Shifting a mob

Today there is a catastrophic fire danger for the South coast of WA. It’s gonna be a stinker of a day and we’re just about to have another meeting to see if the Bushfire Brigade are going to issue a Movement of Vehicles in paddocks ban.

There’s a smoke haze from a fire to the north of us and the wind is a strong northerly that’s sending shivers up my spine. Today is not a day for a fire.

But first up, we had a mob of 1,700 sheep that we had to shift. We had bought them from our neighbours and it was time for them to see their new home!

We started at about 5am with two dogs, Anthony, the two kids, a mate and his daughter and me.

We had to push them across a main road and then down a side road to where we had laid down a fence to let them into our paddock.

The kids did an amazing job of being sheep shepard’s and we brought the sheep down the road without any problems! They’re now in their new home, awaiting some animal husbandry work that we’ll be doing on Monday.

On a Red Dust note, I found out yesterday from my publisher that it was the highest selling novel, across all of the Australian publishers, for 2009, from a debut author. I’d just really like to thank all of you who bought copies. You’re the only reason this happened.

Also, the winner of Sharyn Munro’s book, Woman on the Mountain, was Alison, who has been notified, although I’m just waiting for her to get back to me with an address so we can send it off.

Our guest blog next month is Helene Young, who will be giving away a copy of her new book, Border Watch.

**PS! It’s now nearly the end of the day and I think we had about seven fires across the Esperance shire. Some close to home. Right now I’m listening to the wonderful sound of rain on a tin roof, knowing that all the fires should be under control. Some spots have had terrential down pours and other areas have had a steady rain, that is just enough to dampen the fires and our worry. We are so thankful for rain on days like today.