G'day from Minmore!

This weekend was spent out in the bushland in a town called Kingroy Farms on Minmore Farm. Myself and four other girls from my program stayed with a nice grandma/grandpa couple on their 15000 acre cattle farm. Let me start by saying my grandparents own a farm in North Carolina on the border near Danville, VA. Not only did this place look like the farm, but it had that same old farm house smell. It made me feel so at home even though I’m on the other side of the globe. A very comforting and happy feeling came over me; especially when we had beef stew (minmore beef, of course) and veggies for dinner followed by a yummy warm dessert (date cupcake with ice cream and carmel sauce). I automatically felt Dionne’s grandmother touch when she told me to go get seconds, haha. Graham’s grandfather-ness came out when he began telling stories of the farm and of his childhood. We arrived at Minmore by 6:00 that night, so after dinner we spent time playing cards, mancala, and chinese checkers with Dionne while Graham gave us tea and told jokes. It had been raining all night, and I fell asleep to the rain pattering on the tin roof along with the sound of the possums (much cuter than in the US) running across the porch.

Saturday morning, Dionne woke us up at 8 for breakfast: cereal, yogurt, bacon, egg, and toast. There must be a universal grandma law that you don’t let guests go hungry in the slightest; I’m totally okay with this. Their son, Graham, came by after we finished breakfast, and he and his father took us around the farm in the back of the trucks to check all the water pumps for the cows. Lucky for us, Saturday decided to stay beautiful and dry unlike the entire past week full of wind and rain. Their land was beautiful full of eucalyptus trees, these prehistoric palm trees, huge ant mounds (really funny looking), and plenty of cows. After rolling through all the dirt roads in the farm, we came back to the house for lunch. Sandwiches on the veranda with the cats and dogs at our feet, and afternoon tea to finish it off. Okay, so after lunch, young Graham announced to us that he had brought his dirt bike on the back of his truck for us to learn to ride if we wanted! Um, yes! While everyone else took their turn at the motorbike, older Graham taught me how to crack a whip. It took me a while, and my arm now is pretty sore, but I finally broke the speed of sound with that whip! Ha, it was too cool; all the birds of the near by tree flew away.

Another couple games of chinese checkers with older Graham and Shamiso went by before young Graham asked whose turn it was on the bike. I laced up my tennis shoes, grabbed the helmet, and got on behind him to get down the road a ways. “Here’s the clutch, here’s the gear pedal, here’s the gas, the hand break, the foot break…push this, pull that, ease off this, and you’re good.” Uhhh, right. So with Graham now behind me on the bike, I push the pedal down to first gear, ease off the clutch, give the engine a rev, and off I went! I hobbled my way for a bit, but I caught on really quick and switched to second, third, fourth gear. Graham complimented me by asking if I had ever rode a bike before or knew someone who did because I caught on so fast. He directed me to a field where I could practice driving, where I manuvered around those big ant piles and cow maneuer. Then he had me go back out to the road and work on going over bridges and up hills. I had the best time riding that thing (I was only going about 50km/hr…fast enough for me!)

We eased back to the house, where I met up with Dionne, Martha, and Shamiso to go on a walk to the boulders on the land. We met Zach, the blind bull, who was wondering aimlessly next to the road. Dionne took us up a hill where these massive rocks leaned on one another; her daughter used to take her books up to the top and study. I wish I had that kind of retreat for studying. Of course, the three of us decide to climb up, and the view was beautiful; we could see so much of their land as well as the Bunya Mountains, which have sub tropical rainforests on the tops of them.

When we got back to the farm, Graham was once again offering rides on the motorbike, but this time, by yourself on the bike. I immediately asked to go, and he told me that as his best pupil of the day that I could go straight away! I pulled on the helmet and started the bike up. With Graham next to me on another bike, we zoomed off down the road away from the house. It was so much fun riding next to Graham and zipping over bridges and around turns. Well, it felt like zipping; 45km/hr = 30mi/hr. That’s right, I’m a speed demon. Dinner soon followed after with a roast, white and sweet potatoes, onions, broccoli, and peas. Yum. Followed by…drumroll…apple cobbler and custard. Heck. Yes. I really couldn’t help myself when my hand reached for the spoon to get a second helping. I was helpless to the power of its sweetness. We all kept joking that we should’ve brought tupperware from Brisbane to help them take care of the many left overs that they surely would accumulate. Evening tea and trivial pursuit along with a showing of You’ve Got Mail ended the evening with Dionne and Graham.

As I walked down the porch to my room, I looked at the sky only to see the clouds have finally cleared after a week to reveal so many stars that I stood there with my mouth gaping for a good minute. First off, I love stargazing, and any PCer knows the meaning behind a warm blanket, a dark field, and loads of stars. This sky was absolutely spectacular, ineffable. With that, I crawled into my warm bed and sadly realized that I’d be leaving my haven in the morning. Breakfast at 7:30, pack up, then time to go. A hug and kiss from my Australian grandparent figures before I hopped on the bus with my sack lunch in hand.