Blackall in Flood

Like Roma, Mitchell and St George, our little outback town flooded but not to the same extent. Several years ago, the council relocated many of the houses in flood prone areas. There are a number of businesses still in the flood area but being the style of building they are, impossible to relocate.

My friend Lorelei took these photos and emailed them to me in Brisbane. They were taken about 5 hours before the expected flood peak of 10pm on Saturday 4th February. She said it was amazing to stand in the street and watch the water slowly but surely inch up higher and higher.

Like every small community, everyone pitches in and supports those in need.





Living out of town, we don't get to see this for ourselves so I am always grateful to friends like Lorelei who send photos.

To Brisbane

Can you believe it...February already and just to add to it, almost halfway through the month?? In no time at all we''ll be told how many days it is 'til Christmas. Easter is still 2 months away and yet Easter eggs are already available in Brisbane.

We recently had a quick trip to Brisbane...that turned out not to be so quick.

At the end of January we went down for this:

Yep...tickets to see Ronan Keating. Sharon Corr was his special guest. The concert was terrific and I loved every bit except for the old girls from far NQ who were seated right beside us. Boy did they have good lungs and they yelled and screamed between EVERY song Ronan sang!!! Martin was sitting right beside the noisiest one and he covered his ears every time. If they were in their 40's or 50's I could understand but they were in their 60's!! I will admit I found their behaviour really quite embarrassing.

It was wonderful to spend some time with our boys and their partners. Nathan adores his big brothers and misses them very much.

Ally and Adam

Craig and Kathryn have a baby due in early June....we are all so excited and Nathan can hardly wait to be an uncle again. As you can see, Kath is blooming.


Two days later we headed home from Brisbane, only to get no further than Roma, after a truckie called us on the radio to say the police had closed the road due to flooding. We spent the night in Roma, hoping to continue on the next day, but it wasn't to be. Then we heard that Roma was to get a good drenching and knowing that it's notorious for flooding, decided the best thing was to head back to Brisbane.

We took Nathan to the movies (his first time) to see Happy Feet 2...a really lovely movie. The Sunday was Nathan's 8th birthday. We had a family barbie at Craig and Kath's place. Nathan chose his birthday cake...it was rich chocolate with fancy icing and a little plastic Happy Birthday on the top. He was lucky to receive some really cool presents.

On the Monday the main highway home was still closed. After making a few calls, we decided to head home via Taroom and Emerald, staying with Mum at Clermont. Finally we arrived home last Wednesday, a week after leaving the first time! It was a long way but the country looked absolutely magnificent albeit rather soggy.

Now we are trying to get back in to our school routine. We are a bit all over the place at the moment but we'll get there. We had a hiccup this morning as our school phone and the headset aren't working properly but a new one is in the mail.

Storms

Last night I went outside at about 7.30pm. In the north and east the skies were rumbling and there was a brilliant lightning display! I will admit that I was quietly happy it was over there and not here.
At about 9.30pm we could hear a storm rolling in from the west. We whizzed around disconnecting everything plugged into electricity...just incase. The rain began just after 10pm. Along with it came a fresh breeze, most welcome as it'd been very muggy and still prior to that. It's so nice to sit quietly and enjoy the sound of the rain on the roof and the smell of air that is just so fresh and clean.
This morning we measured 21.75mm (87pts)...not much compared to falls around our district. The creek that crosses the road on the way to town is on its way up and not doubt the river in town will be soon too.



This afternoon we watch this storm build up and wonder if it will cross the hills. Not hard to tell that it's summer when we receive most of our rain.....

PS This storm disappeared to the south.

School Resumes

Schools opened their doors in Queensland for all students yesterday.I now have a big Year 3 boy in the schoolroom. His teacher is new to the central west as well as distance education. We actually started school last week, as all going well, we'll be away next week.


The new C2C National curriculum begins this year too and this has seen many changes for classrooms across the country. For distance education, we have gone more digital. A laptop and USB stick now play a very important role in our schoolroom. We have received our first unit of work (now 5 weeks work instead of 2), but apparently that will soon stop and we'll only have the mistick. How things change!

There has been more rain over the weekend and today began heavily clouded, then clear sky and now more storms are rolling in from the west. Listening to the ABC, there are enormous amounts of rain in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast and some suburbs are preparing for evacuation. Hopefully nothing like last summer's rain will be experienced in the south east of our lovely state. Living on the land, we never take the rain for granted and NEVER wish it away. Out here, you can never have too much AND you never know when it will rain again.

Thanks for looking,

A little gift

I made this hairclip board as part of a baby gift for a precious little girl. She may be only 10 days old but she has a head full of long black hair.

Hair clips and bands tends to get lost easily or tangled in a big mess in a drawer so I made this board not only to be useful but pretty enough to hang on the wall. To hold little head bands, the rows with the bows open up under the bow (there's velcro holding the ends together) and then the band can be threaded on and then the ribbon closed.



So what do you think? Do you like it? I had lots of fun creating it and being the mother of four boys, it was lovely doing something girly.

Thanks for looking,

Another Storm

We were watching a good storm build up this afternoon. Martin was in the process of trucking home 10 bulls and when he arrived back in town for his second load, I told him to stay there.







We measured 130pts, 184pts at Koondoo (our neighbour to the south) and 80pts at Mt Calder (our neighbour to the west).

After last weekend's heat, it will be a welcome boost to the paddocks.

Thanks for looking,

Voucher Holder

Tonight we are going out to dinner to celebrate a friend's 30th birthday. We couldn't go empty handed so I have organized a voucher for him and made this holder to pop it in.

As you may have guessed Luke is very keen on horses.....





Thanks for looking,