Spending my Summer on Drover's Run



My Australian obsession tends to drag me in various directions. New friends. New music. New Experiences.

And new TV shows.

One of my friends in Australia introduced me to McLeod's Daughters. She mentioned the show casually and probably expected me to say, That's nice. Interesting.

Instead, I immediately looked it up online and started watching clips from old episodes on YouTube. A few days later, I knew who some of the characters were; and I knew some of the major storylines.

Last weekend, my husband bought me the DVD for the first season.

I now have something new to love and I'm passing on the love. I got my parents and Tim to watch the show with me. And our roommate Tabitha saw the DVD and proclaimed, This looks like something I'd like!

She took it home and watched the first four episodes. Last night, her friend came over to eat dinner with us. We all watched episode six together. Maybe he'll become addicted too!

McLeod's Daughters is awesome. And I'm so happy to have something to watch while the Others, the Dubois family, and Eli Stone are all on their summer vacation.

I'm having a great time on Drover's Run with Claire, Tess, Becky, Jodi, and Meg. I'm in love with all of them--although Claire really bugs me at times. Oh, and I might have a tiny crush on Alex. Or maybe not so tiny.

I love all the gorgeous scenes of South Australia. And the farm life seems really meaningful and attractive. I mean really. Where else could you work so hard, and all those hours, and still look incredibly beautiful?

My only conflict with the show is I'm a vegetarian. Yeah. And Tim and I just watched a Vegan Propaganda show with Morgan Spurlock. So, it's a bit rough watching the animal scenes. I mean I'm not against farms, but I keep wanting to say to Claire. Can you be a little more gentle with the animals? Talk to the sheep while you're sheering them. Pet the cow. Give him a little kiss.

She IS nice to the horses--I'll give her that.

In episode three or four, Tim questioned Claire throwing away sheep that had died from heat and exhaustion. "Why don't they eat them?" He was probably having fantasies about lamb chops. I think that scene bothered me the most--coming from an animal right's viewpoint. If you're not going to give the guy a proper burial, at least eat him!! Or make a sweater out of him or something!

What makes me feel better is the show has at least made some subtle references to animal rights. There was a scene in a restaurant where they showed the menu a few times. The veal was crossed out. I pointed it out to Tim and asked if he thought that was a message.

Tess acted a bit squeamish about eating a chicken she had seen killed. And when I did some online actor-stalking, I found out the girl who plays Claire is a vegetarian in real life; and the actress who plays Becky is an animal rights activist.

Well, anyway.....I shouldn't be so city-girl squeamish. We're not talking about a factory farm here. It's a lovely life--for the animals and the humans. Well, at least on television it looks that way.

Heck. Honestly? I'd probably rather be a cow on a farm in South Australia than a human girl in the suburbs of Fort Worth.



Glad this blog is not too popular right now....otherwise, I'd probably be attacked by PETA.

4 comments:

  1. I love Mcleods Daughters! The show actually started my obsession with Australia. I recently became a vegetarian too so I understand the problem with farming, but like you said they don't factory farm on Drovers and a few seasons down the road they go organic.

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  2. No! No! Why did you tell me what happens???

    You spoiled it all for me.

    I might as well stop watching now that I know how it all turns out!!!!

    I'm joking ; )

    Hey, we have a lot in common. Vegetarian/Australia obsession......

    How long have you been a vegetarian?? Are you doing okay with it??

    It's incredibly easy for me because I tried being a vegan for a month. After doing Vegan, vegetarian is super easy.

    The hardest thing for me is not sticking the fork in my mouth when I'm cutting my son's meat. I keep thinking one day I'll forget and just stick that piece of steak in my mouth.

    It hasn't happened yet though!!!

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  3. P.S-before we bought the DVD's I watched some episodes on youtube. I think I might have seen when they were going organic.

    Something happened? Like an animal pooped and someone said it would cause a problem because they were soon going to be inspected to see if they were organic? And another character said they'd just be sneaky and clean up the poop???

    Or maybe I dreamed that.....

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  4. You are hilarious!

    I went vegie in March. I turned 25 and it was a quarterlife crisis, what am I doing with my life, how can I change the world, kind of thing. I've always been an animal lover and honestly its been really easy. Vegan is a little too extreme for even me.

    How far are you in the series? There are 7 seasons out on DVD right now but season 7 is only out in region 4 and its bloody expensive to ship overseas. So I cheated and watched it on you tube.

    You can probly watch the entire series on you tube...in 9 minute increments.

    The show is addictive, like Australia ;)

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