Friday, 22 February 2019

Wed, 20th Feb, 2019 10 Mile Outcamp, Tarmoola Station, 60km north of Leonora, WA



Good sleeping now the outside cattle have water and the inside ones are content.

7.30am 28 degrees, clear sky and strong northerly wind.

The little finches are enjoying the bird/goanna bath once I refilled. It is always empty in the morning after the roos have their drinks during the night.

We are only feeding the cattle the good hay in the evening to make it last. We gave them some of the older hay with molasses which they sniffed at and when nothing better came they started chewing it. The water trough had algae growing so with the cattle quiet Steve went in with the broom to give it a clean. It was pretty bad so he dumped the water then scrubbed it clean then let it refill. The cattle were very curious to see what he was up to but they just stood and watched which was good as I was keeping watch in case one of them decided to do something dangerous.

There is still a calf and two others hanging around. The calf calls and the mum inside the yard calls back but we can’t get the calf to go inside. He is a bigger one so should be ok.

Headed off on our bore run. Holding Paddock Well windmill hasn’t pumped up any water for a while. Steve poured some water down the shaft to wet the cups in case that was the problem, or maybe the well is going dry. Will let Rob know as it will need looking at as the tank is down to less than one third.


There was a big dead roo at Grey Mare Well. The fence was bent near the tank and it was dead beside, with it guts ripped out. We think it tried to jump away from a dingo but hit the fence and then the dingo got it. We pulled it away from the watering area – very smelly.

No more dead roos at St Patricks thank goodness. The ones we had moved are just skin and bones now. Brought the water pod back home and I watered the grass – not really the best grass for this area and with cattle, roos and lack of water it is an ongoing battle to keep it alive. Steve put the rest down the well.

Lunch 1pm 40 degrees with the strong northerly still blowing its hot wind over us. Clouds are building in the north then we heard some rumbles of thunder. I closed the roof hatches just in case we get rain.

Took the pod back – shouldn’t take too long to refill with the wind blowing the windmill furiously.

A scud of rain went over us on the way back – enough to put on the windscreen wipers! We are always on the lookout for broken wire on the track from the old fences and had stopped to remove some when the rain fell – lovely smell as the rain hit the ground.

Back home we could see we had rain and a lot of wind here. The new rain gauge measured 1.5ml of rain.

Worked on my blog etc for the afternoon. Steve resurrected an old trough float for the second trough as the cattle were drinking it all the time and we had to keep topping it up. He then ran a cable so he can start the truck using the Red Arc thing on the auxiliary battery until we can buy new ones.

I rang Mum and Dad after seeing on Facebook that Cairns had been hit by a wild storm. They said the lightning and thunder was amazing. They have lost their land line again but luckily they have the mobile to use. They lost power for 3 and a half hours but thankfully it came on just as they laid down for their afternoon snooze so they could have the fan on.

I texted the boys and Jon was driving home from Palm Cove when it hit but it was all over by the time he got home. Dan said it was pretty wild but ok – he is looking forward to winter. Cairns has been having a very hot summer and with the humidity it is terrible.

Steve racked up some more old hay and poured on the molasses for the cattle. He left the race open with a line of molasses heading to the other hay hoping to lure the calf in.

Drinks watching the lightning show as another storm cell headed south east.

Unfortunately no cattle went down the race so he closed up the race again when we checked it after the sun had set.

The wind is still blowing hot but it isn’t too bad.


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