Tour de Peninsula

Unplanned adventures are the best.

Today we had a late finish in the schoolroom. My eldest son has been learning the guitar for 2 and a half years via Skype, his teacher lives in South Australia.

But when you spend so much time indoors you are grateful for the outdoors. As much as the office is calling me the kids and I got on our bikes and headed for the hills.

There are some great hills where we live and I love the trees,

I didn't tell the boys how far we were going. They asked if I had brought water, not exactly, just mail and mail bags.

We caught a glimpse of how much water was still going across the plain,

and I did a quick grass check, complete with mozzies!

I could see the boys getting tired, so with a flat back tyre I rode home,

and sent out the support crew,

Here they come, my eldest child has a huge heart and a tremendous amount of try so I wasn't surprised to see him pass up the offer of a lift. My youngest is our funny one, he reminds me of me, opting for the lift home, it is funny how with only two kids that they can be so different.

Building committee

Today they're builders.

My brother has taken the day to come up and help out.

While the kids and I are tied up in the schoolroom each day, the farm keeps ticking along.

My husband is a great planner, new projects to make things better, easier and efficient OR in this case, protect infrastructure. After the most significant rainfall ever recorded for July here, we are making the most of not being able to get very far, boggy conditions anywhere off the ridge.

It is so fulfilling to see what you have achieved for the day.

And yes we are enjoying the sun!

School's out

Time to tail the weaners with Dad!

Rainy days

Unseasonal balmy wet weather has made life a little more interesting than usual. My regular trip to town of late has been through this stuff, 40kms of it. I would say I am working with the council on rectifying this ongoing issue, however lets not let that get in the "road" of a good story...

 Our trip was tied in with a quick boys adventure for my husband to see the Reds play, by all accounts a great game....

I on the other hand had dinner with family, followed by an early night, only to be woken by heavy rain. A quick check of the Rain Radar app showed quite significant rainfall from home to town.....I momentarily thought of making a midnight trip to home. This kind of act is not normally advisable when the road is dry let alone after 4 days of wet weather. Having had vehicle convoys chew up the road and the regular tourist traffic I decided to wait until morning.

A quick detour to the airport, we then hit the road home expecting it to be the normal 2 hour drive. After driving through water, sheeted across the bitumen, our first creek was in minor flooding, the second not a problem, 3rd and 4th made us start considering the 5th......at .4 and knowing that there had been up to 125mm upstream we think we hit it while it was still rising. This creek is known locally for its quick flow with tidal influences downstream I didn't even think to have a tide timetable book in the car. (Note to self check for an app!) Oh I am back in love with my technology too, surprisingly we could get 3G service!

So with a car full of groceries, thoughts about our next feed wasn't an issue, grateful for the cooked chook and fresh loaf of bread, along with the Harvey Norman catalogue acting as a substitute cutting board,

this passed at least 1/2 an hour of our 6 hour wait.

In 6 hours you have lots of time to ponder a strategy. We decided to see the neighbour (who also happens to be a distant cousin of mine) as to their opinion. After a coffee and a chat we went back to check our marker.....

I guess the tide was in, it didn't much drop in those two hours leaving us stranded and taking up the offer of their generous hospitality for the night.

We made the right decision, only to arrive home this morning to this. Water, water everywhere.

This is all positive, we know it can happen but hadn't anticipated it this year. I am looking forward to having a rethink about grazing strategy for the next 6 months!

A normal day in the schoolroom......

We are experiencing a wet winter so it is rather nice to be tied up in the schoolroom. Term 3 already, the year is flying and my children are growing up ever so quickly.

We are having our usual computer and internet glitches, part of a weekly occurence when one many is are relying on a system that sometimes doesn't meet the needs of the user/s. One thing these boys are good at is troubleshooting......"Mum" internet is slow, "Mum" internet has dropped out, again!
My response is, "write it on a piece of paper."

The older generations need not fear, in this digital age they still know what paper is, I have a recycling pile to prove it (Yes we recycle in the bush too!).

These boys of course are better with the computers than me. Eldest child is quite handy in solving my java issues (my current glitch). Perhaps I will put him on to Telstra technical assistance next time we have a drop out. The last tech support officer asked me what I teach, I said "everything", I don't think he knew what "everything" was!

Oldest child is immersed in fractions, whilst the youngest member is learning about procedures.

Teleteaching lessons are daily, they get to talk to their teachers and be a part of their class. They both look forward to the contact with other people.

We are grateful for the good days, blessed with the occasional excellent day and reminisce about those days when we have the odd shocker. What did Forrest Gump say, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get!"

The Vegetable Garden that he built.....

A couple of years ago I was presented with this meticulously constructed vegetable garden for which he was expecting great things.....

I enjoy gardening but in our climate it is particularly rugged in the Summer months so I don't even attempt it anymore, but as the Autumn months arrived I began preparing again...

the green manure crop followed.....

then I lightly worked it in and mulched.

As we await the anticipated produce I can only hope it survives the reasonably wet winter we are experiencing.

I am very happy however to be harvesting a consistent supply of rocket and coriander.

It goes so well with the eggs this old girl, Jenny is providing us with!

There is another chook somewhere, Cheery is her name but she plays up like a two-bob watch; we don't tend to rely on her for a guaranteed feed!

Paradise.....

Wake up to this in the morning,

walk on this in the afternoon,

amazed at what grows with no attention,

find their secret hideout,

pick a couple of these,

to have with this,

followed by this for dinner.....a little bit of paradise.

End of Financial Year

Another financial year has drawn to a close. In my previous employment I was a part of a team involved in the output of financial statements and tax returns, tax planning, weekly meetings and a lot of office discussion about how we were going to tackle the forging year ahead. Changes to tax law was inevitable and it was our job to be precise in the detail. I was proud of the work I did in those days.

These days my role has changed as it does when you are raising a family, teaching kids, cooking, cleaning, 2IC in the paddock (if I am lucky) and my role as the Office Manager. I revel in the budgeting process; preparing for the new year ahead and analysing the year about to close, comparing actuals with budgetary figures. The trick then is to tie the grass and cattle management in with the numbers (I have not mastered this part of it by any means but love a challenge); numbers are my thing!

The boys recently asked why I became an accountant. 

I explained to the kids that they should do what they are drawn to. I once read that you should "love what you do and be good at it!" I love what I did then and I love what I do now!

One sunny winters' afternoon with the moon high for the coming night sky,

three cowboys set out to gather 10 head from the lane.

It took a while but they arrived to the yards, steady and calm.

Then it was time for a little lucerne hay......

A quick bare back ride.......

then home to have a conversation about our day around the campfire.