The man from Snowy River part 2

OMD …. You wouldn’t believe the rain we had last night. It POURED!!  ALL NIGHT LONG!!   Someone said there was a Tsunami heading toward Australia because of the earthquake off Chile but we didn’t get any Tsunami from the ocean.  Instead we got a Tsunami from the sky.  Fair dinkum!!  That was a whole heap of rain we got here at Cudgewa and we heard on the news that other parts of Australia got even more than we did. Broken Hill (as outback as all get out and almost desert country) got HEAPS. A place called Bowral got 2 inches in 15 minutes and lots of other places copped it too. Crikey I hope some of the places in drought got some. Probably not though. There will still be some happy farmers around. They always seem to like a bit of a rain. Not so good for the festival here though.

There was a short break in the rain and Mum and I headed off for a walk. The three mad farm dogs gave me a hard time again until Mum told them to leave me alone, which they did, and the little spaniel tagged along for the walk. Crikey it was exciting. There were horses and sheep and THEN …. Cows!!!!!!!  I got VERY excited ….. Mum had my straight jacket on but only my stretchy lead.  She didn’t lose me but she came mighty close.  I was dancing on my hind legs and going off like an idiot. I STARTED A STAMPEDE!!!!!!  And that’s fair dinkum!!  Those cows took off like they had a herd of wild bulls after them. I was going nuts but by this time Mum had hold of me good and tight. It took a while for her to calm me down but calm me down she did. Crikey ….. I love cows ….. they are real good entertainment. Funny but the little spaniel took absolutely no notice of them. What’s with her??  No sense of adventure, aye?? It started to rain again and there was no cover anywhere in sight but good old Dad came to the rescue. He picked us up in the car and we headed off to the poets breakfast. The little spaniel had to make her own way home but I’m sure she was ok. After all she does live there. 

How come she can go in there and I can't ... not fair!!

I'd like to chase that bloke!!

The poets breakfast was good. Lots of really good poems and some of the recitals were very brilliantly done. It is a big weekend for poets. There is a bush poets championship of Australia event on so there are heaps of real good poets in town.  It’s Banjo Paterson’s birthday today  so there was a lot of Banjo’s poems being recited. That always makes Mum happy. After the poets brekky we headed back to the main arena to see what was happening there.  OMD … what a mess!!  Mud, mud, mud.  Everyone was doing  their best to keep the show on the road but …  Crikey … it was hard. Mum and I went for a walk around and watched some of the horses and riders doing their stuff. Dad was feeling a bit crook …. He still isn’t over his upper respiratory infection and he stayed in the warmth of the car and listened to his favourite radio programme whilst sipping on a coffee that Mum bought for him. We heard some real hard luck stories from lots of the store holders etc.  Shelters collapsing with the weight of water all over the place and goods ruined. The grounds were bad yesterday but with all the rain during the night everything was just one big bog.  It must have been a dreadful night for all of the campers. I don’t think much sleep was had by anyone but there was still a lot of good humour around. They are made of tough stuff these country blokes. 

Pretty tough, aye?

Well she was pretty little. Up there for thinking, aye??

I get an awful lot of attention from the farmers.  Apparently we whippets are real good farm dogs. Better than ALL THOSE (think your sooooooo clever) WORKING dogs, AT … would you believe … catching rabbits. I’m going to give those blokes back at Elmstead cottage heaps when I get back. Try and hump me, aye???? I’ll show ‘em!!  Crikey … Mum and I got WET.  We both had rain gear on but we still got awful wet.  All the farmers wear drizabones and big boots and hats but Mum just had an ordinary old raincoat and it didn’t take long for her to get a bit cold and damp. Me too. I had my raincoat on but I started shivering so Mum decided it was time to head back to the car and home to dry off. Well dry off we did and as Dad was feeling a bit better we decided to go back and watch one of our favourite country singers, Pete Denahey, do one of his shows. 

Pete ...he can sure play that fiddle!!

What a disaster!!! Just to get to the marquee where he was performing we had to walk through mud almost up to my armpits. Dad carried me so I was ok but one of Mum’s shoes got stuck down in the mud and she walked right out of it. Crikey …. She had to dig it out and walk into the marquee with one shoe on and the other one in her, very muddy, hand. She had socks on. You should have seen her sock. Well you couldn’t really it was just a brown soggy mess as was both her shoes. The bottom of her jeans was a sight to be seen also. Not to be deterred Mum just put her messy shoe back on, wiped her muddy hands clean on her, by now, VERY dirty jeans and proceeded to sit down and watch Pete as if all was right with her world. Too funny! After that little disaster we decided to give it a miss for the rest of the day and went back to our cottage where Mum and I went for a big long walk around parts of the property. Mum reckoned she was already so muddy and wet that a bit more couldn’t do any harm.

That's the view from our window. Those buildings you can see is the village of Cudgewa.

All ready for our walk!

This is where I stampeded the cows this morning. They're not game to come back. I scared 'em good, aye?

I got to get up close and personal with a VERY big black cow. Crikey they are a bit scary, aye? They stare at you and they are awful big. I don’t like being stared at too much. I barked at him! I’m not a big barker but I sure had a big bark at that cow bloke. You blokes would have been proud of me. He didn’t stop staring at me though. I just had to stop barking and walk away. He would have stared at me all night,  I reckon. What’s with that????   We got back and Mum threw her shoes in the bin and we both got cleaned up and then we all went for a drive up to a hill where we sat and contemplated the beauty of the place for a while. It was so wet and slippery that we had to use 4 wheel drive to get up the hill. We wouldn’t have made it if we only had a regular car. Crikey it is a pretty property. I can imagine how beautiful it would be if it was sunny. Mum, Dad and Harri have stayed here before, in good weather, so they know what it CAN be like.  

The view from the hill. The little white dot straight ahead is where Elmstead cottage is.

Me, Dad and the car on the hill.

Can you see me? I'm pretty well camouflaged, aye? Can you see Dad's finger? He thinks that's going to stop me from moving away. Hahahahahahahahaah! Is he mad, or something?

See ... I was there!

If it rains any more tonight there is talk that the rest of the festival will have to be cancelled. Mum and Dad are already thinking that it will be cancelled for us anyway. Dad’s not too well still and I don’t think all this getting wet is helping his cause any. I think Mum could do with a bit of drying out too.  Dad said we’ll make a decision in the morning. I don’t want to leave this place and nor does Mum but maybe it will be for the best. We’ll see tomorrow I guess.

Wanna run … Love, Charlie!!