Mustering Goats

Finalist in the 'Read Write Repeat 2015' competition

It was early in the morning and the sun was not up yet. My brother and l were getting dressed in the dark. Dad drove down to the house with our old truck Bluey. He is so old he has rust everywhere and you can just see his blue paint. He spits lots of dust and it goes everywhere in the bush. The material of my seat is all broken and the springs are popping out. When we hit a bump, l bounce up high and sometimes they pinch me.
We speed along the road to our first yard at Three Mile windmill. Goats are squeezed into the yard as Dad reverses bluey and sets up the ramp. The goats are getting stirred and are kicking up dust everywhere, making the sky look orange. It is getting hard to breath and l sneeze as the dust go up my nose.
Dad finishes the ramp and grabs a prodder. I stay out of the way because l don’t want to get zapped. We all walk slowly around to the back of the yard and on the count of three we charge at the goats. I start shouting “HEY HEY” as loud as possible and wave my arms in the air. The goats are frightened and run away from us, straight up the ramp and into Bluey. They are squeezed in tight and are making lots of noise because they are not happy to be there.
Dad jumps back into Bluey and Mum quickly runs to the ute. We race off back to the house to unload because we don’t want to lose any goats.
We fly down the driveway as fast as old Bluey will go. The goats are still bleating and dust is whooshing out behind us. When we get to the yards, dad slams on the brakes and l have to hold the tight. Mum jumps over the fence and opens up the gates. Dad is getting cranky but Jakob and I are trying to help by shooing them down the ramp.
Mum sorts out the goats. She puts the nannies into one paddock and the billies into the others. She locks the gates so they can’t escape and leaps back over the fence.
I am starting to get tired and have a big gulp of water, but Dad is shouting at me to hurry up so I run around back into Bluey, making sure I watch out for the springs when I jump back in.
The engine roars to life and we head back to another yard, to start all over again.

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