Day 2: Hume Weir

GOLD Participant: Robert (Young Person).

We all got out of bed between 7am & 7.30 for the day. We had breakfast and Frank, James, Davo, Jasmine and Paul went and loaded the sheep into the ute so Frank can go into the Wodonga markets.

Then James and Frank went into Wodonga whilst everyone else came back to the house. Once they were back we finished breakfast and sat in the living room and planned the day.

We planned to to document eight themes that Bronwyn had wanted us to do. They were shelter, refugee, love, friendship, food, water, animal and loneliness. We had to document them using the sources of photo, video and sound.

We headed off to the butcher in Wodonga but ended up in the wrong one which was on the main street. We then rang Graham who is a farmer in Boree Creek who sends his saltbush lamb there. We did a tour of the butchery and took some photos and interviewed the butcher Michael.

After that we went up the main street of Wodonga. Holly and I bought some coffees and stopped at the Red Cross op-shop which we linked to the theme of “shelter”. I have no idea what the other people did though because I was not with them.

After that we headed went to Paul’s Great Grandma’s house. After Paul visited his Grandma and Great Grandmother we headed back to the farm for lunch.

For lunch we had different types of salami’s from the butcher. After lunch we went out the back and interviewed Frank whilst he was getting rid of some dead sheep.

After that we went and fixed some of the fences

and burnt some trees.

After our little burning session Frank and James in the cabin of the ute drove us (Savvy, Paul, Davo and Jasmine who were on the back) around the farm over some hills and down some hills.

Once we had finished we went back to the house, had some afternoon tea and then discussed the themes from this morning.

Once we had finished our discussion we went to the Hume Weir Wall and did some photos, sound recording and video recording.

Once we got back we had to bring some wood to the verandah for the fire. We all took turns looking after the lamb who had lost its mother. We fed it milk and gave it lots of cuddles.

We then had dinner with Ray who is a farmer near Frank’s farm.

After dinner Jasmine did the washing up whilst Davo, Ray, Frank, Bron and myself had a yarn at the table. Lucky Me had to convert some Imperial measurements into metric for Bron.

Then we sat in the living room whilst I wrote this blog and everyone else did their stuff. James showed us photos he had taken of the stars.

Robert Brewer
GOLD Blogger
22:40 completed
30/4/08 (Day Two)

Day 1: Hume Weir

We started in Griffith around 11:40 am where the GOLD crew picked me up at my flat. We headed up to the shop to get the gear and then got some petrol for our trip. We had some chips for lunch as we were driving. It was about 12:30 when we left Griffith and started heading out on the Kidman Way toward Darlington Point.

We stopped at the truck stop just out of Narrandera. While we were there James and myself went in and bought some globes to fix the trailer indicator. James bought the wrong globes and so had to spend another $3.00 to buy the correct type.

We then went drove to Lockhart which was quite old school. From Lockhart we headed to the town of Burrenbuttocks (which James had fun with the second half of the name.) Then we continued into Albury and picked up Savvy off the train.

From the train we went to Frank’s farm in the Hume Weir. When we arrived we started unpacking the trailer whilst waiting for Frank to come. When Frank arrived he gave us the grand tour of his lovely house and where we would sleep.

Once we put our gear in the bedrooms we headed up to watch Frank dock lambs and he talked us through crutching. I did some recording on the Mini-Disk of different sounds in the shed as well as recording what everyone said.

Frank then set up a loading race so that he can load the sheep into the Ute for the markets tomorrow.

On the way to the shed and on the way back Holly showed us her awesome driving abilities. We then made huge commotion about her driving abilities because we had not seen her drive before.

We went into Franks nice house and talked while Frank cooked us a lovely indian dinner which was magnificent. After dinner some of the guys started washing up and making us a cup of coffee. And we are now watching a movie called “The real Dirt on Farmer John”.

End Day One

Robert Brewer

GOLD Blogger.

8th day – The Return Journey

Sitting in the car, travelling in the general direction of Griffith, while staring at the laptop’s glowing screen, I struggle to string together the few funny and exciting anecdotes of our 8th and last day together. As car sickness slowly but surely attempts to overcome me, I devise a brilliant scheme to lessen my un-warranted nausea. A Photo Retrospective of our entire trip seems the order of the day and with a heavy heart, I begin my work.

This is how we roll………

Entertainment for the week

Well, our night is set.

Rocking out perfected

Ground Zero

Don’t worry, its only road kill

And then they finally noticed big foot

The green, it burrnsssss

He still won’t tell us the secret of levitating

Unfortunately, Jim didn’t make it

Mid-explosion

Just biding his time

I’m ready for my close up, Mr. Demille

Just glamorous

and now for dessert

I’m only acquiring arms

Current affair material

yeah, it was THIS big!

For my birthday, I want a pony………..

I used to live here. When this place was smaller. And it looked worse…………..

Toothpick terror

Eighth & Last Report Completed

Day 8 19:00

The Brave hART 101st Airborne Cavalry

Mission: Queensland

“So long, and thanks for all the fish”

7th day Adventure-ists

For the first, and last time, we all rose from our beds with no need for any kind of persuasion, as everyone had become accustomed to rising early.

Soon after, we headed over to Peter and Sherilyn’s Farmhouse, where we had an impromptu interview with Peter as his youngest son Luke played football in the background. Lydia and Pando the dog hung out near by, adding her two bobs worth in when Peter hadn’t mentioned something in the interview.

Peter talked about how Sherilyn had spent a lot of time working on the garden, to make an oasis, a place to relax after being out on the farm. Green gardens are important psychologically during the drought.

After, Luke and the guys had an action pact game of laser tag, which encompassed most of the farmhouse’s backyard.

We were then taken to the stockyard, and while Peter informed us that we would be doing ‘Preg tests’ on some cows. For the un-informed, a preg test mainly consists of sticking your arm in the cow’s rear end and feeling around for a calf.

After Peter gave us a demonstration, he and his family, who had come along for the ride, attempted to get each of us to do a preg test. Paul was the first brave soul to give it a go, and was rewarded with a nice torrent of manure.

Davo and Bronwyn did the procedure with no problems and Luke was covered in a load of the cows waste after his try,

While Fabian and Ben wimped out. Lydia, Peter’s youngest daughter, tried her hardest to get Ben to do a Preg Test, resulting in many great photo op’s.

We were then taken on a tour around their 8000-acre property, which, according to Luke, is the same size as Hong Kong.

While driving around, Ben attempted to interview Luke and Lydia on a mini-disk, only to have the tables turned on him when the pair took charge of the situation and started asking the questions.

While driving around, we saw a goat, which thinks it is a sheep, following the flock around and that they also have a pig that thinks it’s a cow.

Peter showed us his tractor, which was controlled by a GPS system that helped him immensely. Peter then gave us a demonstration of the tractors capabilities accidentally spraying Bronwyn and Sherilyn with a small amount chemicals (non toxic of course!).

Luke was then taught how to film, and conducted an interview with his parents on the topic of Integrity.

We then headed into town and met Basil and Mari. After a nice lunch, we interviewed the couple on their back porch.

Basil used to be a Sheep Shearer who is one of the few people to have ever shorn a sheep blindfolded.

The interview went well, with Basil shooting out jokes left, right and centre, but in the spirit of keeping this blog G rated, the jokes will not be shown here.

Back at the farm, Peter and Sherilyn were getting ready for their formal interview, and when we got back to the farm, all that was left to do was set up the camera’s. After some Cappuccinos graciously provided by Sherilyn, we settled down for the interview.The interview went for two hour’s, with Peter and Sherilyn talked about many things, including Sherilyn’s first impressions of farming life, their kids birthday parties, plans for the future and told the entertaining story of their second child’s birth.

We all decided to go have a BBQ down at the guest house, so the guys went off to start a fire while everyone else got the food ready. Ben and Lydia then attempted to do Ballet while Paul and Fabian cooked some sausages on the .

Dinner was eaten around the campfire, while Luke and Lydia attempted to climb a nearby tree. After eating, we presented the Lennons with a box of goodies from the Griffith area as thanks for having us. As they left, we went inside, with an air of sadness as we got ready for the long trip home.

Seventh Report Completed

Day 7 23:00

The Brave hART 101st Airborne CavalryMission: Queensland

“Lay on Macduff, and damned be him that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’”