QUEENSLAND - BEAUTIFUL ONE DAY - PERFECT THE NEXT !!!

AND ABOUT BLOODY TIME TOO !!!! Finally the boss & captain got themselves organised & decided it's time to head to Jervoise Station. Good job I'm a patient dog otherwise I would have told them to get their act together PRONTO & let's move you slackers !!

As you can see, I was pretty fed up with all the delays ..... I mean .. give a dog a break .... I've been planning this trip for months & we should have been there by now !!

The boss did all the driving & I did the navigating .... in between sleeping now & then ?? Captain was hopeless .... couldn't read a map & couldn't see the signs on the road to the next town. Actually, he didn't see most of the roos, emus, goats or cattle either !!?? ..... so the boss & I had to watch both sides of the road. He told me he is buying a motorhome to travel with Rosemary to Kalgoorlie, WA, to do some gold prospecting .... good luck with that .......................................!!!!????

We left Moonta on Tuesday 23 June & arrived at Jervoise about 5pm on Saturday. Boy was I stuffed !!?? Navigating all the way & talking to the boss to keep him awake !!

My navigation was excellent .... we travelled through Broken Hill, Cobar, Walgett, Roma, Emerald, Charters Towers where we called to see Michelle, one of Greg & Kerry's daughters & her husband Peter. Michele told us that the 35km. dirt track into the Station from Greenvale was really bad .... had not been graded by the Council for 18 months !! She suggested that towing a caravan, we should go the long way around .... 100kms of bitumen from Greenvale & then 20kms of dirt track into the Station.

So I decided to ring Kerry because she had driven the shorter track recently .... told Kerry that we had a Nissan Patrol & a Traveller Gladiator 4WD caravan. "No problems Jack" she said, so I chatted to the boss & convinced him the shorter track was OK.

Captain said he would drive this track in his motorhome without even seeing it !!! Yeah sure !! Later, when we where bouncing over the corrugations & dropping a wheel into a hole 12 inches deep full of bulldust, I reckon he realised that was a rash comment. I told the boss that if Captain took his motorhome down a rough track like this, he would have to phone the wrecker to come & pick him up .... it would shake the s...t out of it !!?? Hope he took notice ??

Anyway, we arrived safety due to the boss's good driving & my reassurance. I said hello to the local dogs & the boss met some of the station people & backpackers. (More about them later )

I was dead tired & jumped into the caravan at 8pm to have a nap .... Captain was already in bed & sound asleep !!?? The boss chatted with the locals & went to bed sometime later.

Next morning, the boss wanted to check out the Station junk graveyard to look for steel for his charcoal kiln. The boss & I jumped into the "mule" & captain crawled up onto the seat of a quad bike. We moved off & I noticed Captain rocking back & forward on the quad. So I yelled out " It's not a bloody horse, start the flaming motor " !!!???

Next day a few of us drove up to Conjuboy Station to catch the travelling fruit & veg man. His name his Fari, an Egyptian & an Aeronautical Engineer, but he obviously prefers delivering fruit, vegies, milk & bread to the station people starting at Atherton to about 300kms. south.

Left to right, we have Julie (one of the grey nomads), Greg (the owner of the station & 1 month older than the boss), June ( works at Conjuboy station) & Fari getting a loaf of wholemeal bread that the boss took back to captain with some apples.

More of the station people .... L to R ..... Shayla, McKenzie & Cooper. They are Pam's children (another of Greg & Kerry's daughters ) Her husband Grant was here for our first week but is now away .... he works in the mining industry.

Pam is the backbone of life on Jervoise ..... she cooks for up to 30 people, does most of their washing & lots more. She insisted on doing the boss's first lot of washing, plus my dog mat. Great person but she works too hard !! So I told the boss to do our washing yesterday while Pam was in Charters Towers for the day !!!

This is paradise for a ball dog like me !!! Lots of kids, 8 backpackers, & all the adults to thow the ball to me !! Now you know I don't like to brag ...... but everyone is absolutely amazed at the way I dribble the soccer ball like Pele & rebound it to them on the full. Without doubt, I am the number 1 centre of attention here !!?? Later, I will send you photos of the other dogs here ..... Cody .... George (a 12 month old cattle dog) & Honey ( a 2 month old golden retriver.

They have all asked me to show them the secrets of my ball skills .... I told them to watch & learn !!

The boss told me all you guys want to see some photos of the Station buildings etc. He told me he was too busy shifting the big underground fuel tank for his large scale charcoal kiln .... so I borrowed his camera & took some photos for you. Hope you relies appreciate how hard it is for a dog (even a very intelligent, multi-skilled one like me !! ) to take photos & type on a keyboard.

Do I have your attention ??? You humans have 5 fingers on each hand to use .... we dogs have 3 toes on each foot. How would you like to type on a keyboard & take a photo with a camera using your toes ??!! Not easy is it !! ..... I post a blog so you humans can marvel at my travel adventures. And although dog's don't look for lot's of praise & applaud .... it would be nice if you could give me some feedback via comments on my blog letting me know if my efforts & literary prowess is appreciated. Enough said relies ..... Jack is waiting !!

Photo above is the northern verandah of the homestead.

This building used to be the school for all the children within 100 kms with satelite access to School of the air. The teacher used to live in one end. The bus driver lives in the building now during school term .... he picks up all the kids in the area & takes them to Greenvale. Pam's kids have a 1.5 hours trip to & from school ..... they leave at 7am & get home at 5pm.

School starts on Monday so I will go down & introduce myself to the bus driver & ask him if he has a good throwing arm !!

The Manager's house ( Rodger .. the South African) with the vegetable garden in the foreground. He has upset a few people here but I like him because he likes playing ball with me & he talks funny. The boss reckons he's OK too .... he doesn't take any bull-shit from him. What do you mean ...... bull-shit is not a naughty word !!! There is heaps of it up here .... everywhere .... even alongside the verandah !!! ...... it's cattle country .... right !!!

Another house where Ashton & her friend Alice live, together with Christine (also one of Greg & Kerry's daughters ) when she is on the property. Ashton is Michele's daughter, 18 years old & has been running the cattle mustering etc. for the last 18 months. Tall order for a young lady !!

Christine is responsible for processing the station cattle into carcasses, boning out the meat, slicing steaks & cryovacing all the cuts.

The 3 caravans for grey nomads .... L to R ..... Alan & Joan, Anthony & Julie, me & the boss.

Greg & Kerry's house with the water tower & lawn mowers in the foreground .... pretty cool .... the lawnmowers up here don't need petrol .... just a bit of water now & then. I round up these youngsters for practice when I take on the full-grown type .... Greg reckons I would make a good cattle dog because of the way I stalk the animal with my head perfectly still & hypnotising eyes. Another feather in the cap of this multi-skilled dog .... boy am I super COOL !!??

Captain spat the dummy on the first day at jervoise, although he didn't say anything to me or the boss. Nanna said that Rosemary was flying to Townsville to pick him up. I asked the boss what happened but he said "I don't want to talk about it !! " Sure hope it wasn't something I did .... only thing I can think of is Captain compaining on the way up whenever I farted !! I tried to explain to him that after being stuck in a car & caravan for 5 days without any exercise, a dog just has to let one go every now & then !!??

On the second day at Jervoise, the boss knocked up what he called the prototype small scale charcoal kiln. Looked pretty weird to me ..... but bugger me it works !! Ironbark timber is loaded in the small cylinder on left, which is then inverted & placed in the 44 gallon drum on right. The space between the two cylinders is stacked with more timber & the lid put on complete with flue pipes. The fire is lit & 3 hours later you have the bio-charcoal on the far left. When I first saw it with smoke bellowing out of it, I thought the phones must have gone dead & the boss was sending smoke signals to the neighbouring Station !!??

As you all know, I am an intelligent & multi-skilled dog, so I asked the boss to explain how it works ..... so if anyone wants to know the scientific principles involved, you need to ask me ??

Almost everyone here has been crook with a virus which causes diarrhea, vomitting etc. for 2-3 days. You know I love the boss but he can be such a smart-arse sometimes !!?? Two guys came down with the virus on the day he made the charcoal .... so he powdered some charcoal, put it in a teaspoon & told them to swallow it. Bugger me !! ...... later that night they were OK again .... no vomitting .... no diarrhea ..... fighting fit. Next day, another two girls took sick, .... so Doctor Boss gave them a teaspoon of powdered bio-charcoal & later that evening they were out of bed & feeling good. Like I said ...... smart-arse !!!!!!!!!!

As I mentioned above, the first drum was a trail small scale ...... photo above is the up-sized cylinder ..... a 20,000 gallon underground diesel tank ...... with some diesel still in it !!!??? Some bright spark suggested that the boss could cut it with oxy-acetylene torch. The boss told him that would be a good way to get blown to the moon !!?? I told the boss to empty out the remaining diesel, put some water in the tank to flush it out ..... but he still wasn't happy with that ..... said there would still be diesel fumes inside which would explode ( like BIG BANG !! ) as soon as you cut into it with an oxy-torch flame ..... so, using my extensive knowledge of Science & Physics, I told the boss he could fill it with gas from a car exhaust of fill it with water so that all the diesel fumes were expelled !!! Sorry if this is getting a bit too complicated for you humans, but border collies are just born smart !!???

Photo of the ex fuel tank after the boss cut the end off with oxy ..... no, it didn't go bang ..... just as I predicted !!! But as soon as the boss cut through the last bit of the end & it fell away, the remaining diesel burst into flames !!! But we were standing back at that stage & the boss thanked me for my excellent advice !!??

Photo of the end of the fuel tank ..... this will be the top for a BIG BIG BIG charcoal kiln which should produce 1.7 tonnes of bio-charcoal. Imagine how many cases of diarrhea that will cure !!

Well fans, my toes are getting a bit sore from all this typing !!! So I will post this on my website & post more up-dates later on.

But before I go .... next time I will tell you the story behind me in semi-trailer below !!!???

How would you like to drive this rig with no brakes on the trailer .... fully loaded with cattle .... down a steep incline to a river crossing 50ft below ..... with a stock grid to cross only 9 ft wide ...... & halfway way down the right brake on the truck locks up .... the semi swings to the right & the trailer tries to overtake it !!!! Don't know about the boss but I SHIT MYSELF !!!!???