Over the years we have had to rely on farm sitters if we wanted to get away from the farm. It has been a very enriching experience.

Our first farm sitters came from Alstonville in NSW. Ewen and Karen flew over to Western Australia. We lent them a car , introduced them to the animals, gave them a crash course in life at ‘Gulnare” and we headed off for a road trip to the Kimberley to see out son, Josh who was working on the Kimberley Quest ll and our daughter, Laura, who was working as a ringer on ‘Liveringa ” station. It was very daunting having complete strangers come into your house and the stress of leaving everything in good working condition was nearly enough to not go away.

They were amazing people. We felt like we had known them for ever and Ewen took to “Watson” our number one sheep dog, like a long lost friend. By the time we came back Watson had a new favourite pastime of riding the farm on the back of the two wheel motorbike with Ewen.

Farmsitters number two were Tim and Julie from Snowtown in South Australia. They drove over towing their caravan with their cocker spaniel ” Toby” , who was quite young and exuberant. They set up outside the house, slept in their caravan and used our living areas. We came back  to spoilt animals, a wonderful clean house,-actually all our farm sitters have left the house better than they found it, and a cat residing on the top of the fridge on the verandah….she was not a fan of frisky young dogs.

Our third wonderful farm sitters came from Overland Corner on the Murray River.  Bob and Pat drove over in record time with caravan in tow and little Jack Russell, Zac, on board. Bob was a gadget man and had his van full of amazing inventions to make life easier and interesting. Pat loved reading and flowed along smoothly in Bob’s flow. We came back to not one but two new sheep races that Bob built using one we had as a guide.Bob and Pat were a little nervous as I had a mare due to foal not long after we were due back and horses were not their forte, but I was confident we had plenty of time. As it was she foaled about a week after we came home…..ten days early. That was cutting it a bit fine!!

We were sure we would come unstuck and it could not work out a third but work out it did, to the extent that when our daughter, Laura, set off to start her veterinary science course in Wagga Wagga, NSW with two horse a dog on board, and mum and dad as co-drivers, we stayed a night with Bob and Pat at Overland Corner. We explored the Murray river wetlands, fenced off the rear of their back yard for the horses, had a great night and headed off the next day.

When it came time to look for farm sitters again, our usual website let us down as no-one was available so we looked locally on house sitting sites. We were very lucky again  finding Adrian and Betty who were in WA,and who would rather look after farms than houses in towns. Suited us and again they were wonderful and came back twice so that we could visit Josh in Broome,have  a trip on the Kimberley Quest ll, come home, do some sheep work and then have a fast trip to NSW to visit Laura.Adrian is a keen photographer and explored the sights and scenes around the farm and along the Dumbleyung Lake.

We have had a very busy year this year ( 2013) and have not had any time away at all. Were trying to plan what to do for Christmas when we had a visit from Adrian and Betty last Saturday. They have offered to look after the farm for us so that we can get away to the coast for a few days at Christmas. The thought of it is enough to give us a real boost to get through harvest, which is just starting.

Farmsitters are wonderful They have all been amazing people and we now regards them all as good friends.