Smiley Sam

You know how luck is where opportunity and preparation meet...

for us luck came to us as Sam.

We had chatted on the phone once, sent each other an email...but had no idea about each other, really! (Well she did see the blog). So with a leap of faith we launched into the unknown...all of us!

We were sent Sam through a fabulous organisation, Frontier Services - Outback Links, which is a volunteer organisation where people sign up to spend a designated amount of time on a property whilst getting a taste of the rural life.

Dubbed smiley Sam after Day 1, she became our right hand girl for a couple of weeks. No job was too big or small and always with a smile on her face.

The afternoons were spent showing Sam the cattle and horses and of course we got her riding...

she's still smiling!

She graduated to Top Holding paddock rounding up the weaners. A sign of a good horse is how it comes back to the rider. Tandia certainly did, although Sam did mention that she thinks Tandia was telling her at one stage that she didn't want to cross a creek by bending her head back and butting her foot, we all laughed and then agreed with her!

I also showed her our local tourist attraction, Stanage Bay.

The big blue is hard to pass up especially in a different part of Australia.

An early 6am start (in the dark) to town for the day meant we stumbled upon a reptile display, I could have run a mile, I live in the bush but have not desire to pick any of them up...but Sam and the boys lapped up the opportunity to hold almost all of them, lizards, fresh water crocodile and snakes...

She also helped me in the schoolroom, more than she realises. She made a couple of breakthroughs with one of the boys and the other just revelled in having someone else teach him. She is 6 months into her teaching degree I think she is made for it...see she's still smiling!

We talked a lot, we laughed a lot, we got a lot of things done and best of all friendships have been made. It has been a wonderful experience so we Thank you Sam!

A little piece of history...

I don't visit my Grandmother as much as I would like too...she has always been called Mumma "Grandma makes me sound too old she used to say", her age is always "99" too...

I wanted to borrow her slides to scan and turn into photos. Funny because she was one step ahead of me. Since 1982 she has been my only living Grandparent.

A trip to the US via Hawaii in the 60s...love her hat!

Her marriage to my Granddad, Mac was apparently a beautiful one. I have had older members of the family tell me they were so in love but unfortunately that was cut all too short due to him developing septicaemia and in those days it was all too late.

This is the last known photograph of him, only about 3 weeks before he passed. I can see where Dad got his frame from, raw and fit!

That was a tough time for my Mumma and the boys.

Fortunately however Uncle Adam (Mac's brother) committed to caring for Mac's family. Shown here with his beloved Brafords, Uncle Adam founded the breed by crossing a Hereford with Brahman. He felt having the british content increased fertility whilst retaining adaptability.

The bullock scales would have been cutting edge at the time. The scales were rendered useless when I was young but I always tried to imagine what they would have looked like originally.

Now we are all making our own history, I feel so very fortunate to have found these old photos and that my children get to know their Great Grandmother.