We've got a new pet!!!

aaaaaaaaand I can't post a photo cuz I'm on my phone :(

But it's a baby kangaroo (a joey). We've named her Barb, because of our daily involvement in barbed wire ;)

I'll post a photo this weekend, hopefully. She is so cute and tiny it's disgusting ;)

Xoxoxo

Surat is where it's at! (not)

Greetings from the thriving metropolis of Surat, Queensland! I now live in the Warroo Shire hall (google it) in the middle of a town of 436 people. I sleep right underneath the stage in my bunk bed, but it is Nat that rolls out onto the stage every morning when we wake, since I don't like the top bunk ;)
We have a huge kitchen, as it is next door at a little community centre-type building (where they could hold a dance, and where three-year olds come for daycare every Friday morning), but it's perfect for 12 people. The toilets and showers, however, are the public toilets.....much like the ones we searched for while living out of a van for a week travelling to Melbourne so we could have a free shower LOL.

There is no wireless in Surat (doesnt surprise me), but I am sad to report that I have NO CELL SERVICE in Surat. Good thing we're in Roma every other day, so I can txt people, but it would be nice to have some sort of way to reach the outside world. Only Luke's phone works (iPhone with Telstra coverage). I am also on Telstra, but since I have an oooooold Nokia, I'm SOL :(

I have been here four weeks and a day. Tomorrow I will have been here a month! Only 58 days left to go.....which brings me to my next dilemma:
I'm meeting my folks in Brisbane for Easter, and then I was gonna try to find farmwork/regional picking/packing work somewhere.....but if I come back here, my room and food is taken care of, whereas if I stay in Brisbane it might be a few days/week(s) til I find something, and then I'd have to travel to the area.....so I'd have to pay for a hostel and food in order to maybe eventually get a job. Plus, the backpacker business is pretty cut throat; everyone's trying to get their 88 days ASAP. I would love a packing job with an hourly wage and accommodation on site, but that's in a perfect world. I have 11 days to decide whether or not I'm coming back here to do more days.....IF I return, my 88 days will be complete on May 27th, but I will not have very much money left. If I don't come back, I could spend a couple hundred on hostels and travel before I find anything that pays me AND gives me my 88 days.
Thoughts?
I could always come back here for a bit and keep checking surrounding areas for work....but I have no transportation, so it might be difficult.....most of the harvest trail jobs require transport or accommodation (ie backpackers that have vans) and other job sites require a membership in order to provide you with people looking for workers....plus with my limited access to the Internet it'll be difficult to actively look for work.
IF I knew we were staying in a specific area for a while, I would get a serving job on the weekends, but I doubt we're staying in Surat for more than 2 weeks, so that's out. Anyway, that's definitely something that I need to think about.

Besides that, nothing much else going on....I'm an excellent fencer lol and I got to drive an automatic ute this weekend. We went to Roma for the races, which pale in comparison to the largest race in the country (Melbourne cup), which I attended in November, but it was still an alright time. Some of us had a better time than others, and those would be the slightly richer that could afford $5 beers for five hours straight. Not I, sadly.

Our 'NY style loft' has a projector screen, so we've been watching movies on it...pretty neat :)

And that's about it. I'll write another update in a few days, if there's anything interesting happening LOL

Much love xoxoxo

Fencing update!

Story of my life!! Delayed entry on blog....apologies :/

The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind of fencing, eating, and going to bed early (save the weekends lol).

I now know how to cut wires, strain both barbed and regular wire, tie them to straining posts (large wooden posts at ends of fences), I'm a little hesitant on my figure-8s (a way of tying broken wire together so that, when strained, it holds), and my ties ROCK (tying wire to metal posts....one side up, one side down). I have also used a jackhammer! Now I have a trade which I can use anywhere in the world :)

AND I LEARNED HOW TO DRIVE MANUAL!!!!!!!! I've been driving the manual Utes (utility vehicles) around farms and dirt roads and I've rocked 4th gear. Nowhere on my Ontario drivers license does it say I am only registered to drive automatic, so with a few more lessons maybe they'll let me take one out for a test drive on a real road ;)

The people in the camp are ever-changing, but we've got a key group of young people that are pretty cool: Michelle and Luke (friends travelling together) and Izi (who they met in Sydney and have been travelling with since) and Nat (hairdresser living in Brisbane with her girlfriend) from England, Jonas from Germany and Kim from Alberta (the 2 newbies), and Rasmus from Sweden(the weird one). Taavi (Finnish) and Oscar (Swedish) left last Sunday, which left us all sad. Taavi went back home, and Oscar was lucky enough to get a job working on the richest farm in the Roma area. He and I got along well, mostly cuz we liked the same kind of music (a kid that likes foo fighters, killswitch engage AND Gavin DeGraw???? Winning) and they were both on my team so I lost 2 fun guys. But we power through and I have had a fine time since. The tough part is the heat and the sun, which can be intense when there is no breeze or clouds. The warmest day I've had to work was the second day at 38 degrees. It was a little much. Since then the days have been better and the nights have been cool. I see a lot of kangaroos daily, and I saw my first porcupine the other night!!! There is no Internet at the farm, so I have to go to the office to get online, which I don't do daily, unfortunately. That, along with all the frikken bugs, has been the hardest adjustment......since I'm addicted to technology :/

I watch 'big bang theory' (DVDs) a lot, since anytime I go outside I get accosted by anything with wings or legs (damn my sweet, sweet blood!!)....borrowed seasons one and two from someone in the office, and rented season three.

We get dirty working in the fields, with dirt and debris and dust and so the nightly shower is a daily occurrence. I'm used to working in long grass now, but I was sick a couple of days last week with a NASTY fever, so of course (being a hypochondriac) I thought it was malaria or west Nile or Lyme disease. I'm back to 100% now, but it was scary at the time, cuz I didn't wanna blow $80 to see the doctor, who would have told me to go home and rest and drink plenty of liquids.

It's raining right now, and we're not allowed to work when it's raining, so I'm in the Ute waiting for the men to dig two more holes and then I think we're calling it a day, since it's supposed to be heavy rains today and tomorrow.

I got a job as a mover that I had to turn down since it would not count for my 88 days (they were comfortable with saying that I was a farmhand on my form, since I was going to stay on their farm and do odd jobs on the property as well). They were going to pay $300 per week, cash in hand, and not only is that illegal, I think they were taking advantage of backpackers. That is NOT a lot of money for being a furniture mover, regardless of how many hours you work (which would have been varied). I've decided to stick with the volunteering until I meet my parents is Brisbane for Easter, and then either get a farm job for the remaining 49 days or go back to volunteering a bit more. My top priority at the moment is securing those 88 days, and the second priority is to make $600 before April 22nd so I can pay my Canadian taxes :P (without spending my Aussie savings!! LOL)

On a sadder note, Everett Carveth passed away last Monday at the age of 91. None of you ever met him, but I knew him for almost 6 years. He was Ryan's grandfather. He let us borrow his hunting cabin a couple of times, and came up with my 'Bienvenue' nickname (that none of you are allowed to use...it's reserved for Ryan's family only). I'm shedding tears even as I write this.......I wish I could have been there for Ryan and Betty (his mom) and Muriel (his grandmother) :(
I keep in contact with Ryan through emails, phone calls, and texts. He is never very far from my mind. His plan is to do some travelling in the future, so we may meet up one day, God willing.

Well it's really pissing rain now! Looks like it'll be a movie day back at camp (the farm). We're moving on Friday to a new camp, location yet unknown. This weekend the plan is to try and get comp or discounted tickets for the races, since Oscar will be there LOL

Much love, and I will try to keep you better updated xoxoxoxoxo

First flood volunteer cleanup update!

BRISBANE:
I arrive at 8:20am, my luggage is one of the first off the track (that NEVER happens!!!!), and I'm on the train going into the city at 8:45am. I bought my ticket online, so not only did I get to jump the queue, I got on an earlier train!! I had bought a ticket for the 10:30 train, but good thing I got the earlier one because there was an infrastructure problem and a huge backlog of trains so it took me an HOUR to get from Brisbane domestic terminal into the city (Roma station), which is usually a 20-30 minute trip, tops.
After walking to the bank with my two huge packs on, I effectively sweated through my clothing, thus preparing me for the work that lay ahead :/
Troy picked me up, along with a 22-year old Londoner named Nat, who was leaving her partner for the first time (usually she left Nat, but only for tops a week...so Nat has been on her phone (call or text) pretty much the whole time) in their three and a half year relationship. We got to Roma after a quick 4 hour drive, had our induction, and were at the camp (farm where we're staying) at 7:30. That's 8:30pm Melbourne time, which means I've been awake for 16.5 hours, after three and a half hours sleep. I went to bed shortly after dinner.
February 29th...happy leap year! (Day one):
Not too bad, actually. Although I had to wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt (with sleeves rolled up), I was only insanely hot about three times. We worked from 8am til 3:15pm, with a bunch of breaks. I felt light-headed once during the morning, and I'm pretty sure it was low blood sugar. I drank about 4L of water, ate a bit every 1-2 hours, and wore my hat (wide-brimmed, attached to my head with a scarf). We drove to a farm and worked on a mile-long fence, removing debris and hammering fence posts back in. Some parts of the fence had literally been swept away during the flood, and flipped over, so it was fun trying to remove caked-on mud and sticks while trying to flip it over, then putting it back the 50 metres or so from whence it came. Let me just say: I am not emo, but my arms look like I'm a 15-year old cutter. I'm not a fan of barbed wire, but at least we wear workman gloves!
The worst part was the last 40 minutes or so, when I completely lost it and started yelling at the fence. I was SO over it. Luckily, when we were finished and got back to town, Nat and I had a cheeky schooner (in between a half-pint and a pint) while our team leader grabbed a coffee and made some calls. Truth be told I had NEVER wanted a beer so much in my LIFE!!!!!!!! After a much-needed shower (yes, I will now be one of those people that simply must shower every day, since I'm covered in dirt and sweat) there was dinner and then an early bedtime, after chatting with the parentals :)
March 1st (day two):
Up at 5:15am, leave camp at 6:30am, finish the work at Mount Abundance by 10am, arrive at second farm (to help out another team) and drive around for a bit but we did great work, were done early, and had a beer with the lady of the farm.
March 2nd (day two):
Yeah I'm not gonna keep updating you like this LOL. It was 37 degrees and therefore too hot to work! But....we worked anyway, rebuilding fences at mount abundance. I did not enjoy the heat. Tomorrow (day off!!) I'm gonna go look for a linen shirt and linen pants.
I've got blisters on my toes, due to dress socks and snug runners the first day, but they've gotten better since I loosened my runners all the way and started wearing thick socks (thanks, donation centre!).
Tonight the 8 of us left in camp are going into town for a few pints. Hopefully there will be someone cute there to buy a few more for me, since I'm trying to budget $20/week.....
Keep praying for my sanity xoxo

OH YEAH I forgot to mention that the camp is actually a goat farm. I milked my first goat yesterday :)