Sun, 27th Jan, 2019 10 Mile Outcamp, Tarmoola Station, 60km north of Leonora, WA

7.30am 26 degrees, cool gusty wind – great sleeping temperature.

Steve swapped the new tyre he had put on last night with the spare off the caravan – all wheels interchange. As he had two new ones on the truck he wants to keep them and put them on together when we leave here and head north.

He then did the oil service on the generator – he always has jobs to do while I just do my bit of cleaning and then relax – what a life. Actually I got a lot of pieces in my jigsaw!!

I cleaned out the pool filter and Steve connected it up to the trough’s outlet and then the water pours in over the top like a fountain. That should get that dust etc out of the water that I can’t get with my stocking covered fish scoop.

Rang Daniel to see how they are faring with all the wet weather. Got a bit of water in his shed and the low section of the house but no damage. Sadly he took Friday off to make a four day weekend with Australia Day public holiday on Monday but with all the rain they haven’t been able to do anything other than go for a drive and look at the flooding.

After lunch we headed off on our bore run. Always picking up loose fencing wire that the cattle drag onto the track and any broken tree limbs that block our way – good exercise for me getting in and out of the truck.

Steve had continued north from our north eastern bore and found a mine road, power poles and pumping station which is on Tarmoola Station. We think it must be for Melrose Station which is north of us and is owned by a mining company.

Steve decided to dig up the cable for the solar pump at one of the wells that wasn’t pumping any more water. The well had water but the pump wasn’t down deep enough. Bit of a job as whoever put it in curled up the cable and buried it but we got it out. Then we had to extend the water pipe and found out when we pulled it up out of the bore that they had used a different pipe size to the one on the outside – Steve wasn’t impressed but he kept it together and found some pipe and managed to change it around so we could get the pump and pipe down into the water. Luckily there was still enough sun on the solar panels to get the pump working so we could make sure the water was coming up ok. Packed up and continued on with our bore run.

At one of the windmill ones we counted 20 donkeys. Usually we only see about 4 or 5 together.

The big black bull was back out the 10 Mile water trough so got a photo of him to send to Ceri.

Back home by 6pm, late drinks under a clear sky. 35 degrees in the van. Watched two pigeons run along the track heading to the water trough – Steve always adds a commentary to any animals we see, even the ants. This one was “don’t run so fast darling or I will be too worn out to do the job when I catch you”.

Lovely evening with a cool wind though at 10pm it was still 31 degrees but felt cooler.