We have cows!

Martin has been itching to buy a little mob of heifers for some time and the way the season was shaping, it looked as though that wouldn't happen this year. But after such ground soaking rain at Easter, we have paddocks brimming with green feed, so off he went to the cattle sale today...bet that got a few tongues talking! ;-) It's a very long time since we have owned any cattle.

He very proudly rang to tell me he'd bought 2 little mobs of grey brahman heifers - 33 in total. Nathan went back to town with him in the truck to get them.



They're a nice line of heifers and will grow out very well. We'll feed them for a little while and keep them close to the house so they'll be quiet. On Monday we'll take them down to the cattle yards and cross brand them.

Yesterday we went up to Longreach for a school cluster. It was a long day (up at 5.15am and home at 6.30pm) so Nathan had a good sleep in this morning. We didn't even attempt to do any school work today, but made a few more things for Nathan to put in the show. Only 2 more sleeps till we go to town for the show, and he can hardly wait!

Busy day

Nathan has spent quite a bit of the day making things to put in the school section of our local show. This section is new this year and I hope will be well supported. He is entering 4 of the 5 classes: narrative, computer generated artwork, 2D artwork and 3D artwork. The only one he's not completing is the poem, simply because he really has no idea of poetry and what it is.

Nathan has also been working on some art and craft to enter - lego, weaving, jigsaw, picture making, scrapbooking etc. About 10 days ago, he started a grasshead but it's growing very slowly.

The road from our house to the grid near the main road is being graded. It's a PR excercise by the mining company that has been doing exploration out here. Jim will also bury some polypipes for us tomorrow.




The road will probably come up a bit rough because the soil is still quite wet. However, in a few weeks we can easily drag a grid over it to smooth it out.

To Barcaldine

This morning we took our car over to Barcaldine to have some panel beating done on it....all of it caused by hitting kangaroos!! All going well, it will be ready on Friday (fingers crossed as it would be great to have it over the show).

While there, we drove up the main street to have a look at the new Tree of Knowledge Memorial. Sadly, I did not have my camera with me, but the memorial is not a pretty sight and certainly not even something to proud of.... add to that, apparently it cost between $8 and $10 million!! That money could have been way better spent on improving health services in the central west! I'll take some some photos on my next trip to Barcy.

Australia's Biggest Morning Tea

We have decided to host an "Australia's Biggest Morning Tea" to raise funds for the Cancer Council Queensland. We will be holding our "Garden Party" on Sunday 24th May, and offer a morning of fun and relaxation for those who attend. I will ask attendees to wear their best decorated hat as we have little shade in our garden as yet and it can be fun to see them displayed and judged. If you have some ideas for fun quick and easy games, I'd love to hear from you.

I have attended a couple of these over the years and have had a wonderful time, so it will be lovely for us to host our own.

Please feel free to join us.

Another week has passed

Another week has passed since the rain...now 2 weeks ago. Check this out!

This photo was taken on 11th April

18th April

25th April


The tranformation is magical and just so amazing! Our whole property is looking like this and it's just so wonderful.

We will remember...

They shall not grow old,
As we have grown old.
Age shall not weary them,
Not the years condemn them.
At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning,
We will remember them.

LEST WE FORGET.

The Rhythms of Ireland

We are going to see The Rhythms of Ireland when they come to our town next month. I bought the tickets today and can hardly wait to see the show. We went to see Riverdance in Brisbane back in 1997 and it was absolutely brilliant! I hated having the show end and could have easily have seen it several times.

Anniversary

Today is our 26th wedding anniversary!! We were both very young (in our early twenty's) when we married.

Four children, difficult times (including droughts) and we are still going strong. He has given me a Pandora Bracelet and I've given him an MP3 player...something he's been wanting for awhile.

Scrap with V May Cybercrop

This is the weekend of our local show, however I hope to complete some of the challenges the following week. Hope you can join in the fun too.

Layout to Share

I have heaps of photos taken last year at Under 8's day and had not found a to scrap them that I was happy with. That is until I receive the lates issue of Scrapbooking Memories. There was the perfect design on a layout by Pip Prosser.

Yesterday I sorted through the photos...mind you I had to find them on the CD first! Anyway to cut a long story short, here is my resulting layout.


I coloured the owl with twinklings H2Os, I love the shimmer they create.

Today is Nathan's best friend's birthday so we have been a to a little birthday party and then stayed on for lunch. The kids had loads of fun together, as always.

What a difference...

a week can make. Here is a photo I took last Saturday, during the rain.


Here is the same view this morning, one week later.


Apart from the green in the lawn, you can see the green in the paddock.

We have just got home from a drive around most paddocks and dams. What a glorious sight to see green grass (even though it's still short) and full dams. We have enough dry bulk in the grass to prevent the stock scouring. They are already jumping out of their skins!!

Out in the shed, I discovered this!

One very muddy 4-wheeler courtesy of one husband! Mind you, the Nissan, our car and his motorbike were also covered in mud!! Boy, has he got some cleaning to do!

Scottish Talent

I heard about Susan Boyle on the ABC radio the other afternoon and then saw her on the news that night. She is truly amazing with the most gorgeous voice. Initially the audience laughed and sniggered at her when she said she was a 46 year old spinister who wanted to be a professional singer. Then she began to sing...... Click on her name and watch the footage.

Excited!

This morning I have one very excited little boy. In the mail today, arrived a crisp new $100 note, with a note saying "Congratulations Nathan! You have won the Girl Guides Raffle". The money is headed for the bank on our next trip to town, but you can't wipe the smile from his little face.

Ain't Life Grand!

Martin was able to get around more of our country this morning. He had tried yesterday, but the Washpool was running high again after a storm over the catchment the night before.

Our back paddocks are still very wet and.....all dams that way are full!!!! Imagine, a week ago they were mostly dry!!! How amazing is this. I can't wait to be able to get out there and see them. So now we have only one almost dry dam and that's because 'someone' didn't want to spend money and have the bywash repaired a couple of years ago. Frustrating to say the least!

We ducked into town yesterday morning to stock up on groceries. We've been living on meat, bread and potatoes since being home after 2 weeks away. Now it's so nice to have some variety in the fresh food!

I used most of my birthday voucher at the garden store yesterday. Nathan and I chose punnets of seedlings (big frilly petunias, sweet peas, blue salvia and bedding begonias) as well as a cycad, blechnum fern, cordyline and an ivy. We repotted the bigger plants yesterday afternoon and will be putting them in the back area. The seedlings will put a lovely splash of colour into the garden. The petunias have been planted along ther front of a row of murraya and will look stunning against the rich green foliage dotted with white flowers.

I'd had to give my rosebushes to a good friend, as they wouldn't grow in this soil. After the rain she tells me they are covered in buds and new foliage. I will be sharing in the blooms though as we pop up to their place quite regularly.

Every thing else in the garden is growing well and our 'lawn pavers' have really taken off. I have been busy pulling out all the pigweed growing around them and threatening to extinguish their life.

Emerald Turf, the people we bought our turf from, have the contract to turf around the new "Tree of Knowledge" monument in Barcaldine. That will be done shortly as it will officiall be opened on May 4, Labour Day.

Last night, I realized that school starts again next week. I must go through Nathan's Unit 4 in the next few days and see what we'll be learning.

Singleton to Pittsworth

With heavy hearts, we said our farewells at Singleton. We will miss Narni terribly but will sure to be back one day.


We had originally planned to travel up the coast towards Brisbane but the weather dictated otherwise. After leaving Singleton, we passed through beautiful country on our way to Walcha. Although the sky was clouded, the beauty of the country still shone through. Many times we were sure we'd found ourselves on top of the world with stunning views.


The autumn colours in the trees was absolutely beautiful and not something we see here in Queensland.


At Walcha we took Nathan out to Apsley Falls, flowing well because of recent rains.


The thunder of the water as it crashed to the rocks below and echoed down the ravine was so awesome. I have only seen these falls twice, but they never disappoint.

We called in to the Australian Standing Stones at Glen Innes. The idea for them was born in Australia's BiCentennial Year and officially opened on 1st February 1992. Nathan was determined to remove the Excalibur embedded in the stone, but of course to no avail....he had fun trying though.


We arrived back at home on Good Friday and that evening it began to rain....perfect timing!! Our country is very wet...a wonderful sight. In a few weeks, the paddocks will be looking terrific and things will be more positive.

Happy Birthday

My two gorgeous sisters celebrate their birthday today......almost a big one!!! Have a very special day Lea and Wend with loads of fun and laughter.

Singleton

Back to our holidays... from Dubbo we drove on to Singleton. It felt quite amazing to be driving past so many horse studs (including Coolmore when Makybe Diva had her foal) and then vineyards. The scenery is just stunning undulating plains covered in lush green grasses.

My grandmother lives at Singleton with her daughter. Narni is approaching 84 and has become really quite frail since I last saw her. But she is full of energy and not one to have a 'nana nap'...not while we were there anyway. She came everywhere with us and loved the company. The Hunter Valley Gardens are simply stunning and comparable to Floriade, although so different. We spent hours wandering the gardens and marvelling at the blooms. Nathan loved the Storybook Garden so much that we went through it twice. Narni had never been to that part of the gardens before and she loved it too. Sadly, that is the one day I did not have my camera with me!! :-(

We explored the Hunter Valley and had we been wine drinkers would
have been in seventh heaven. Martin went to Kevin Sobels Wines and bought a bottle of white port. Now he's keen for a taste but is waiting till he catches up with a mate.

Nathan loved the Infantry Museum, located at the army base at Singleton. A corporal enthusiastically showed him the 'heavy artillery' and allowed him to clim up onto the bren gun carrier even though there was a "Do Not Climb' sign. There were also dress up clothes for him to play with.

Each day we went for a drive around the surrounding districts and visited Cessnock, Kurri Kurri, Greta and Musswellbrook.

On our last eveing at Singleton, we got together with my cousins and there families and all went ten pin bowling. There was enough of us to take up 3 bowling alleys! Narni joined us and while she struggled with the weight with the bowling ball, was a force to be reckoned with. In fact, she won the first game!



Nathan had a fantastic time!!! He too struggled with the weight of the ball but shouted a "Yahoo!" after every ball he bowled. Now he gets very excited whenever he sees a bowling alley! I can see that something we'll be doing next time we go away....

More rain

It drizzled for most of last night, giving us another 65pts so the ground is really wet again. Late yesterday afternoon, Martin was able to get to our house dam and was very pleased to see an extra 4ft of water in it. There are showers again today, so all is good.

Holidays

I haven't been a slack blogger, instead we have been away for two glorious weeks. We spent a weekend in Brisbane with 2 of our boys. It was wonderful to catch up with them, even for such a short time. Then we headed to Toowoomba and picked up a camping trailer on headed off.

At Narrabri, we dropped in at the Australian Cotton Centre, a very interesting place. Nathan sat quietly, engrossed in the short film. Then he climbed up into the cab of a big red harvester. He checked out everything at the centre and was totally amazed that cotton was turned into fabric. I bought a little project pack that contains the stages cotton goes through to become fabric. We'll also grow cotton in the spring.

Our first night was at Coonabarabran. There were light showers in the early evening and the most amazing rainbow.


We have always promised to take Nathan to the Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo. It's a wonderful zoo and certainly the best I have been to. The ticket price includes entry for two consecutive days and we made the most of that. The main road is 6km around the zoo with numerous walking tracks through the middle. I think we walked about 10km on the first day. Nathan ran from one group of animals to the next, he was so excited to see absolutely everything.



He loved seeing each and every animal, but I think his highlight was probably feeding the giraffes fresh carrots!

I'll tell you about the next leg of our holiday tomorrow.

Happy Easter

Wishing everyone a special Easter. Please remember the true meaning of Easter, not just the chocolates and Easter Bunny or Bilby.

My little man had a wonderful time searching for his Easter eggs this morning. He has been very worried that the easter Bunny might not get here because of all the rain, but figured he'd arrived by helicopter (a silent one of course!). A note was left in the garden telling him where his Easter eggs were. There was great excitement as he found little piles hidden in the lounge room.

I have also read him the Easter story this morning.

Oh....we ended up with just over 2 inches (50mm) yesterday making our grand total 355pts (88.75mm) since Friday night. It was perfectly timed too, but more about that later....

OMG!!!!

It's raining...and not just a little sprinkle like we've had so far this year BUT decent rain!!! This morning at 7am we measured 115 pts (28.75mm) and more since to now total 3 inches (75mm)!!! We are absolutely over the moon; this will put a wonderful green shoot into the very dry grass and hopefully run some water into our dams, especially the dry/almost dry ones.



It's forecast to hang around for several days....fingers crossed.