First Week in Myall Grove

It's been a tough first week on the farm. Condamine has a population of 300, with one servo (petro/gas station), one pub, and one school. It's about 30min drive from Miles where we do our groceries, and at least an hr drive from all other towns. The cattle farm where I work at is a family business, Mrs. Morgan owns all 4 of them in the area, and her 2 sons and their families all live about 5min drive from each other on the farm. I stay with 3 other farm boys in our own complex. On the first day I did some gardening at the Big House where Mrs. Morgan lives, pulling weeds, watering plants and raking leaves. While I was gardening, her 3 dogs kept interrupting me, either standing in my pile of leaves or just literally sat on me, looking for a pet. Then she showed me the apartments that I'll be cleaning for the next 3 months, these are 4 bedroom apartments that they rent out to miners that come into town to work. She also drove me to Miles and got me a torch and a pair of gardening gloves, which I had to ask for, and some groceries. She also bought me lunch at a café in town. I had a freshly made chicken salad sandwich that was delicious. I was talking to Mrs. Morgan on our way back and she said that oil and gas companies have been coming in drilling holes into people's lands, legally, and the town is trying to dispute it, including themselves because they're worried that the mining might effect the soil for their cattle. Yet it makes me wonder why do they set up apartments so miners can come in to work if they're so against the whole thing?

On the second day I drove myself to the apartments, but got lost on my way back taking the wrong turn. Luckily I was still close enough to the city that I still had reception and was able to call Godfrey for help. He happened to be on his way home, I made my way back to Miles where I met up with him and followed his car back to the farm. When I got back Mrs. Morgan was bit worried, she said that one of the farm boys predicted I'd be lost letting me drive to work on my own only on the second day, and he sure was right!

Anyway, so everyday I start at 7AM with gardening for couple hrs, then I go to the apartments and I make beds, sweep and mop floors, wipe down toilets and showers, wash towels, etc. I was also given a roster so I know when to change sheets when miners leave, but I was also expected to clean the rooms even when no one's staying in there... I have 2 apartments to clean everyday, and every other day I have a third, bigger apartment to clean. I don't know how long it's been since the last girl, because the first day I had to clean the apartments they were nasty as shit!! Especially the third apt, it took both me and Mrs. Morgan nearly 3hrs to clean it, and she said I should be able to do it on my own in a couple hrs.... I was exhausted the first couple days, probably because of the heat as well, then on the third day I got sick, most possibly from all the dirt and dust, and Mrs. Morgan thought I got hay fever! I hardly see Godfrey, basically Mrs. Morgan tells me what to do. Besides cleaning the apartments, I've also been cleaning the Big House, as well as her two son's houses, so everyday I've been working between 8-10hrs. The family must have well more than 10 dogs altogether because everywhere I go I see at least 2 dogs! And Godfrey's house actually has a cat too, they named her Miss. Perfect, and she purrs whenever I pick her up.

The boys that I stay with are all very nice. There's Mundy, man of the house as he calls himself because he's the oldest, and he's been on the farm for the past 15 years! I see him the most because he's usually home earlier than the others and does the cooking for the boys. Real nice guy. Mundy also has a dog named Bear, cutest dog ever, super hyper, very friendly, always happy to see me, and he loves to jump people. James, the cute one I find, nice to have a conversation with, but he does like to tease. Finally Angus, the youngest, who introduced himself like "Hi. Angus' my name." We never really talked, I don't really know what to say to him..

I finished early today and it's the weekend. I came home, took a shower and just wanted to chill out and enjoy a beer. A guy came to our houses along with a kid looking for Mundy, turned out it was Rob, a neighbouring farmer, and his son Mack. Then out of nowhere Bear came running up to me all muddy and jumped on me before I could react! I was in my clean clothes.... Mundy felt so bad, but Bear has won my heart, so I couldn't possibly get mad at him. On a side note, when Bear gets excited he starts to piss.... He's pissed on me a couple times already when I came home and was rubbing his belly. Rob and Mack seemed like really nice people. I played tag with the kid while Bear chases after us (mostly just me...) or humping my leg (about a dozen times.. that horny little bastard!) Then it was time for them to go home, but Mack didn't want to because he was hooked on playing Ninja Fruits on my phone.

I had asked Mundy about getting cowgirl boots because the sneakers I had got holes in them and my feet were getting wet while gardening. He told me about this website called Shepler's where he gets all his work clothes from. They do have boots under $60, but I'd have to order online as it's an American company, and Mundy said after all the shipping and everything it'd come to around $100, or he said I could go into Chinchilla and try the saddlery shop. I'd have to go in the morning though because shops close early on weekends, and by early he meant noon. Everybody goes away on weekends, so I might as well go check out Chinchilla tomorrow, which's about 45min drive. He told me the directions like 10x, telling me each landmark and each turn, making sure that I knew the way. Mundy has also asked me to feed Bear while he's away. Earlier this week Mrs. Morgan had also asked me to feed her 3 dogs when she went away one afternoon.

After the first week, I don't think I enjoy my work that much. I mostly work by myself and I'm not learning anything new like I thought I would. The boys go to bed pretty much after dinner, but I can't blame them because they work 12hrs a day. There's nothing to do except the pub, and I wouldn't dare driving back at night because all the roads would just look the same to me in the dark. Just the other day I was messaging Cam and was just hearing about how he was meeting up with Silvia and was having a great time in Sydney and it made me felt really lonely. I just gotta stick it out for 3 months to qualify for my second year visa, afterwards I can still do the Jackaroo school where I could actually learn some farm skills, because cleaning houses wasn't what I planned to do here in Australia!