Hunt'n Down on the Farm

Anyone want to guess what Jaimie's holding?

The Thomas's have a good friend (Plum) that owns a farm (known as Doone) out in the bush. There have been plans to take Jaimie out there for quite a while but Jess hurt an ankle playing soccer so things were delayed till now. On invite from the Thomas's, Will (another American exchange student), joined the trip as well.

The farm is about 8 hours west of Sydney, and very big as discussed in a previous post. The Thomas's campout in tents while they are there. Lots of different animals making a home on the property so one of the main pastimes is....hunting.

If you've been following this post then you know what's coming. Yes, it's pig hunting time. Plum's had his eye on a mob of pigs 100 strong terrorising the wheat fields, so it was time to harvest some pork for the sake of damage control. The gang was up before the sun, and piled into the ute along with a pile of pig dogs. Now you have to understand that the object of this hunt is a little different than then the good 'ol American way (bullet in the brain-pan). Aussie rules require hand-to-hand combat with the critter with dogs to keep the "bitty" end busy. As luck would have it the group is not more then 30 minutes into the hunt when the dogs get wind of game moving through the bush. Bob is the first dog to bail out of the moving truck, and take up the pursuit. Not long after he is followed by Bud and others. The group can hear the dogs corner a pig so now they stop and everyone is off chasing the dogs on foot. Bluie, Plums 15 year old son, gets there first and grabs on to the pigs tail. This is no small pig and it's all he can do to hang on. Will arrives next with no clue what to do, and shortly there after Plum arrives to get things in hand. He tackles the boar and keeps it pinned with the help of the dogs til the rest of the group arrives. Finally it is dispatched. Turns out this is one of the larger pigs taken in recent history and it weighed in at about 80kg. Unfortunately, Bud the dog sustained some pretty substantial "flesh wounds" but his prognosis is positive. And on the farm that's what he gets paid for. Check out the weapons on this bad boy.

Everyone lends a hand hauling the pig back to the ute and then they are off to look for more game. Aside from a few Roos that was the hunting action for the trip. Roos are considered a nuisance down-under, and on the farm they are considered dog food. (This is a little disturbing considering I was once served Medallions of Kangaroo as an entree at a banquet in Adelaide, Australia a while back. Little did I know I was being served dog food). Anyway, looks like Plums dogs won't be starving soon.

The kids spent the rest of the week fishing, swimming in the local waterhole, and having a little target practice. Check out Plum's youngest with the cod.

Almost forgot. For those that flunked out on Australian Fauna 101, Jaimie is holding an echidna which has gone into it's protective curled up ball position.