Thank you Cattle Kids & Chaos.....

It looks good,

Even better,

Mouth watering delicious

Generosity of people in the bush.

Camping for the non campers

Last week Rohan had a school camp for 4 days. He and I stayed in town to do Under 11s cricket while,

Drewe and husband headed off to the Christmas Break up for Pony Club. Drewe has been riding a couple of old mares but their days of travelling to Pony Club are over, when you are a horse and over the age of 30 you really have earned the right to stay in the green paddock at home. Finishing the day with a swim at the local pool cooled the kids and the adults down.

What I learnt about camping...

1. Look at the rain forecast

2. Find the instructions to erect the tent before attempting

3. Don't listen to you husband when he says it won't rain

4. and therefore put the fly over the top

5. before you have a few drinks

6. and camp in the damn shed with everyone else instead!

Of Pandanus and Pelicans

With a few wet years to account for now we can see the benefits to the flora and fauna.

We have been on bushwalks of late and discovered small plants of the Pandanus Tree littered through the creek beds (native to our area). I love the Pandanus Tree it has such a prehistoric look and you can see the fine thorns on each branch of the young plant, I assume this ensures it survival to adulthood.

 At the end of the creek we came across these beauties,

there is quite a population, and clearly difficult to photograph but they are majestic!

(Whenever I see them I think of the "Nigel" the pelican in the movie "Finding Nemo" voiced by Geoffrey Rush...
wise and funny!!)

Garden Watering System Project complete

I have finally installed the last irrigation system in the gardens.  The skies have not yet been kind to us so I soldiered on to complete the dripper system which is now installed in all of my gardens.

The idea of course is to give plants a good deep watering once a week rather than sprinkle on top and lose half of it to evaporation. Obviously I couldn't finish the mulch until the dripper system was installed....all in good time remember.

This weekend I decided if it didn't rain I would finish the darn job.

It all seems to be working well.

We have had a casualty though. The archway has rusted out in 3 places and unable to be saved. The monotonous winds we have been having finally sealed its fate. I have saved the climbing Iceberg Roses, perhaps I will suggest a timber arbour for this spot.....

 This garden bears the brunt of the winds and I managed to lose a lot of plants.

Some decisions to be made on what to plant, any suggestions?

A busy week...

Mary Poppins (Tracey) has been here for another week. She brought with her a plethora of home grown supplies and a great many eggs for me. This was only due to an altercation at the corner store from the previous Saturday when I purchased 2 dozen free range eggs only to get home to find that 14 of them were rotten, I threw the rest out - I'm not going back for a refund or anything ever from that place!

The boys are environmental warriors this week...seen here making a cane toad trap.

  

Unsuccessful to date but they have a plan!

They also managed to make donuts,

delicious with an afternoon coffee and better than anything you can buy!

For me it has been a week of collating figures for the bank and their impending visit, yes I like this part of the job and I don't find any of it boring.

There have also been those jobs I have had in the pipeline for up to a year that lie in the unimportant not urgent quadrant, 

like

 repairing the ceiling, 

sealing the doors, 

Tracey and Drewe wire brushed the chair for me and gave it a spray of anti rust to which I then painted, hopefully I can get another couple of years out of it.

and recovering the stools,

While husband has been out fencing again this week, the boys and I have all progressively come down with the flu, we are just so grateful to have had Tracey back in our schoolroom for the last time this year...

feeling organised and even though fluey, invigorated. Thanks Trace x

Thriving at school

I found this book in our school library earlier last Term....it is a great resource to have whether you are teaching your children daily in a home schooling or distance education environment OR if you just want to be proactive and involved in your childrens' learning.

My library of resources is growing and I just had to add this little beauty to it. Booktopia has them!

Another fencing job.....

People often ask me when my beloved is not present, "What's he up to at the moment?"

This time of year it is always fencing......their response is usually, "Gosh he can't have too much left!"

In a previous post, "On a Monday morning" I eluded to us him starting another fence. Fencing on your own is a long and arduous task, lots of walking, I really should have bought him a pedometer before all of this, would have made an interesting stat!

This is a fence in a breeder paddock. The end of it feeds into another new laneway to the yards. Laneways are a cost effective, labour efficient system whereby no pressure on animals means happy cows and calves.

It wasn't that long ago the original paddock took 5 of us to muster, with this fence finished 2 could do it.

The vision is to keep our operation simple; to make it easy for the cattle, which means easier for us and whomever else gets to help on that day. Fences provides an opportunity to rest country and therefore also beneficial to our environment.....it is what sustains us and it is at the very heart of our operation.

My day job, teaching two boys, doesn't allow much scope for any big projects, so to be a part of this feels like I make some contribution to the business, other than the financial side.

The wide open spaces out here still makes the heart flutter, but today I had to sight the line...funny as I have bad eye-sight!

Posts ready and waiting

What he had done to date.

A little interest being shown from the residents,

apparently this heifer always makes herself known!

A picture tells a thousand words

"What the heck is he up to now!"

At this point both of us were a little frustrated with them standing right on the line!

The boys were obviously busy with their own antics, the joke must have been funny!

Nothing like good old fashioned play....enjoying our backyard.

Hurrying back to us, our job is done!

 

I am pleased to report, the fence is finished, he arrived home around 7, glasses were chinked. Now on to the next fence, to finish a lane way for the steers. I think he can see the end for another year!