Bunkering down in the north

Creativity of both photographic and literary genre seem to have take leave of absence up here, as you may have noted by the sporadic posting of late. Really, there isn't a lot to talk about that you haven't heard before.  I haven't picked my camera up in weeks (although not helped by the fact I think I may have buggered my favourite lens when I dropped it, or at the very least broken the USM part of it).

There is much watching of the skies and horizons, another day leads us a day closer to that elusive "scattered storms" or even the holy grain, The Wet Season. (we hope).  We have, finally, seen a slight change with some small fronts coming through and dropping an odd shower here and there. 20mm measured by remote monitor at one tank at the prickle farm, however we have our thoughts it was a very tiny narrow strip of 20mm. (I'd certainly take 20mm here at home, if nothing else to settle the waves of dust that blow in with any gusty wind from the wrong direction!).

So, whilst we bunker down waiting for rain, pumping and monitoring water 24/7, ordering molasses and lick (and not opening bills til end-of-month) and finding two decks here and there that meet sale requirements just to lighten off (certainly not bringing exceptional dollars), we go on doing our day to day stuff...

 

The new bike is lovely and comfy to ride, and who couldn't not be cheefull riding a sunny yellow bike with wicker basket on the front?! 

The kids wanted to have a family BBQ (being denied public outings because of the POX) and so we did the last evening of the school holidays. Complete with ambiance.

I made a big calendar for my mum for Christmas, which features some FULL PAGE A3 photos of the kids (overlayed by the calendar part at the bottom). Hoping it turns up in the mail soon, ordered (on sale) from Big W. Was great fun to put together, and surely she can't complain about no pics of the kids after that. I'll share when it arrives, I'm excited to see how it turned out!

Pool has been fairly constantly used. Mum and Dad even taking the odd dip, however its been a bit breezy and holy cow a wee bit fresh even after a hot day. Swimming tog tan line bottoms are starting to appear on the kids.

Its taken me how long but finally got hooks attached to board and hung. Husband did the hooks (didn't trust my measuring) and I did the hanging. Kids have been instructed to hang togs with care ;-) Finally no more dumping of wet togs on the floor. Well it still happens but frowny mum ensures they eventually land where they are meant to.

The long awaited sanding of the kitchen table commenced. And ground to a halt when sanding belts disintegrated. Table is back inside and covered with plastic table cloth until new belts and water based sealant procured (and a time frame that allows sealer to be applied and allowed to harden. I'm thinking I need to dig out a plastic table for the duration!)

Many concrete troughs being dispatched, and its starting to get very quiet at the yard. To be expected, as the rest of the state also bunkers down, and spending is restricted to essential items such as feed.

 

Kittens Hamish and Andy are still providing great amounts of entertainment for children and adults alike - Hamish having a liking for small boxes (most relaxed cat ever, Georgie carted him around in this little opened ended box for ages, he purred the whole time). However her attempt at cat walking with rigged up rope harness was unsuccessful, albeit hilarious to watch! 

Life is still great, even with the extra added challenges!

highlights of September school holidays

Its been a ripper of a school holidays, let me tell you. We had some grand plans for the second week, but the first week was a take-it-as-it-comes sort of plan, which suddenly included during the first week, the mustering (far easier as only one water left in the paddock) of steers, and sale of two decks of them.

It was while we were doing this muster that we first noticed a little rash appearing on Georgie's face, and put it down to contact with something a bit nasty.  By the time we finished with the cattle, and kid sleepovers at Granma's it was Wednesday.  After she got out of bed that morning, I rang the doctors for an urgent appointment. Posted a pic on Instagram and some good people there diagnosed it before I reached the helpful and effervescent final year med student doing prac at the surgery. SHINGLES. She googled it for me, and we both agreed on the defined location of the rash. Off armed with a script for anti viral medication and some googling of my own to gauge the contagiousness of it to other people.

She was very stoic, and apart from some panadol for headache/fever, she got by with just a cool damp washer on her face and swoollen eye.The tablets she were given were thankfully dissolvable (still not very pleasant) but of all the kids to get this, and not send mother crazy, this was the right one!!

   

Husband squeezed another day of cattle work out of us when Georgie was recovered (just some dry flaky skin remaining of the rash) so I set of most optimistically in my crisp stripy shirt.  Wasn't so crisp by the end of the day. But still, one can still take time to enjoy the rather show off sunset, there have been a few of those the past week.

    

There's been time to enjoy the new pool (although its still not quite warm enough for mum to consider!) and some flowering around the garden, despite its dryness.

Classiness entered an all new high here, running out of tissues. Enter new invention: putting toilet roll inside the empty tissue box. Whilst flossy was dealing with shingles I was dealing with germs passed on by my brother, with an annoying cold I am yet to fully shake. However, on the bright side, my YELLOW bike was finally assembled and it is indeed very comfortable to treddle about on. Pity about the compromised lung capacity as I cough up a lung every morning. Tis a fun way to start the day.

We had grand plans of an outing tomorrow, movie and maccas and grocery shopping, just so there was some excitement for the kids during the holidays. Unfortunately....

That is indeed the spotty back of an immunised-but-never-had-chicken-pox boyo. Yes, you can catch chicken pox from shingles, but you can't catch shingles.

Someone hand me the wine bottle, I think I need to take up drinking.