Day one!

I have been thinking now for a while about starting a blog, it seems that, that is what all the cool people are doing. At first I didn't really think I had anything of interest to write about and thought maybe I should wait for little ones (but who knows when that will be), but after the week that I've had, perhaps I do.

So for those of you who choose to follow, forgive my spelling and lack of grammatical accuracy. But here we go!

This week began with some very terrible new for me. I discovered that friend who is very dear to me and has always been a sort of 'father figure' has cancer. The words choke in my throat. Needless to say after this discovery, I spent the day in a rather melancholy state, although I was inspired to paint. I painted a picture to give to this friend of mine, but then thought maybe I was being a bit of a weirdo and a bit dramatic, so I'm holding onto it until the mood strikes me. I am now waiting with baited breath for the results, my father a week before was also diagnosed with prostate cancer, (the outcome of which we are also still waiting on). The week before that is was my dear uncle who had a cancer in a precarious location, however I think now that his outlook is very promising. So one down and two to go.

So the Monday of the week started, my mood was less than encouraging, following the news of the day before and being home alone while my husband is working away, I chose to feel sorry for myself rather than get in and get on with it. So I hooked up the slasher and proceeded to mow the airstrip and around the house. Willey's weather had forecast and inch of rain so I thought I would slash until the rain set in and then perhaps clean the shed. By 5pm, the rain still hadn't arrived and I decided I was over it, with a majority of the slashing done, I parked 'er up. Low and behold the tractor tyre had a split in the wall of the inside back tyre where there was water (forgive my language) "pissing out". Plugging it seemed out of the question because it was in the side wall and quite frankly I had never plugged a tractor tyre before and decided it must take some level of intelligence. So I called it a work day and worked on my floating shelf/ cupboard for my lounge room. Unfortunately the drop saw is not cutting at a perfect 90 degrees, so I'm not sure that my shelf will be a master piece. Stay tuned I will give photos when it's complete.

This greeted me on my fencing run lol

Tuesday morning, I decided that I would do something constructive, in a slightly better mood today, so I went fencing. To repair a number of random broken wires that had been annoying me for a while and I just hadn't gotten around to fixing. One particular wire was FOODBAR, so I had to replace a section of the fence line. This all sounds very boring I'm sure, but the story has an ending, I promise. After lunch I set out to go fencing again and check on some of dad's steers, while driving around I went through a patch of thick grass which I didn't think would be wet, but as it turned out, it was! It really was. So I was bogged. Thanks mostly to the fact that I was just poking along steadily and the fact that we still had not renewed the back tyres of the ute which I'm positive are that worn they would not even be road worthy. So a walk home was on the cards. Probably on 4km but it felt like more especially up our hill. Having no other vehicle to pull me out, husband still away, tractor tyre flat, I loaded four 6x1" boards onto the two-wheeler and precariously drove back to the ute (they do it in Thailand I'm sure I could manage.

The boards didn't work! So I decided on plan B, I would strain myself out by hammering a steel picket into the ground and attaching the number 8 wire to the bull bar and to the picket and use the strainer to pull it out, after all I wasn't really very bogged!

FAIL! The wire sheered off where the strainers gripped it. Well F it I said! Decided to call it a day and leave the ute in the bog!

Wednesday. I decided to take a big bucket of sand down to see if that would offer me some traction. One the way down, trying to balance the bucket of sand and drive was ok until I had a stop for the gate. Over we went. No dramas, opened the gate and off I went again, but 'oh what's this', there is fuel leaking from the fuel tank. There was a hole in the fuel tank. Just bloody great! Never mind it's not a big leak. So I continue to the ute and put the sand at each tyre. FAIL. Bugger! I head back home. Out of ideas, the only other vehicle was the grader which I have no idea how to drive and the excavator which has shonky turning motors and doesn't like long distance. I'm nt sure what plan I'm up to now, but I decided to attempt a plug in the tractor tyre, even if it was enough to get me there and back. So I plugged the tyre (with the same plugs I use for any other tubeless tyre, oh well). Filled it will air, because I have no idea how to fill it with water. So I have one tyre with water and one tyre with air, can't be helped I guess. So I managed to get the tractor to the ute and go "follow me!" with no one steering the ute, I forced it to follow me out of the bog. Breaking a tie down strap and a sling strap in the process. But I got her out. So tractor home and a long walk back down to the ute to drive it home. So after all this I decided to spend the rest of the day riding my horses.

Thursday came and I had decided with the tractor tyre not the best, the bike with the hole in the fuel tank and the ute with bally tyres, I decided to stick with my horses for the day. So I got on my freshly broken horse (not ridden for 5 days); he decided that he didn't want to stand still for me, and temporarily forgetting that he was so young, scolded him and pulled on his head and give him a good jab in the ribs with my spurs. Anyhow, he wasn't really impressed about that. Between that raring up and the spinning all I could think was, "I'm home alone, I better not get K.Oed or worse", and; "Oh I could bail out, there's a spot, no, there's a spot, no, there's a spot, no." Eventually, and thankfully, I finally remembered that I had installed a safe word, "wooo". He stopped! So with my saddled, high on his wither I crawled down, my legs on yet functioning fell on the ground, where my darling horse snorted down at me. I decided to start again and the rest of the ride went off without a hitch. Next horse! My next horse was fairly well behaved but after shying at his 15th blade of grass for the morning I was less than impressed. I pulled him into a one-rein-stop and in the process of stopping/ turning, he ran into the barbed-wire fence, cutting himself and pushing my leg/ spur into his ribs. He bolted out to the side but thankfully quickly regained his composure without further incident. So now my poor horse, although a very small laceration, was bleeding profusely because was had been trotting/ cantering for about 6km now and he was a bit hot. So a long walk home with my dear horse, thankfully by the time we had got home, there was no more blood and wound was scarcely seen despite the excessive bleeding.

After this I decided that something was telling me it was just not my week. I stayed inside to do book work and in the afternoon I went to light a bon-fire. I know what you may be thinking, that after the week I've had perhaps a fire isn't the best idea. But for me there is nothing quite so pacifying as a good fire and a cold beer. So my work week is pretty much ended I have  a day in town tomorrow and the weekend I might have another go at riding my ponies. Hopefully this time no dramas.