Sheepdog Injury

Roger with Belle

I am so glad that I wasn't there when Belle hurt herself. Apparently she chased a lamb that broke away from the mob, and in doing so she ran into a stick which stabbed her in the chest. Roger didn't think the injury was very serious, but he took her to the vet the next morning and had the wound cleaned and stitched. The vet put in a drain, which will have to be removed by Roger, and he'll also have to take out the stitches in a week or two.
Because I know you love photos of injuries (or is it just that I love taking them?) I took a photo for the blog.

Belle's wound with stitches and drain

Bonnie in the State Schools Cross Country

Today Bonnie ran in the State Schools Cross Country event at McGillivray Oval in Mt Claremont, Perth. She ran 1.5km in the year 5 girls race. I was very proud of her, even though I thought she could have done some more training in the lead up to the race. (But I didn't want to be a pushy Mum, so she did it her way.)
It is the fourth cross-country race Bonnie has competed in this year, starting with the Darkan Primary School faction carnival in which there were six girls in her age group. Then in the interschool carnival there were about 16 girls. At Narrogin in the regional event there were about 40 competitiors and Bonnie came ninth. Today there were 271 registered for her event, and Bonnie finished at number 121. Her friend and classmate Amelia came in 90th.
The best thing about today was seeing these girls from a small country school competing in a big event. There were more kids in each race on the program than there are in the whole school at Darkan!

We arrived early at 9am, and the ground was wet with dew

The crew were still setting up...

Hugh came with us, as he had been sent home form school yesterday feeling unwell.
He was obviously feeling fine today!!

We walked the track, and this was the only section that wasn't on the grassed oval.

A very impressive finish line - until it deflated...

The starting line

Bonnie is in the middle in a red shirt...

Waiting for the start...

Go!

Racing...

The large field heading off...

Mobile when you Need it

A man with a chainsaw

I was SO GLAD for mobile telephone reception last week. I was driving home one dark stormy evening and came across a tree branch over the road. It was too big for me to move, and I couldn't drive around it. I didn't know if I had enough fuel to drive back to the highway and try a different route home. Mobile telephone coverage is pretty patchy around here due to the topography, so I didn't expect that I would be able to call for help. So it was pure joy to see two bars showing on my phone, and to hear Roger on the other end of the phone assuring me that he would be there in a flash in his superhero costume. (He didn't actually say that, but a man with a chainsaw is a hero in a situation like that.)
The kids came too, and soon enough we were all home in our cosy warn house.

Small boy, big muscles!

Hugh helping out

Check out Bonnie's new gumboots!

Once the branch was cut into pieces it was easy to move.

Bonnie and Odette working together.

Sophie doing her bit.

Thanks Roger!

Orangutans?

The kids have been watching the BBC Earth DVDs of series two of "Orangutan Diary" during the school holidays. It is quite similar in format to the "Roo Gully Diaries", which is another of their favourite DVDs. In fact we have been to Roo Gully several times, and taken visitors from overseas to see the kangaroos there. It is at Boyup Brook, which is only about 60kms form our farm. Of course we have plenty of kangaroos on the farm, but they are not hand-reared and friendly like some of the ones at Roo Gully.
The reason that we like to watch DVDs is that we don't have television. We just can't see the benefits of a lot of the stuff that streams into homes on the box. Especially the commercial channels that show a lot of advertisements. Even many of the programs, if not strictly ads, still have product placement which is designed to influence you. And the news programs, well they really thrive on sensationalism. We keep up with the news via the radio and online newspapers, and occasionally a real paper newspaper. The children entertain themselves pretty well with their games and they have had several friends over during the holidays.
Orangutan Diary has really caught the imagination of the children. So much so that when I arrived home this afternoon I thought that a group of orangutans had taken over a marri tree in the yard!

Hugh in the marri tree

Odette

Odette swinging from the tree, Amelia looking on

Bonnie peeking out, on a branch with Sophie and Amelia

And Hugh even managed to get Pompon onto a low branch!

FOOTNOTE: I always used to spell it orang-utangs, but the BBC spells it as orangutan, so I suppose that is the official spelling...

Fencing

Roger has been getting anyone who can (that generally means a teenage son, and any visitors on the helpXchange program) to help him build new fences (and take down the old ones) around the farm. Some are simply replacing broken down fences that have been there since the 1960s. The fence that I photographed on the weekend was being replaced to widen a race way between paddocks on the farm. The existing race was too narrow and made moving large mobs of sheep difficult.
Peter and Abby, from Manchester in England stayed with us for three weeks, and they left today. I drove them to Arthur River to catch the bus to Perth. And that is a 50km drive to the nearest public transport.

 Peter showing some muscle

Abby helping to stand up the mesh

And Roger doing the same

Roger on the old Fiat tractor - used to pull the mesh tight

Hooking the chain from the tractor to the wire mesh

Putting the chain around the tensioner

Two planks bolted together over the wire give the grip to pull the wire up tight

I have some more photos somewhere... I think I have misplaced a memory card form my camera (oops!)