Helicopter Muster

Not the weekend just gone, but the one before that – we were lucky enough to be able to sneak away from the farm and go up to Matt’s uncle’s cattle station, Ben Avon, for the weekend.  We were even luckier that this weekend happened to be a scheduled helicopter muster.  I spent Friday doing some baking for the weekend as there were going to be a few of us up there and morning smoko and afternoon tea is always a requirement at Ben Avon!  As soon as the kids hopped off the bus on Friday afternoon we packed everything, plus the dog into the car and headed off for the two hour drive.  It’s a pretty drive so no-one was complaining!

Our kids love going up to the station.  They love the excitement of everybody on bikes and horses ready to head out into the paddock.  They love wearing their ‘station’ clothes of hats, jeans and boots.  They love being with their cousins and swimming and playing up there.  Matt and I love going up there too.  The peace and space and happy kids is a pretty winning combination!

Our kids were up and dressed by 5.30am on the morning of the muster!  Why that couldn’t happen on a school day I don’t know!  It was a long wait until 7am when we headed up to the main house to sort out who was riding what and going where, and then even more of a wait for the helicopter to arrive at 7.30am!

The bike brigade! Yes – there are just a few kids between us!

Kipp very happy for his first muster experience!

Here comes the helicopter!

The helicopter flies in very quickly, lands and refuels before we head out for the muster!

According to the boss we had a very uneventful and smooth sailing muster!  This was apparently due to the fact that the cattle had spent the last couple of weeks in the paddock after being moved there only a bit over 3 weeks ago, so they were very settled and knew what was going on.  I think it may have been due to the fact that with all of us up there we just about outnumbered the cattle!  I brought up the rear in Peter Prado with Kipp and Breanna.  We had a great and very comfy view of all the action!  I did however think I was in big trouble when all the cattle broke away and started to run towards the Prado (perhaps thinking I had some lick blocks on board for them).  I was waiting to hear the swearing at the silly woman in the car come over the UHF, but thankfully the helicopter just swooped in and turned them all around!  Phew!  It was really amazing to watch the helicopter work and I’m sorry I didn’t get better photos – next time!

Once the cattle were all in the yards, the kids got to have a turn on Grandma and Grandad Bill’s horses, examine the cattle and chat about what had gone down out in the paddock!  Charlie – the full time farm hand here at Blue Sky – and Dave, an Italian backpacker who has decided to stay on at Blue Sky for the whole mango season, joined us up at the station this weekend.  Charlie was happy as a pig in mud on one of the motor bikes and Dave was very lucky – getting to go up in the helicopter and have a ride on one of the horses!  A pretty amazing experience for somebody from the other side of the world!

Once the cattle were in the yards, it was time to sort them – some for slaughter and some to be exported by boat.  Here’s a few shots of the yard action – I didn’t stay down there too long as it got too hot and dusty (it was sooooooo dusty – we need some rain up here!) for Kipp so I missed getting some shots of the kids riding the calves – have to get that next time too!  It can be quite dangerous down at the yards so we really drum into the kids to keep their wits about them and do as Uncle Ross says immediately!!

After all the work was done, we headed home.  I even got to have a ride back to the house!  It has been a long time since I was on a horse – so fun!

We the spent the afternoon washing off the dust, swimming and ‘beer o’clocking’ at the dam.  A pretty good way to top off a great day!

Being able to do things like join in on a muster and experience a little bit of station and farm life is one of the big reasons we decided to leave the city.  Weekends like this make us so glad we made the move!  Have you ever experienced a muster before?  Would you like to?