My Gap Year Begins!

Hi Readers

Yes, I know I’ve been slack again with posting to my blog, but now there is no excuse!
After spending 2018 as the Co-Principal at St Francis of the Fields, I have decided to have a break in 2019.
I’ll be taking long service leave until the end of March, and after that I’ll try to contribute to the family finances by doing a bit of CRT (Casual Relief Teacher) around Bendigo.
It’s a big step into the unknown as I have left the security of a well paid job for a year to explore other options and to see what else I may find that interests me (and pays me too!!)
We have only been on holidays for 5 days and I can already feel an immense load off my shoulders.
The last few weeks at school were flat out as I needed to clear the decks somewhat for my ‘Sabbatical ‘ and complete tasks that needed to be done before another Principal steps back into the driver’s seat.
As well as organising rosters, hiring staff, taking on enrolments etc, I needed to find buyers for our pigs and get them tagged and removed for sale.
That became a huge task, and in the process I hurt my back when loading the pigs into a truck and missed a few days of school as a result. But at least we got rid of them!!
Then, a few weeks later we needed to reduce the size of our sheep flock, so myself and a beautiful farmer who works part time for us rounded up about 60 of them. Of these, 40 were tagged and ready for sale, so we then had to pull 20 of them out to return to the paddock, leaving us with just the 40 tagged ones to take to the saleyards.
This was easier said than done! Once we had them all penned in a small yard, it was my job to separate the tagged from the untagged. When one sheep bolted around the pen, the rest followed, so I had to jump on the ones to take out one at a time and drag them to a gate where Doug let them into a smaller pen. But when this happened, one or two untagged ones would sneak through as well.
Eventually, after a few hours we got two loads into the trailer and delivered to the saleyards, all the time while there was rain, thunder and lightning.
I mustn’t have learnt my lesson with the pigs, because I did the same injury to my back again, and missed the next day of school as a result. But at least we sold the 40 sheep, which then paid for some much needed hay that we bought for the remaining sheep and cattle.
Not what I’d normally think are the tasks for a school Principal, but that’s how we roll!

So what’s next??

Well, as I’m writing this I’m sitting in the departure lounge at Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne Ready to go on a trip with my wife.

Where to I hear you ask?

You’ll just have to read my next post to find out for sure.
Looking forward to some serious R&R after a very tough year, and looking forward to whatever 2019 brings.

So Readers,

Until my next post...

Cheers!!