So much to tell you

Oh my, how can it be over a month since I last posted. As I type we have rapidly sped through the school holidays, with less than two short weeks left of the lazy mornings, evenings outside and dinner being late on the table.  AND NO LUNCH BOXES. Anyhow, the last few weeks of 2014 were certainly quite jam packed, so lets catch up shall we? So much to tell you.

School Breakup

The last time we shall have THREE children at our tiny school’s school breakup concert. Kate reached the end of year six. Doesn’t time fly, it really is true.

The Husband’s brother and wife (Kate’s godparents) and their kids travelled from the coast to celebrate Kate’s “graduation”.  The kids had a wonderful evening with their cousins.

Santa of course arrived in style.

The kids put on a short musical concert showing off their skills. To be honest, I didn’t really get to enjoy the night as I spent it flat out either serving drinks or food, or clearing away food.

And then school was over, with a last day pool party to celebrate.

McKenzie’s birthday

We also celebrated little cousin McKenzie’s birthday. She likes Peppa Pig. Her mum can ice a mean cake too.

City “break”

Mum has been in the city having treatment, staying in the wonderful Leukaemia Foundation units near the hospital. We went and “cared” for her during the first week of the holidays. We took her out for some fresh air most afternoons, and to run some energy off the kids.

Our shift staying with mum came to its end, and thankfully she was feeling a lot better by the time we left (the tail end of treatment week has her feeling unwell we have discovered) and we departed, fully loaded, handing back over to my aunt.  Kids wondered how we would fit the load of groceries in amongst the other shopping, but hey, like someone else said, if you don’t have to unpack the beer carton and stick them in one by one, you have heaps of room.

RAIN!

It rained whilst we were in the city, the biggest fall in how long. Very excited phone calls were received.  It feels so old news now, but the elation when it does finally rain, puts you on a natural high. Sadly, now some weeks after the event and little other than random showers since, has meant that elation was short lived. Concern that we won’t get any more still sits in our minds.

My sister in law took these photos.

Georgie FINALLY got her ears pierced 4 long months after her 10th birthday. As expected, she didn’t even blink.

And that catches us up  - until Christmas at least!

now, where was I?

A random assortment of images from the past few weeks

  We put up the Christmas Tree (the new giant Christmas tree!) . I tried to take a decent photo. Quite unsuccessful.

Tried to take another photo, with the SLR. I've barely used it since I dropped it back in August, and this is why. I have been pretending it hasn't been broken but I think the time has come to face the music (and the repair bill)...

After some editing work, it came up not so bad, but the focus on the camera is so not well.

IT RAINED!! 2 lovely inches (feels so long ago now!) Kids were very excited.

School breakup concert was held, Santa visited and a musical/dance performance was presented by the kids. Was so good. They've all done music lessons one day a week at school and from kids that could not play ANY instruments to date, they have really learnt so much. A four player rendition of Heart and Soul was just brilliant.

   The last week of school saw me in the cattle yards with the husband, pulling off weaners and bringing home a wedge of poddies in an assortment of Dad and Dave style enclosures in the back of the ute....

We adopted an H theme for the Class of 2014.This was the little settling-in pen we set up under the mango tree for them.

Second last day of school was celebrated with a fun swimming day in town, and photo bombing boy child.

Phew....and that's only til the end of the school year. I am not terribly good at summarising am I!

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!

waiting for a bus

That's what it feels like, a friend recently said, waiting for it to rain. But now its becoming increasingly apparent its a bus that's not going to turn up, that we aren't going to get what we call a "wet season". (along with the greater part of the north/west of the state, so don't think we are alone in this of course!)

On that note (and in all seriousness), for any of the readers out there on the land: seeking agistment for 300-400 hd of no2 & no3 heifers (yearlings you might call them) We'll consider all offers/areas.

 

Anyhow, other random, less weighty observations:

- I probably shouldn't ever wear white tights/leggings (whatever you call em) even though I do so love white and they are so comfy under a nice tunic. (I'm a late fan to tunics, but love them I do) hello sausage legs ;-)

- I wonder if its possible to have a chocolate/sugar hangover? (see above, may have something to do with legs mentioned above)

- my three calves, which have lived on the lawn and back paddock of little grass for the past three months, are trashing the joint. They should go...but to where?! In better news, they have finally taken to eaten the snacks of calf crumble and molasses I have laid out temptingly for them.

- again, related to the above comment, walking on the lawn barefoot can be somewhat hazardous...but hey, its great fertiliser. And when things get too, umm, thick, I just let the chooks out and they happily scratch about the spread the evidence out nicely.

- speaking of walking on the lawn, yesterday I was chatting at the front gate, and a snake wandered over my foot. Nerves are yet to recover fully, the back end of it was all that was sighted as it cheerfully continued on its way into the jungle like front garden. Only consolation, thanks to aforementioned calves, is that the lawn is being kept very short (despite mad watering sessions every day).

- we are really really enjoying the slow mornings that school holidays have allowed. Which means productivity is at a low...and The Husband plans on throwing spanner in the works with talk of needing help laying poly pipe.  (lets hope the boys and their toys part is over before we get there, as honestly its only exciting for the male contingent of this family.)

- in direct correlation with the need to 'tighten the belt' and be fiscally responsible in all non-essential purchases, comes all sorts of advertising and sighting of desirable items one might purchase. (yes, I know, stop being so materialistic! but...prrretty)

That's about all that's filling my silly little mind at this point in time, hopefully next post will return with adventure filled photographs. Or at the very least, some crossing off the list of projects long planned!

Hooroo.

Random oddments

images from my hard drive, discovered today when searching for a file, one that I had forgotten what I had named it.  That fact, and these images which I had forgotten about entirely, are quite indicative of my scatty brain at the moment. So, here I present, absolute fluff, may you find it inspiring.

 

(The last two photos: I believe it was the windmill as wall art on the left, and the paving treatment on the right, that caught my eye).

Ok, off to find what's left of my marbles. Hooroo!