Easter Holiday mini adventure

thThe Easter Holidays weren’t terribly exciting, with work to be done and all parties relishing in the lack of school and no lunches to be made (mum in particular enjoying that one). But when the cattle work was finally done and the weaners finally delivered to Yaraka, we made time for a day off.

We thought, that, with some of the storms about, that the Secret Special Fishin’ Hole might have a decent amount of water. So armed with smoko and lunch delicacies, and fishing lines (I always pack food as my faith in fisher persons is not high) and accompanied by friends, we set off.

The kids were excited to be heading in the wild yonder.

We did find water, far less than we had hoped for. Obviously rains upstream was short and sweet and it was no longer running, other than the tiniest of trickles through the sand. Casualty of the drought that does continue.

Lines were thrown in with great enthusiasm.

But the water was murky looking and whilst we could see the little tiny fish swimming around the edges, there was no big fish sighted no any nibbles received.

Rachel and I decided that fishing was not for us, and retired for smoko. Could have been far worser ways to be spending the day. We wore off the excesses of smoko with a stroll down river exploring….

Kids may have tried to catch little tiny fish with their hands in the rockpools, but those fish were too fast for them

The biggest fishing expedition of the day happened when we discovered that Pete’s shoe,knocked off a rock by one of the kids (or a bird) had to be found….fortunately shoes float, and aided by a northerly breeze was found nestled into the bank some 200 metres downstream .

The lack of fish did not deter us; we found some shade and greeness, the kids explored and we may have lazed away a few good hours talking and eating and righting the wrongs of the world…

(The Husband was wishing the chair had one of those foot rest thingys so he could have a quiet 40 winks)

Despite the lack of fish,the day was still declared a success by the kids and they weren’t the only ones who was a wee bit weary from doing very little that evening.

Nothing like a bit of fresh air and zero electronic entertainment for the day!

A pictorial catch up

There's been plenty to occupy us around these parts of late, and each activity is worthy of a blog post of its own, but because I can't be bovvered, I'm going to do the edited version :-)

The stars aligned and lick run day fell on the weekend for once at the prickle farm. The cows are now out in what we call our "bush country" which until recently was unfenced on the northern boundary. I'd never been out there before (no tracks) so after putting out lick and chatting to the cows, we headed out to check out the new fence and The Gorge.

 

Our back boundary is The Great Dividing Range/ Burra Range.  The high point along the new fence affords a view that stretches for many many miles to the north.  I was also excited to find some little outcrops of slate like sandstone rock - GARDEN PAVING ANYONE?! Loaded into the ute with some coercion required ;-)

An updated shed photo...

Moving right along, this was meant to be a summary of events wasn't it!!

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We went for a little horse-play-day at a nearby friends place. Being short on horses that weren't too light on in condition, Angus had to entertain himself. Girls had a great time, despite Georgie's pony having his naughty pants on. BBQ followed. Late night. All tired!

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Yes, time for the third edition of Dogdy Birthday Cakes for the year! Boy mumbled something about rainbow, which I interpreted into decoration (and badly done at that!).

He is now SEVEN. My word, how did that come about so quickly....

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We went to a wedding at the Atherton Tablelands, which involved a little bit of touristy tripping about and a lot of soaking in of the green stuff. And checking out the farming things happening, as you do. ;-)

     

Wedding was in a glorious location and was just lovely, and marquee set up beautifully with all of the little touches. Loved it. Bride collected bottle after bottle and spent hours hot gluing hessian string, which turned out brilliantly!

I went with a black and white dress and black jacket ensemble as you can see. With a pop of orange. The little boy clown was an extra surprise accessory ;-)

We also took the chance to have a mini holiday, loathe to leave the green. Visited some local attractions and waterfalls.

(Lake Euramoo, a volcanic crater). Climbed a million steep steps in our water fall viewing quest. Nearly needed to take out second mortgage to eat at Lake Barrine fine dining establishment (however we were STARVING and indeed the food was good). Did not see a platypus (not surprising) but did feed several well fed ducks and a not so smart but very round eel. Climbed a few more thousand steps. (Ellinjaa Falls below, one of the ones that one can see from the bottom)

Headed home taking in The Crater, Dinner Falls and Millstream Falls on the way (more uphill downhill walking! ye gads my aching calf muscles, but at least NO STEPS) and stopping to let the kids frolic in the popular swimming/camping spot Archers Creek (near Innot Hot Springs). Not a bad way to spend some time, sitting by a running creek in the nicer temperatures of the high lands!

And then home James....Where the temperature is NOT nice, the skies hazy with dust (we home, rather than smoke) and more washing than I can poke a stick at.

Need a holiday to get over the holiday!

School Holidays

Yes, school's been back a week here in Queensland, and its taken this long to get around to sharing our adventures or lack thereof. Restful isn't a term I would use for the July holidays this year, nor one in which cleaning, organisation or catching up were a part of....

Instead we did a bit of this: (hover over pic for details)

And quite a bit of this:

   

Weaners were processed, with the help of PeterFinlay who stepped in to help when we were short handed; Kate took control of the drafting pen levers and mum did the miles penning up and yelling BUSH (or otherwise) a zillion times (BUSH meaning which gate I wanted opened). And the drafter also got to be no 1 offsider putting cows into a fresh paddock.

No 2 offsider went with dad and "learnt" how to drive during a very sloooow and loooong drive behind weaners down the laneway. Style and co-ordination need practise :-)

And then we did it all over again the next day and the next day, vaccinating the cows for botulism, taking off weaners, branding some stragglers and then sending them bush.

We also did some of this, just for a change...(but in a different location!)

Weighed some steers and lamented the state of the season and the cattle market.....

Packed a few fatties on that front double decked trailer there and sent them on their merry way...

Took a break to admire brothers bogged loader at the bottom of a very deep hole,  one he wasn't going to be digging himself out of with that piddly little shovel (wishful thinking on his part?)

After that little adventure, we resumed normal programming and went back to this:

The horses and truck drivers not getting my memo about photographic composition, after filling the trucks with steers bound for Condamine. (no drama involving rain nor traffic accidents in this years loading).

After these nearly two weeks of driving, back and forth and chasing cows and myself and running perilously low on clean undies (never fear, a clean forgotten stash was found waiting in the clothes dryer) my expected day at home resulted in more time spent here:

  Back in the yards to tidy up those weaners we took off the week before. Joyous times, I tell you. Especially when, taking pity on the dogs who had a fair bit of pen time and taking them for a jaunt, they found something very very dead to roll in. That was a really special trip home, with the dogs in the back of the wagon. 

Yes, that pretty much covers the school holidays, with lots of dusty and dirty washing processed in flurries, and many mismatched socks worn and quite a bit of cranky mum each morning when chores were to be done before leaving. But, at the end of the day, they almost always ended like this:

Tired, dirty, happy little faces.