This poor little dude K.O.ed himself on our verandah the other day, so I took the opportunity to take a few photos, he's a forest kingfisher.
Getting out of the classroom, we ventured out to have a look at our big babies. And of course give Pirate a few biccies.
Rollie.
Aren't they beautiful.
I know that I say this every year, but our weaners are just coming along in leaps and bounds. I credit this 100% to Justin and his diligence in selecting the best bulls that our money can afford that are the most well suited to our cattle. I used to look at the bulls that, I liked the look of and that I wanted my calves to look like, but now I realised that I need to be looking that the bulls that will suit the cow in order to produce the progeny that I like. So in other words, we need more Angus content bulls to offset our higher brahman content cows. In order to get the line of calves like we have produced this year.
Not sure what we should name this one.
Oh yeh, soon we will have drivers and gate openers!!! Good motivation to make all steel gates.
I really don't understand these people who own cattle, but who don't get great pleasure from driving around and looking at them all. I mean seriously, get a new profession!!
The below photo is a style of photography that is a bit in vogue at the moment, where the photographer takes all the green out of the shot. I don't mind it in some occasions, but I feel as though it's getting a little overdone.
My little gremlin!
So we got back from two hectic weeks of being at Beef week and then having mini school and it was going to be my last opportunity to capture the milky-way over the creek. So we packed up camp and went down the creek for the night. It was positively beautiful. I am repeatedly told that my photography is very poorly timed with the fishing however.
Campsite
First thing in the morning, the milkyway had spun around to the other side of the creek. I did have plans of going to bed early and getting up at 2:30am to capture the galactic centre in the right spot, but I ended up just staying awake until 11:30 and then rising early to take some more at 5am.
There was also a meteor shower, but I didn't capture many of that.
Blue hour sunrise.
G man, ever the keen fisherman was out with his line in before anyone else was up!
My first attempt at star trails.
The above was taken from 23:30-0530. I really like it but the next one I do will be a south facing one.
From my phone:
Love these cool afternoons with the pinks and purples, so pretty! I was trying to capture the moon rising, as it looked absolutely massive. Photo is very unimpressive though.
We are actually getting these guys out on their horses this week, which is so good as they have been seriously neglected for the past little while.
I think maybe I take too many photos of her.
Again trying to get another "huge moon" shot!
Love this kid!
Our first weekend back from Beef week/ mini school and we had Ange and Jase come to stay with us for the night camping and then just as they were heading home, Sheree, Aaron and their kids arrived to stay for lunch and a very quick spot of fishing. Then they were off again and we were off to look at our new temporary home just up the road.
Was so lovely to catch up even though it was terribly short.
Sheree was paying me out that I can't smile properly cause of my new plate!
Missy is a little cranky until she has had her morning cup of tea!
Nothing better than a campfire with some good mates.
Bonni and Lou even came down for a visit in the arvo to drop off a tripod for me, so I could have 2 cameras taking photos. Because to do the star trails, one camera needs to be in the one position for a long time.
Gosh it was good to sit down and relax after the madness of the previous couple of weeks.
The beautiful Aunty Ange.
Why is it that the moon is never big in photos...... barely even a spec!
Kids and I don't need a whole lot of encouragement to start fires.
You know I think I've said this before but I really didn't want to home school! I didn't think that I was cut out for it. But I'm actually really enjoying it and some of the friends that I've made in such a short period of time, makes me think that I don't really want to leave it.
Kaka and Nanna
Cow donut! How could you possibly go wrong!
I have a feeling that by next beef week I might have someone who is taller than me if he keeps going the way he's going!
Beef week meant that going out for dinner at the Bavarian was quite nice as there was hardly anyone there, good opportunity to catch up with my in-laws.
We visited the tech yards at beef and while there was so much interesting stuff and advances with so many aspects of the beef industry, without knowing where our new home is going to be, so much of it was a bit wasted on us this year. Hopefully by next beef will be ready to go!
Yes, she cut her own fringe and yes she did her own lipstick! She has already surpassed me with her feminine prowess.
Myself on the other hand, I took this photo because I thought that as a parent I would have it all together.... yeh...nah!!! I'm not sure how long it had been since I brushed my hair!!! I know it badly needs cutting!
Beef Week commenced with the nose to tail dinner and I think this is our third in a row. As always I really enjoyed it. I took mum and Ash out for her birthday as it was the evening of her birthday that the dinner was on, so it worked out well.
Mum couldn't handle the raw mince but and I must say I had to swallow quickly.... but I've eaten raw horse before, so what's a bit of raw cow??
My dear darling, I'm actually very surprised how he pulled up after this session, as he never drinks wine. I don't think there was much of the bottle left.
Mum was paying me out about my large forehead. Least she's honest! Gosh I love this woman! I'm so lucky to have her as my mother and my rudder that keeps me on the straight.... perhaps not so narrow, but at least heading in the right general direction as best she can!
This was before the wine.
I was impressed with the table decorations. And all in all I was just generally impressed with the whole presentation. Tess Cam was our MC and she really knew her stuff. We also had a female butcher, with a cheffing background, which was lovely because she actually told us about each cut and how they could be prepared and what they were good for with regards to portioning and family size. So it was fantastic. The only thing they didn't do, was explain to us how the parts that we were eating had been prepared, but apart from that it was great.
I thought the cotton was a cool idea.
Still pretty spiffy I reckon!
Trying to keep up with my workouts. I had an MRI on my hip to find out what was causing all the pain. I have iliotibial band friction syndrome. Which pretty much means that I just need some cement to harden up. Apparently (and my podiatrist was very politically correct in saying) I'm not abnormal, but... my muscle wraps around the bone instead of joining directly onto it, which causes friction when I run, resulting in swelling and therefore pain. Aaaand whats more is that there's pretty much nothing I can do about it apart from try some cortisone injections, which I will if the pain increases again. So, I've had to cut back on my running significantly which isn't bad because now I've incorporated riding my horses which is far better. Now, three days a week, I just run down the hill, ride my horse for 20mins and then run/ sprint back up the hill depending on my energy levels and how fast my horses makes me go!
Plus I'm also doing 25mins of HIIT before it gets light enough to run, so I'm working on getting back to my pre-ACL rupture fitness level but it's a steady process. I watch an old video of me doing a 25 days of 25 push ups challenge and I don't think I'd be there yet lol.
Plus it's nice to be getting out my horses again, even though he tried to buck me off, but his leg has healed now.
It has come a long way from where it was this time 12mths ago.
So that's a wrap for another month. I'm actually impressed that with all the chaos I managed to get out with my camera. Even more-so that I managed to get them edited. Also managed to get all but one of the thank you letters for the show sent away and my BAS done (on time even, which was a shock because I thought I was a month overdue).... so winning!!!
We are still packing and it's getting a bit real now, but we have a destination now which is awesome. We are moving up the road to our neighbours house. So fortunately it's not a big move for the first one. And we are still scouring the countryside for our new home. But I think it's great to be having our first move not too far. Also we have a home for our babies (the cows) so that's also a big load off.
Hope you are all well. Despite the chaos, we are great. We are getting out in the afternoons to take the kids on their horses which is something I have been missing out on with all the stuff I've been doing in the afternoons with the show and then being away for a couple of weeks. Aaaand best of all they are absolutely loving it and wanting to ride their horses!! So we are winning!!! G man is doing fantastic at school and I don't think I can take much credit! He's a champ. Kaka is ...... well she sit on the bean bag and watches a fair bit of TV lol.... she's gonna get such a shock when school starts.
Anyhow trendsetters, keep it real. Love to you all.
