This week on the farm has seen a serious deterioration in the feed stocks, following on from lightening off over the entire year I said goodbye to another 220 head and with the help of Tony and Butch went through and drenched each mob and treated and poor stock, drafted all the sheep into lines and vaccinated and tagged all the new born lambs. We removed another 250 head for sale soon after the Christmas break (the saleyards and abattoirs all close down for the period) and circulated the mobs onto new pastures(or what?s left of them).

Unfortunately about a dozen ewes have left their lambs so we have quite the menagerie of Poddy lambs and hens in the new chook pen I recently built my Mum for her 69thbirthday. Coupled with the fact I have lightened my stock right back to a manageable size through the next 2 months (if there is no rain in the mean time I will continue to sell off), I decided to give my mate Craig a call as he has battled through drought dramas down at Tamworth but was able to move on and start a fresh up in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

I had been meaning to get up and visit him for the 2 years he has been working with the Aurukun Community Partnerships Programme, however between running the Farmers Markets, Butchery and Farm I didn't find time to scratch myself, however when I said to him that I really needed a change in scenery he said that he and mate Kerry would be in Cairns on Thursday to drive back to Aurukun Friday.

So that was that, I booked my ticket to Cairns last Tuesday night, got up at 5 am finished drafting, drenching and tagging hightailed it to Moree to drop off my helpers for the week and then set off to get to Brisbane, however I had only made it to Goondiwindi when I realised that there is no way I?d make it all the way to Brisbane on the amount of sleep I had had the past week and I had a nagging feeling that I had jobs unfinished at home.

Luckily I had made the decision to get back to the farm, as I did need to move two mobs around in case I was gone more than a week, and I also came across a group of lambs that had not mothered back up or been weaned early by their mother (many of whom have twins and triplets) so spent a few hours ensuring they could drink water and had access to the best feed on the place.

By 2 pm I got away ...unfortunately didn't get done what I needed to do in the city as everything was closed by my arrival but did get to meet up with my mate Peter Everett (yes the hilarious host of Ready Steady Cook) for a quick bite and made it here to the airport on time.

So with trepidation I have left the dramas of home and have no idea of what is ahead of me up in the Gulf, but all I need right now is something to break this downward cycle I have got myself into.