Up for breakfast at 6am (bacon, sausages & eggs, cereal & fruit, toast, tea and coffee), then our "muster" started at 7.30am where we all are allocated to our teams with a team leader who usually has had some previous experience doing fences etc. Today we both went in Doug's Landcruiser (our team leader for today) to a property about 20 kms west of Bridgewater to help replace and stand up washed down fencing. We both learnt a lot about what had happened here when the Loddon River flooded all the farms around here. The damage that the water and fallen trees floating downstream was tremendous. Just listening and talking to "Bruce" the farmer who we were helping today tell his story does a lot of good for them mentally as they all just feel so devastated. Lesley felt a little left out at lunch time (heaps sandwiches etc) as she was the only woman in our team and the farmer's wife was working in Bendigo but she toughed it out! We all thought it was so funny when Doug (our leader) got his bum all hooked up in the barb wire trying to cross a fence we were putting back up, so Peter had to unhook him but only after taking a few photos! Around 4pm we all decided to call it a day and drove back to our base in Bridgewater after giving Bruce the farmer all our email addresses etc., which he requested. After a rest and shower we later all met in the clubrooms for tea at 6pm (wine, shepard's pie & veges, fruit salad and ice-cream). At 7pm we then have another "muster" to discuss the days happenings from each team leader. Today there was about 9-10 teams of 4-5 people each. Afterwards we both retired to watch a bit of TV in the motor-home and pay Daisy a bit of attention as she stayed in the motor-home whilst we were gone. We both slept very well - even if there was so many semi-trailers going through with their exhaust brakes still on, they use them to slow down to the 60km town limit, so Peter counted semis instead of sheep in order to get to sleep!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
BRIDGEWATER
Up for breakfast at 6am (bacon, sausages & eggs, cereal & fruit, toast, tea and coffee), then our "muster" started at 7.30am where we all are allocated to our teams with a team leader who usually has had some previous experience doing fences etc. Today we both went in Doug's Landcruiser (our team leader for today) to a property about 20 kms west of Bridgewater to help replace and stand up washed down fencing. We both learnt a lot about what had happened here when the Loddon River flooded all the farms around here. The damage that the water and fallen trees floating downstream was tremendous. Just listening and talking to "Bruce" the farmer who we were helping today tell his story does a lot of good for them mentally as they all just feel so devastated. Lesley felt a little left out at lunch time (heaps sandwiches etc) as she was the only woman in our team and the farmer's wife was working in Bendigo but she toughed it out! We all thought it was so funny when Doug (our leader) got his bum all hooked up in the barb wire trying to cross a fence we were putting back up, so Peter had to unhook him but only after taking a few photos! Around 4pm we all decided to call it a day and drove back to our base in Bridgewater after giving Bruce the farmer all our email addresses etc., which he requested. After a rest and shower we later all met in the clubrooms for tea at 6pm (wine, shepard's pie & veges, fruit salad and ice-cream). At 7pm we then have another "muster" to discuss the days happenings from each team leader. Today there was about 9-10 teams of 4-5 people each. Afterwards we both retired to watch a bit of TV in the motor-home and pay Daisy a bit of attention as she stayed in the motor-home whilst we were gone. We both slept very well - even if there was so many semi-trailers going through with their exhaust brakes still on, they use them to slow down to the 60km town limit, so Peter counted semis instead of sheep in order to get to sleep!
