Travelling Australia with the Oakey's: Nathan and Deb's Cattle Farm

Waking up to our first morning on the farm, everyone was really excited, the kids wanted to head down and see all the animals before breakfast. After promising the kids we would see the animals soon, we discussed the plans for the day. The Biloela Show was on today so we decided that we would get all the jobs done this morning and then head in to the show after lunch.

Chris and Nathan headed off down the paddock to do some work on the new vegie patch that they were starting to plant. Deb, I and the kids thought we would make some morning tea to take down to the Dad's - we just didn't realise at the time how crazy and messy it would get with 5 kids under the age of 6. The kids had great fun cutting the biscuits in lots of different shapes and adding sprinkles on top. After cleaning up the flour that was spread from one end of the room to the other, we packed up the biscuits and heading down the paddock to have a picnic morning tea and see the animals and vegie patch.

On the farm, they have approx 150 cattle, chickens, goats, a horse, and working dogs - the kids were a bit disappointed there were no pigs - although they did have some but they were now tucked safely in the freezer ready for eating. Lexie was especially excited about the horse, called Harley, and having a ride while we were here. We checked out the chickens, which Jack chased around and around in the coop trying to catch - with no success. We also saw the goats which every morning had to be lead down the paddock and tied up and then taken back to their pen every night so the dingos didn't get them. They were unbelievably stubborn animals. To take them down the paddock they had to be litereally dragged - I walked outside one morning to see Chris trying to drag the two goats down the paddock and they were struggling like their life depending on it. They dug their feet in and tried to sit down to avoid being moved. Eventually he got them there - but he was not looking forward to taking them back to the pen at night.

We told Jack, Logan and Lexie then that we had to go and get ready for the Biloela Show - which caused lots of cheering and jumping up and down. I asked them if they knew what the "show" was and none of them knew - when I explained what it was we were bombarded with even more cheering and jumping around.

After getting showered and dressed, we headed into the house to see how the Carr family was going - they were not quite ready, Deb was still walking around with rollers in her hair. She said to the boys "Can I go llike this?" - the boys said "no" they didn't want to go out with her looking like that - but Lexie piped up then and said "I will walk with you". Luckily for all of us she took the rollers out before leaving the house.

It was quite exciting for everyone to go to the show - Chris and I have always been big on going to the Ekka every year - so this was like our Ekka trip. We walked around the pavillions and had a look at all the cooking and vegies, which the kids said was "really boring" - you know, the kind of stuff you don't even bother to look at at the Ekka, but at a country show, you feel like you should. After dragging all the kids in and out of the paviollions, we said we would head over to side show alley. As we were leaving one pavillion, there was a display of photos on the wall that Nathan and Chris stopped to look at - Deb and I waited outside with the kids while they were checking them out. Chris came out then with a funny look on his face and said "come and look at this photo". All the photos were divided into sections, such as "children", "nature" - one of the categories was "open".

So here I was standing in front of this big board of photos - Chris said "have a look at the top row of photos" - so as I scan up I don't really know what to expect - as I scan further up the wall I asked Chris "what am I looking for?" he said "you'll know when you see it", so I keep looking, and looking and looking. Then I knew I had found the photo he was talking about - it was an A4 size photo - and it was a close up of a dog poo! Yes you heard me right - the only thing in the photo was a nice big mr whippy! We laughed and laughed and laughed - I couldn't believe that they would hang that at the show. Maybe it was the contrast of the brown and the bright green grass that made it such a piece of artwork that they felt they had to show the world. What a laugh - it made our day!

As we entered sideshow alley - our kids knew what they wanted - dodgem cars!! I remember when I was young, the only ride I loved going on was the dodgem cars with Dad. It is a bit tricky though - three kids and only two adults, so Chris usually has two turns, one with each boy and then Lexie and I have a go. First up today was Jack and Chris and Nathan and Cooper, then Logan and Chris, Nathan and Cassidy and Lexie and me. Lexie had a ball telling me to crash into Daddy and Logan, even when we were no where near them, she would yell "get daddy and Logan, mum!" - and who was I to disappoint my girl - I got them! All the kids had a ball - and I think all the adults enjoyed it too.

It was then time for the exciting part of the show - the crash up derby, fireworks and rodeo. Logan was in his element watching the crash up derby - he could hardy take his eyes off them, while the other kids were too interested in their show bags to take too much notice. When it finished we ventured over to find our spot for the rodeo. By this time of night it was getting quite cold - so we had heaps of jumpers, blankets and pillows for the kids to rug up in while watching the rodeo.

It amazes me why the cowboys choose to do what they do - and the guys who are the clowns - they are just downright crazy! The kids all enjoyed the rodeo - especially the bull riding. We saw two bad falls for the night - one was taken away in an ambulance and the other walked off but was obviously heading straight for the hospital. One of the guys was riding the bull right in front of us and we saw, and heard, him headbutt the bull 3 times - it is fairly nerve racking to watch and see the ambulance etc rush in to him and not know if he is alright or not. We found out the next day that he had a broken eye sock and cheek - but other than that was ok.

There was short break in the rodeo then for the fireworks and then it was back to more bulls and cowboys. Over the years I have seen a few rodeos, but I have never seen this happen at any of them before. We were watching one cowboy ride his bull, when he was thrown off. Just as he hit the ground, the commentator called out "lookout cowboy - he's a comin" - I have never seen anyone move so fast, the cowboy jumped up and took off to the fence and scrambled up as fast as he could. Once up at the top he looked around and saw that the bull had taken no notice of him once he was off his back and he was quietly trotting out of the ring. The whole crowd erupted with laughter at the cowboy - he didn't seem fazed by it all - he still strutted off like he was the king.

By the end of the night we only had one lone child left standing - Jack. All the others had curled up under the blankets and fallen asleep - one by one they dropped off after a big, long exciting day.