Settling In

So, it’s been a week. I’ll tell you what though, it feels like a lot longer.

Last Saturday was my first day of work. Just had Toby (the younger one) for the day which was good. Sunday I had Dan on his own for the day.. then Monday through Friday had them both. This much I’ll say, they’re a lot better on their own, especially as they’re brothers. Other than that, they’re not too bad. It’s just getting used to everything. Plus, they’re starting to get used to me too, learning that I won’t budge as much as they might try to get me too.

Still haven’t figured out the best way to deal with the fella’s but they always give you a laugh which is good. Some of they’re drunken comments has kept the others going for days. Despite that, they’re not bad guys though.

Went piggin’ on Sunday. Well... sort of. Was invited to go piggin’, so I went. Normally this means chasing them around in vehicles and a bit of running. The dogs do most of the work, just have to make sure you keep up with them once they get on a scent. This time though they parked and got out to walk to find the pigs. It was still alright until you got to the muddy ground of the swamps and it just.. kept.. on.. going. I was in thongs or bare feet depending on the ground the whole time as well. I gave up following them after about a kilometre at least half of which was through creeks and mud because I was afraid if I kept on going I might not make it back. Made it back alright but was having trouble breathing a bit by the time I got back. That was the first time I got to use my puffer (which I’d left behind) since I’ve been ‘officially’ diagnosed with asthma Monday before I left.. yay! Oh yeah, the got some pigs and brought a couple back to train up the pups. Shout out to H, anklet survived that I don’t think it’s ever going to accidentally come off.

There was new foal in on Monday morning which had everybody smiling but regretfully it didn’t survive the storm that night. Poor Bell’s been back up looking for her foal since too.

We’ve had a couple of storms in the last week. So far this year they’ve had enough rain here to fill the normal yearly quota. The creeks are up even further than when I came here, so we’re going to be stuck here for a while because they’re only going down slowly. This isn’t normal, they normally go down a lot faster. One of the comments was “we’ll be lucky if we’re out by March at this rate”.. sounds hopeful hey. Despite this the storms didn’t bring as much rain as we thought they might which was a good thing. And the lightning display from one of them, well actually there were two, one on either side of us, was absolutely gorgeous! I mean bright, lighting up the whole sky, cloud to cloud, and cloud to earth, multi path lightning, lasting at least an hour! This was made even better by the fact that because of where we are, I didn’t need to worry about bush fires starting!

My place needs a real proper clean out again already because of all the bugs, and other creatures, think it’s going to have to be at least a twice weekly thing. There was one of those flying cockroaches which I really hate but it went so that was okay. I’m getting used to having frogs reside in my bathroom and there normally being one in the toilet. Most of the time they just jump into the water as soon as you go near it though so there’s not much else you can do. Thankfully I’ve only had one come into the shower while I’ve been there so far. Keep finding wasp nests around to knock down too but that’s easy enough done. The second bedroom floods out, well gets a nice puddle in the middle of the floor, as it has now, whenever there’s a heavy rain as it all runs in under the door. I’m going to wait for the wet season to settle a bit before I bother cleaning out that room properly.

I have finished reading the only ‘pleasure reading’ book I brought with me. Thankyou Michelle, I loved it. So now I’m moving onto Dutch. We’ll see how much I can remember by the end of the year, my only problem will be pronunciation.. which is already quite hopeless.

Not sleeping great but amazingly am still sleeping on a bed after a week. I really am starting to appreciate air conditioning only it’s not because of the temperature, as the heat really doesn’t bother me. It’s the humidity that’s getting to me but air conditioning dries out the air as well.. thank you! Only thing is they make a lot of noise, and I get cold.. still I think lack of sleep due to these things is a worthy price for non-high-humidity.

The boys invited me to come into town with them last night but I decided to pass. I think it was more the really wanting to chill now that my first day off is here, and not spend the little money I have until I get paid rather than the having to swim across a creek with a reasonable current /flow rate at dark with no lights while carrying things in order to actually get there.

Can’t think of much else to say except that I got my first ‘letter’ on Thursday; it made my day! Thank you. If you have any questions about anything, or would like to see a photo of something in particular, just leave a comment and I’ll be sure to respond to it next time.

God Bless.