It was back to the yards today to sort through another mob of cattle and truck them back to the main homestead yards. Spring – the blink and you’ll miss it version we get – arrived about ten days ago. On saturday we hit highs of 30 degrees so summer is with us already. With the instant heat came a haze of smoke from across the border in QLD where numerous grass fires are burning some of which are obviously not from natural causes. The thick haze carried on the northerly wind had everyone sneezing madly however the conditions did lead to a splendid sight later on in the day. The sun on my way home tonight was a burning red orb which disappeared behind the treeline while I was negotiating cattle, a rather petulant fox and one stray ewe which had found herself a nice spot to picnic on the edge of the Boomi-Mungindi Road. She certainly wasn’t moving from the patch of greenery she was nibbling on despite the road train which barrelled past covering everything in thick dust of the ‘pull over to the side of the road and wait till it clears’ variety! Spraying was also on the agenda. After a couple of falls of rain over the last month we had three fields actually deemed worthy of an expensive black oats spray. Previously at the lower limit of economic viability when it came to harvesting they are now quite handy crops and with the scent of rain being waved before us by the weather gurus things may look even better by next week. I’m off to Goondiwindi tomorrow afternoon to pick up the Year 12 entries for The MacIntyre Young Writer’s Competition. This is a great initiative which promotes and fosters young writers in the Goondiwindi regional area and I’m thrilled to be a part of it. I’m looking forward to reading some great entries and I expect the level of competition to be high; as usual. Happy trails…