowulf saga. 

On Saturday night, the top ten contestants in the challenge were named, and the next day the first of the final challenges began.  First each man (there were only men in the top ten) had to catch a wild brumby from the back of his horse in the main arena.  Each contestant’s brumby was chosen by lot.  Once the brumby entered the arena, the man had four minutes to catch the brumby with a halter rope, without falling off his horse, and then start some basic beginning training while still on the back of his own horse. 

Brumby Catch: Many riders had to watch
for the brumbies' accurate kicks

Brumby handling: this is the young man that won

Two brumbies were not caught in the four minute time limit and one rider fell of his horse when it stumbled.  He was only in the first thirty seconds of his turn.  All the rest were caught, and from these, three were chosen to continue on to the final.  The top three contestants were: the leader from Animal Wranglers, a twenty-two year old, and a twenty year old.  For the final challenge each contestant was given two hours to work with the brumby he had caught and at the end of that time demonstrate what he had taught his horse.  The whole time the men were judged on their skill in training and handling their animal.  It was amazing to watch how they worked with their horses.  The final winner of the whole challenge was the twenty-two year old.  I think the prize was five thousand dollars, a very nice saddle, and a horse blanket with the challenge’s logo and year on it.  

  I think the most amazing part of the competition was watching some of the younger contestants and seeing how good they were with their horses.  All the contestants had obviously put in a lot of time and effort to work so smoothly with their horse. 

   Since we have returned, I have been busy picking strawberries and making strawberry rhubarb pie.  We also had to help Kathrin put a bandage on one of the horses’ legs because he cut it while trying to jump out of one of the paddocks.  I have also been assigned to walk along the fence of the goats paddock every other day or so to make sure there are no goats with their horns stuck in the fence.  Kathrin left yesterday to work for a week as a vet substitute.  Unfortunately as she was driving to the clinic, a tractor she was trying to pass turned in front of her.  Kathrin is all right, but her car is pretty smashed.  Meanwhile, here it continues to be hot and humid intermixed with huge thunderstorms. 

  With all my love,

       Hana

Brumby Training

    G’day,

     Sorry that I have not updated in a while, the internet connection was down the last couple of days due to lots of rain.  The clouds block the satellite signal.  Since I last updated, I have been very busy generally helping around the station and learning how to train brumbies.

    Last Tuesday Mom, Kathrin, and I went into Wodonga which is a town that borders Victoria, to register the stock truck, run assorted errands, and buy groceries.  On Wednesday, we spent part of the day down at Billy’s Cabin. 

Billy's Cabin

Barry leveling the garden with the road grader.

The Cabin was built quite awhile ago on the property and had fallen into disrepair until Kathrin and Barry fixed it up.  They now rent it out for people to stay in for vacation.  I got to use the riding lawnmower to mow the grass around the cabin.  That was fun!  I was shooting back and forth across the yard, turning quick little circles and generally wreaking havoc on plant kind.  While I was thus happily occupied, Barry used the road grader to flatten Kathrin’s large garden.  She intends to plant corn, potatoes, pumpkins and other vegetables.

Mom working with Timmy

    Thursday was finally the day that Mom and I got to start training some of the brumbies that were born to horses that Kathrin and Barry already own.  Either the mothers were brumbies that Barry had caught, or a brumby stallion had jumped into the pen with a mare and fostered a half brumby horse.  For training, we are using Pat Parelli (who is American)’s techniques, starting with the seven games.  The games are specifically tailored for horsemen to use to teach their horses to understand commands and to establish effective communication between the horse and trainer.   Most of the games are based on the principle of doing things that horses naturally do to communicate socially.  For example, the first game is the Friendly Game and it is basically rubbing the horse and communicating to the horse that he is not in danger.  The rubbing is what a mare would do to help her foal get to know her.  And then the games take off from there.  I am working with a two year old brumby gelding who I have named Sky.   Mom is working with Sky’s half brother, Timmy, who is only a year old. 

Loading the stock truck

   On Friday Barry and I took some of the extra horses that were too old or too wild for training to be sold in Wagga Wagga.  I got to see the huge area of sheep and cattle yards where the local buying and selling goes on, although when we were there it was not a livestock day.  I really enjoyed the ride anyway.  The scenery in the mountains is beautiful.  There are plenty of trees and lots of green grass.  It is also interesting to look at all of the different farms and keep an eye out for kangaroos. 

   Also on Friday, Stacy, Rebecca, and Rocky, the tenants at Billy’s cottage for the weekend, arrived. The school year here in Australia runs from February through November or December, allowing students to have the Australian summer off. Stacy and Bec just graduated from a two year agricultural program that they started after only two years of high school.  It sounds a bit like our Running Start program in Washington. 

Stacy, Bec, and Rocky

Out trail riding

 Bec and Stacy have jobs working with horses.  Rocky is still in high school, but he too is very good with horses.  And so Kathrin was very happy that they wanted to come and ride some of her younger horses that need more riding experience.   On Saturday morning, Stacy, Bec and Rocky saddled up three of the younger horses from Kathrin and Barry’s herd to go for a trail ride with Barry.  I was invited along and I (thankfully) road Sambo.  The younger horses were very fidgety and not used to riders.  Sometimes the horses would start suddenly and one of the horses even bucked once, but all of the riders were very good with their horses and no one fell off.  

   The whole weekend was pretty much constant rain.  So when the riders went out on Sunday, I was glad to stay at the house.  Kathrin and I finished a flier for the upcoming “Man from Snowy River” festival.  The flier advertises the brumbies that are for sale and offers a week long training course to get owners started with their brumbies.  The flier also promotes a cabin stay at Billy’s Cabin.  The festival is this coming weekend.  It features all kinds of challenges of horsemanship, work dog trials, and Australian poetry.  The brumbies Barry has been catching will be used for the brumby catch at the festival (I am not exactly sure what that entails, but I will find out this weekend).  And the brumbies we have been training will be used in a demonstration to show how smart and useful brumbies can actually be as trained horses. 

Me on top of Sky after we got him to lay down

  On Sunday afternoon, we continued our Brumby training and advanced on to laying the horses down and asking them to get up on large tractor tires covered with wood and rubber.  Bec and Rocky lent a hand and we soon had all of our trainees laying down and jumping up on tires.

   Monday and today were spent continuing brumby training and getting things prepared for the festival.  Barry took the wild horses in the stock tuck to the festival grounds today so that we can use the stock truck on Thursday to load up our other gear.  Mom, Kathrin, and I spent time working in the garden, and baking.  We made little pasties, rolls, and cookies to take with us to eat while we are camping out over the weekend.  We will leave the station on Thursday morning, and we should be back sometime late Sunday night.  So I will be sure to give you the full details of the festival when we get back.

Love and miss all of you,

    Hana