Living our dream
Host: Yeeda Pastoral
Written by Emilly Struckel – Girl Friday, Yeeda Station.
Hi all, Emilly Struckel from Yeeda Station here.
We are a family of five who moved from Queensland to Western Australia to be part of the Yeeda team last year. We started off based at Colourstone where Rowan (hubby) was a rouseabout from running bores, driving road trains to working in the yards. I on the other hand stayed home most of the time looking after our three little ones Dakota, Beau-Jaxey, and Indi.
This year has seen some new ventures for our family including moving over to Yeeda Station homestead, Row is now manager where he is constantly flat out either with cattle in the yards or ticking off the many upgrades he is making to the station including putting race drafts in all the yards.
I am also working full time cooking, schooling Dakota (prep through KSOTA), jumping in the yards, going on bore runs, or hovering over Row’s shoulder in the shed every chance I get to learn the ropes. But with this I am not alone as Dakota who is five is desperate to be a part of anything and everything he is allowed to be (especially when it comes to the yards) and with that comes the six million questions he needs answered immediately. Much to our girls disappointment Beau-Jaxey who is three, and Indi who is two, they are only allowed to watch from the outside of the yards for a few more years yet, but they are never short of a few questions either.
On the days when there is a chance to spend a day together, just the five of us, we are lucky enough to have some awesome fishing spots at our back door to catch the station a fresh fishy feed.
But this time of the year being able to spend time together usually means following Row around the station checking fences or waters or getting things ready for the next muster. But the main thing is that we get to be together and we are all doing something that puts the smiles on our faces, drags us out of bed before the sun, and has Row and I generally in bed at the same time as the kids and I’m pretty sure asleep before them most nights.
Mustering into Cockatoo Yard on Yeeda.
It’s been a huge change from having family at your beck and call, and moving thousands of kilometres away not knowing anyone, but it’s definitely been worth all the blood, sweat, and tears and it’s a lifestyle we wouldn’t change in a million years.
As for the thousands of kilometres between us and our families; well let’s just put it this way, we are living the dream over here and those kilometres are not getting any smaller on our behalf, life is great over here on beautiful Yeeda Station in the Kimberley and we are here to stay.
The Yeeda Family.