Herding and House-Making

Wednesday October 15, 2008

So far the week has involved doing things that can’t be done when a group is in but must be done in order for things to run smoothly when they are here. Monday involved a bit of changing mattress protectors and pillow cases but the majority of our time has been spent setting up, inspection, and taking down all of our tents, which adds up to around 40. It hasn’t been the most fun job but hasn’t been the worst either. It has given us a chance to work with the others on our team and get to know them a bit. It is somewhat rare that the whole team is here at once, with out trips (camping over night), and people going to help at Port Hacking and Blue Gum so it has been kind of cool that we are all here. For the most part I don’t even notice but every so often I do step back and consider the guy to girl ratio! Julz and Mel have been in the office the past days doing administration stuff and preparing for groups from that end and Alison has been working on washing so doing tents I would once in a while be like “wow I’m the only girl here!”

So today around 4:00 (our day runs from 8-5) Tim, one of our bosses comes in and says “Can everyone just drop their tools for a minute?” and we were like okay and were all attentive before he continued “we need some help with cow herding . . .” At first I was confused but then remembered the cows down in the pasture. “A bunch of the cows have gotten loose and they need help getting them back in the paddock.”

Welcoming a change of scenery from the dining room and relief from the somewhat tedious task of tent duty, you could sense the excitement as everyone dropped what they were doing and ran for the car park, piling into cars and utes! I jumped in the back seat with Julie and Josh to find myself sitting on a pile of Steve’s clothes and other miscellaneous items in the back seat of his car!

After a bit of effort, we finally located the “runaway cows,” if you will, and herded them back into the paddock. Julie grew up on a farm as did one of the men who works maintenance so they more or less led the efforts, or at least tried to, as some of the guys were a bit excited about the idea of charging after cows and ran them straight passed the open gate, which another one of the guys was supposed to be standing at to make sure that didn’t happen - lol! All ended well with 15 happy cows and bulls back safely in the paddock and about 10 Shoalhaven staff happy to end the day with a bit of excitement!

Made it back with only about 5min left in our work day so most of that was spent recounting our adventure to those who had stayed behind! I stuck around to check my email with Dan and Phil and we didn’t make it back to the staff houses til nearly 7:15. Julie and Mel had already left for bible study, which I might have gone with them but oh well. I grabbed some dinner and tossed load of laundry in. We are in need of going to the store as we still haven’t gone since Julz and Mel got back from a week of being away. We were out of milk before the week started and I had the second to last slice of bread this morning! There was a muffin pan sitting on the counter and I remembered a box of muffin mix left on “my shelf” in the pantry by Leanne (who lived in my room for 3 months before I came). I pondered it for a moment then decided to go for it!

I know, I know it’s only a batch of muffins out of a box, it’s kind of pathetic that doing laundry and making muffins out of a box makes me feel “all grown up” but yeah, hahah. Julz agreed the box muffins were an accomplishment, commending me on getting them all to come out looking like muffins, and Mel reckons it is the start of things to come and that I’ll soon be making muffins from scratch – lol. They are both great, so blessed with awesome housemates and workmates!

So this turned out a bit longer than anticipated, but don’t they all! Everything is going well down here. A group of year 3 and 4 kids come in tomorrow; I am assisting with a group and will be leading their initiatives activity – should be good – just the beginning!

PS - the other day I mended a hole inmy pants using needle and thread - so domestic! :) :-P