Mom on route home

Hi Everyone,

Looking out to the mountains in the clouds

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Mom and Kathrin went back to Wagga Wagga so Kathrin could attend another business meeting with the loan expert.  I stayed at Jagumba and took the dogs for a walk in the rain.  Our main goal was to scare away the cockatoos from the oat field.

            Saturday we went down to Billy’s to plant more corn and some tomatoes in the garden.  It began to pour on the way back, so we spent the remainder of the day inside.

            On Sunday we thought it was going to rain again and continue our streak of perpetual rain, but surprisingly it was sunny the whole day.  This was very nice, since we spent most of Sunday afternoon at a picnic in Corryong (about an hour and a half drive from here).  The picnic was a thank you to all the volunteers whole helped with the Corryong “Man from Snowy River” Festival.  Kathrin and Barry had done their Brumby Show there too, so we were invited.  The picnic was very nice with burgers, sausage, and chicken on a stick.  The burgers were small and fat, not like our American burgers, and everyone ate their burgers with just tomato sauce (the Australian substitute for Ketchup).  There was not lettuce, cheese, or other condiments.  It was still very good food though, Australians are very good on the BBQ.  

Picnic at Corryong

            After the picnic, we visited Dave Scott, a friend of Kathrin and Barry’s who lives in Corryong.  Mr. Scott helped us to moves some of the cattle the last time we visited Australia.  Mr. Scott is also a former professional pianist, and he gave a wonderful impromptu concert for us while we were there.

Dave Scott on the piano

         Monday we spent the day mustering goats. We gathered them all up and found that our method of de-horning the little goats did not work. So we didn’t bother to try again on the newer members of the herd. So instead we mounted up and moved the goats back down the hill into a pasture closer to the house. 

Kathrin riding Joringle while droving goats

            Later that evening we had dinner with Desiree and Andres at their house.  We had a wonderful chili type stew with rice.  For dessert Desiree made chocolate cake with icing, and Butterfly cakes, which are a small pastry with the middle cut out and filled with cream and the top of the middle placed back on top of the cream.  It was delicious. 

        
          On Tuesday we did household chores and waited for Mom to call and see if she was on the military flight to come home this week. The flight had been delayed. So we drove down to the Tooma River, which passes through Jagumba, and showed Mom the bridge and the beautiful river. Later that night, while we were working with our horses, Barry put shoes on the front feet of Dakota, the horse I am currently working with. 

Barry shoeing Dakota

Kathrin, holding Tobi and Sprocket,
and Mom, holding Spike and Chickadee,
on the bridge crossing the Tooma River

            Wednesday we did more house work and general gardening in the garden up next to the house.  I did some more work with Dakota, since the yards had finally dried out enough.  Whenever it rains here, it pours and pours.  So lately the yards have been full of mud, the kind of mud that likes to relieve you of your shoes AND socks.  Needless to say, when the yards are like this, we usually try to either work the horses out on some firmer ground, or we just stay inside and decide to read books.  We also went down to Billy’s. Mom and Kathrin planted some more seeds and weeded around the potato and corn plants while I mowed the lawn.

            On Thursday we spent most of the morning training some of the younger dogs to herd goats.  We set up a small portable yard near the gate into the paddock.  Then Kathrin herded in some of the goats and we let one of the puppies, Bouncer, in to see how he would do.  You want a herding dog to be a help and not a hindrance.  So he must act like a partner, keeping the goats between you and him and turning the goats back around toward you.  It is bad to have a dog that just chases the goats away and moves them in whatever direction they are pointed.  Most herding dogs are born with the instinct to move the goats around back toward their human.  Bouncer is still a little young, only four months old, so he wasn’t quite sure what to do with the goats.  Next we put in Sprocket, and she did a bit better.  Sprocket was able to move the goats back around toward Kathrin, and she would often move around to the other side of the goats, keeping the herd between Kathrin and herself.   

            Friday morning we headed back down to Billy’s.  Kathrin and I went the Jimmy’s paddock next door and found some good manure to place around the asparagus bed that Kathrin and Mom weeded.  Kathrin says the one good thing about stallions is that they do put their manure in piles.  They do this to mark their territory.  It makes the job to get manure much easier when it is all in one place.  While Mom and Kathrin weeded, I worked on flattening out some of the larger bumps in the lawn so that it will be easier to careen around the yard on the riding lawn mower. 

Friday afternoon, Mom finally found out that she would be on the plane the next morning heading back to Hawaii.  After Mom called in and found out, she and Barry left right away to drive to Sydney.  There they spent the night with a friend and Mom got on the flight the next day.  That evening, Kathrin and I rode our horses up around the goat pasture to make sure none of the goats were stuck in the fence.  Dakota lost a shoe while we were on our ride.  So the next morning I rode Sambo up and around the pasture, but I couldn’t find the shoe.  We spent the afternoon back at Billy’s weeding and putting manure on the last bed of asparagus.   We also took the hand lawnmower down so I could mow right around the trees in the orchard.  While we were there the couple who are renting the cabin for the weekend arrived.  We introduced ourselves and the dogs.  The couple has a whippet, which is a small dog that is very fast.  It almost looks like a miniature grey hound.  They are hoping to take their dog out to catch rabbits. That will be very helpful; there are far too many rabbits around.  That dog will have to be very fast to catch any of them though.   

Today we are hoping to go up and work the dogs in the goat pen some more, but the clouds are starting to darken again, so we may be in for more rainL. 

Please say a prayer for Mom’s safe and speedy trip home.  And if you don’t pray, then I know that all your good wishes go with her.  It is lonely without her here, but I know that she is needed back home and I will see her soon.

            I am off to catch some horses before the rain sets in.

Hana