Project Central: Yards of action!

Among the myriad of excuses I have for being a sporadic blogger (and let’s not be boring and go into them all here) is the fact that we have had a MASSIVE project underway on-property.

We have been building a spanking new set of cattle yards – and when I say ‘we’ I actually mean that the planning and much of the timber work has been undertaken by my hardworking hubby who also did pre-build preps (with a dozer maestro called Lee) and  90% of actual construction completed by local craftsman, ‘Cookie’.

After much debate about location, we decided these new yards needed to be central to all of our breeder paddocks, with readily accessible water.  And we needed something a bit ‘flat’. This last proviso might not seem like much of a deal – but when your place is LITERALLY made up of hills, and VERY little that is horizontal, it gets quite tricky.

We had our ‘perfect’ position identified early – central (check), water nearby (check) but we just couldn’t tick that last checkbox…Until we got a bulldozer in (with master dozer man, Lee) and created our very own ‘flat’.

And with tractors …

And laser levellers…

And BIG bulldozers…

VIOLA!

… a yard site, the size of a football field, with a view!

It was awfully bare (which I struggled with initially)…

And the drone’s eye view made it look pretty impressive…

And quite dry! These shots were taken in early February – pre-Cyclone Debbie who brought us much-needed H20!

Then we brought in another local (Cookie) who has some serious yard-building skills…

And he set to work bringing Mr I’s plans to life…

The first days were very exciting – so much planning finally coming to fruition!

So over the past five weeks, our bare base has gradually transformed…

Rising from that bare granite …

Including a race (the section of yard that leads cattle single-file to the crush/working area) that is quite different from anything we have used on our property before (for those who follow such things, this kind of design was originally inspired by Temple Grandin) …

It was all hands on deck for the concreting – I very helpfully took Cookie’s kids for a cooling swim in the river after they had helped out!  Bush kids are so awesome.

Can you BELIEVE one curious cow christened the concrete (love a little alliteration) – where is my poo emoji?

It’s definitely an aerial feature – the curved race, not the poo – as soon as there is water onto these yards, THAT is getting hosed off!

Back to the race – all crazy and curved and sheeted – the concept is that the animals flow better and feel safe as they move through the race.

Only time will tell how it really works, but we are looking forward to testing it out!

Dash and Violet spent a few hours last long weekend helping out, helping complete the roof over the crush and branding cradle area.  They LOVED it.

And I love that they have invested their energy in something they can be pretty proud of in years to come too.

One a side note, how cool is Cookie’s red shirt against that blue, blue sky?  And those red shorts of Dash’s?  I can’t help it – I never stop seeing this kind of stuff.  I drive my husband nuts by endlessly getting excited over these details – it’s a photographer thing.

I love the architectural feel of the whole yards set-up. (I studied architecture for a whole 18 months, did you know that?  It affected how I photograph things I think… lines and perspective give me enormous joy.)

And timber… timber speaks to me.  I know. I am a crazy-person, but I embrace my crazy, so that makes it okay, right??  All of this timber was cut on our place – it is being repurposed for a few more decades in these yards.  It will be guiding and guarding our cattle through all the big processes of their lives – events like branding and weaning will take place here.

And also undertake the serious task of framing up a pretty awesome view…

So who wants to see a little of the work action?

Me, I adore work. Could watch it ALL DAY LONG. (Well maybe not, but can certainly blog other people doing it!)

Cookie on the chainsaw, Mr Incredible doing something slightly more subtle…

You know, he hates me taking photos when he is NOT doing stuff…

He will see these pics and say: “For God’s sake Amanda – I look like I don’t do anything!”

And I will say: “But you look SO good doing it!”

And then I will run.

Not really.

I don’t run. Anywhere. Ever.

There is measuring going on here – Serious Men’s Business.

Actually, it is – they are about to construct a gate ‘in situ’ – literally into the gateway. So those measurements are BESPOKE (anyone else watch ‘Grand Designs’ out there – my official favourite TV show EVER – another leftover from my architecture days).

Oh here we go – I will be in the good books again. ACTION. Cutting action.

Measuring. Cutting. Carting.

And WELDING.

I am pretty sure that welding is the coolest job ever, if you are a boy.

It’s tricky to take pics of because you are not supposed to LOOK at it – very bad for the naked eye.

SO I let autofocus do it’s thing…

Oh yeah..

Totally cool.

TOO much fun!

Anyhoo… this is the end result.

Lots of steel. Lots of timber. Lots of sweat (and only a few swear words)…

The final touches are still being done – chains for gates, waters to troughs, and I am halfway through planting shade trees.  But the ‘after’ pic is pretty sweet…

Gotta love a good drone shot! (Thanks Cookie)

We cannot wait to use our spanking new yards – stay tuned for the weaning, coming up in the next few weeks!

🙂