Late Mornings - Late Nights

Many businesses you go to work at 9 and go home at 5.  Station life is just not like that! 

Even doing school in my little Outback Schoolroom is not regular no matter how hard we try we always seem to be having late mornings and late nights.  

Late nights mean tired children.  Often in the afternoon that will mean beanbag or lounge time.  Very handy area the reading corner in the schoolroom. 

Late mornings means they have been up at the crack of dawn, out on the station helping and have got back to school late.  Usually there is a flurry of text messages sent to me to tell me that they will be late.

On my big northern station life is busy, we have sheep, goats and cattle to deal with.  As Mr Boss has a mob of sheep, this can take a big chunk of time to complete each activity.  Sheep involve many jobs; crutching, shearing, jetting, putting rams out, getting rams in, jetting AGAIN and lambmarking.  

On a regular day my 2 students, Mr Pinocchio and Mr Procrastination, would come in just before 8.30.  Chatting to me about everything that has happen since yesterday afternoon especially if I haven't eaten at the main house.  

We do all the morning schoolwork and they head to smoko at 10am to 10.20.  The kids comeback for the second session, attend air lessons and finish work.

Off to lunch at 12.30.  We now have 50 minutes for lunch, far better than 60 minutes as it give them 10 minutes to get organised.  I don't tell them that.  :)  I now get back all the time they spend dawdling.  

After lunch they finish work between 3 to 3.30pm.  It use to be to just 3pm but I would find at about 2.45 they would pack up all the unfinished pieces of schoolwork so they could get out at 3.  A lot of school time would be wasted and schoolwork unfinished at the end of the week.  Now they don't look to pack up early as the time we finish is when I say pack up. 

Extra info about my living arrangement: The joys of having a couple of bedrooms cottage to live in means I get to have meals at my own place.  I have lunch at the house school days and sometimes smokos.  Once a week on a Wednesday I go over for tea as do other staff.  I do have other night meals over there when we have visitors.

oooh ... can't write anymore, we have visitors    

.