Christmas

Christmas is over for yet another year and hope you had a really lovely day. We most certainly did. This year I did a baked ham, a first for me, and we'll be doing it every year. It was absolutely scrumptious! I baked it Christmas morning, but in future will probably do it the afternoon before. Between opening gifts and calling or receiving calls from family and friends, I was having trouble getting the ham into the oven on time.



Mid afternoon Martin and I decide to go for a drive as there were still tow dams he hadn't been able to get to. They were also the two dams that were more likely to have sustained some damage. This is what we discovered at the East One mile dam....full to the brim.

But as you can see, the water had gone over the banks in several places.



Martin wants to get hold of a scraper to build up the banks and that should solve the problem. The backwater was full too and the wildlife is always incredible when that happens.

Then we headed off to Bore Paddock dam. We had a lot of trouble getting there and changed our route several times.

We certainly expect to find the tank in the dam though!!

On Boxing Day we went over to Mum's at Clermont and caught up with both of my sisters and their families and an aunt who I had't seen for quite a number of years. The kids had a wonderful time together.

I have started spending more time in the garden and getting their edges under control. The mornings and late evenings are beautiful and the perfect time to be outside. However, all of a sudden we realize it's 7.30pm and the sun is still up!!

Now we are looking forward to New Year's Eve...I wonder what 2012 will bring for us all?
Happy New Year to you all.

Road Party

Last night we attended our road party. It was nice and close for us...about 10km. Early in the evening we were all watching a big storm build up and making a mental note of where our chairs and eskies were in case we all had to make a quick getaway. The all of a sudden the storm was gone and everyone was more relaxed. With all the rain we've been having added to us being near a creek, the mossies nearly ate us alive! Nothing plenty of repellant didn't solve. We were dressed in jeans and long sleeves too. As the last of us were packing up and heading home at about 11.30pm drops of rain began to fall but they didn't last long.

We only had a light shower of rain here and were still able to load wool at 5.30 this morning.

This is the little gift I made for a lovely friend. I have gone with a shabby chic look in pink/red.




Thanks for looking.

Merry Christmas.

Almost Christmas

Yesterday Nathan and I ducked into town to do the last of our Christmas shopping while we had the chance and the weather was fine.

We have a really lovely little shop called Daisy Cottage and I can never come away from there empty handed (Martin can confirm that!). They had some really lovely Christmas decorations in stock and I like to buy one or two new ones every year. So I just had to drop in there and came away with these.



I had lunch there about 10 days ago with 2 very special friends and couldn't resist these little angels.


Don't you love Christmas?? I do ...everything about it...Christmas carols, the scrummy food, decorating the tree and the lounge room, putting up the lights, planning and making our road decoration, planning, buying and wrapping the gifts, making the Christmas cake and rum balls and marshmallow roll and apricot balls and....yep you get the idea.

Our Christmas celebrations begin when we attend the Christmas Tree Festival at our local church on the last Sunday in November. We share a sausage sizzle with friends, hear the Christmas story, sing lots of carols and are amazed at the beautiful Christmas trees.

This morning I made this little holder for a gift voucher. Nathan wasn't at all impressed that Santa isn't wearing a red suit.




I have one more little gift to make and hopefully deliver before Christmas. It's a combined birthday and Christmas gift. I promise to share it with you.

Merry Christmas

Toppled auger

Martin had discovered that our big 40ft auger had also been blown over down the back.



Luckily it hadn't hit either of the silos and didn't look to have sustained too much damage. But how to get it upright was quite a challenge.


No, this way won't work...we need to tackle this from the other side.









All in all it was really quite elegantly done! Yay!! And what's more, there was only a small amount of damage done to the drive shaft and it can be easily fixed.

Thanks for looking and take care,

Still cleaning up....

Our wet carpets have now been removed. We have to keep them until the assessor has been out. In one bedroom we found the ugliest lino...a brown with a crocodile skin style pattern and it was GLUED to a gray painted floor!!! OMG... what awful taste! Our bedroom has plain floor boards that have never been varnished or painted. We want to polish them instead of re-carpeting as no doubt the rain will blow in again.

Martin measured 480pts of rain at our cattle yards this morning. I think we had closer to that here as with the rain being almost horizontal, much of it would have missed the rain gauge.

This afternoon we went for a drive as some creeks are now crossable. We took the wet carpets to store in a shed at what we call the 'Old House' as that's where the previous homestead used to be. This is what we found:

And then when we got to the shed:





We figure the door had blown in, one partial wall is still standing, 2 have collapsed and the roof is a mangled mess all over the paddock! Amazing, very little actually blew out of the shed. Now we need somewhere to store all that gear, after sorting through it all first. That is an 'after shearing' job. We already have a shipping container lined up, just have to wait for it to be delivered.

I missed the Christmas markets last night which was a shame, but that's life when you live in the bush. They were a huge success with excellent crowds. At least I can keep my stock for next year and have plenty of time to add to it. Some of it I will take to the monthly markets.

Take care and thanks for looking,

What the....

This morning started off like any other day. Rain was forecast for this evening but a storm was already brewing way out to the west. Martin called me on the radio to see what it was doing on the radar and at that stage the storm was heading in our direction but about 1/2 an hour away. I went outside and made sure any that should be was put away, Alastair's car windows were up etc. This is what it what like to the west at 9.06am:

And the ensuing few minutes:






Next minute (yes an awfully quick 1/2 hour) we were hit with the most incredible wind and lashed by the rain. All the windows in our home are louvers...I HATE louvers!! They might be the best style of window for letting in a breeze, but by crikey they let in the rain even when closed and locked! Aaaaarrrggghhh!!! I didn't get photos of the rain pouring in...Nathan and I were too busy shifting things in an attempt to keep them dry. We now have saturated curtains, beds and carpets:



And the garden looks like a war zone. Unfortunately we removed most of the branches and straighten up the pot plants before taking these photos.





Luckily, Anna (my fountain) survived the storm and flying branches! BUT the garden shed is in pieces all over the flat including the bore-casing base it was screwed on to:


and Nathan's trampoline has completely disappeared!! In 15 minutes we had 2 1/2 inches (62.5mm) of rain.

Martin and Alastair were down at the shearing shed as we started shearing yesterday. They sent the shearers to town and came home with little trouble as the water gushed down the road in a raging torrent.

Now we have a terrible mess to tackle...care to help?

Take care,