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| Lara Wetlands Barcaldine |
Just like that..... June is missing!!! Where did June go? I don't know, it's just gone!
With a whole month missing from my regular posts, you may guess that I have a few photos up my sleeve and you would be right.... so go and make a cuppa tea and sit back and have a browse.
I also feel as though I need to mention for anyone new to my blog posts, that viewing these on a phone doesn't really do justice to a lot of the images, an ipad or a computer would be much better.
Soooo let me try to fill you in and some of these photos are pretty higgle-de-piggle so I will do my best to try and put some timeline on it all!
As seems to be my usual style, my photos have all uploaded in reverse order, so let us go backwards in time. I would try to write all my words backwards but frankly I t'nod yllaer evah emit rof taht.
On our way home from a holiday to Barcaldine, we visited a friends place and we got a tour of their place, which was awesome. I have been friends with them for 13years now and this was the first time that I've ever had a look around their place, how strange is that! Always there for parties I guess.
The best thing about doing distance Ed is that you have a fair bit of flexibility with the lessons and with Garrett only having two days for his last week, I decided that we would start our school holidays early. Grandma and Poppy had decided to venture out to Lara Wetlands for a stay and so we opted to go and join them for a few nights.
Gave me some more opportunity to use my new lens.
Bouquet of wild flowers... I mean honestly, I'm sure if I actually tried to grow these in my garden with love and care, they would all just die!
The world is always so interesting through the eyes of a macro lens. You find some little gems.
Big fella and I had to stop and take some photos of these two (above and below) because we couldn't agree on what they were, to be honest, I'm still not 100%, wattle? Acacia? A variant. But, they are clearly not the same plant which partly makes me the winner lol.
Big fella taking the gremlins for one last canoe before we departed the wetlands.
We travelled on the Saturday, to arrive quite late and stayed until Thursday which I think was just the perfect length of stay. I managed to get some nice shots while we were there and interestingly, when I wasn't busy all day and not exercising hard, I wasn't anywhere near as tired as I had been.... funny that!
Sunrise
It's an amazing little campsite and most nights there were caravans everywhere!
The morning I went out to take these astro shots, there must have been a bit of a meteor shower, as I managed to capture a few of them.
Sometimes when I look at the stars, I think "how on earth, do they get that constellation out of those stars", when when I take a photo, I seem to be able to see it better.
We went on a botanical walk when we were near Barcaldine, which was amusing because some of the trees that were 'signed', weren't actually alive and some weren't even there.
This stuff, had the most beautiful perfume, very pungent, even days later.
She was looking for the piece of buffel grass that he was hiding.
My other dear friends Dick and Heather, met us at Lara on their journey home and it was so good to catch up with them again.
Was a bit of a bird photographers dream out there, I took a few, but I lack a fair bit of patience.
I can see the resemblance between the T-Rex
These little babies were everywhere and the mothers weren't overly protective, although they didn't appreciate it if you stood between them and their babies as Dick discovered.
Missy and G man, did their part by "helping" split the fire wood.
And the little social butterflies made friends with everyone.
I think I could just about have an album entitles "the many faces of kaka".
If you're wondering, that's my 'stand really still for the long exposure' face. lol.
Our camp looked pretty rough compared to a lot of other set-ups, but I kinda like our little bush camp!
I dearly wished this one was a bit sharper, as I think it would look lovely on a tea cup.
Or the next one even.
I'd love to caption this with something witty, but I haven't found the perfect one yet!
Pretty much every night Ash entertained us with his multicoloured flames and we had lots of firewood to burn from the load that I had brought along the journey! I'm very pleased the scaleys didn't stop me!
About 3 nights a week, they have a band play with some billy tea and damper, which was really nice. We knew Viv and Karen Jenkinson who played a couple of nights that we were there. They also played at our engagement party.
Back home and I was hoping for frost for my photography benefit, but I was out of luck, so these were all I got for my effort of going out in the cold.
Much to my excitement, I found a new photography location in the neighbour's paddock.
How gorgeous are these swans! I have never seen so many all together.
I couldn't decide if I liked the longer shots with the water movement or the more realistic one.
The afternoon that I took all these shots, I had taken the horses out for a ride and I was watching the clouds all afternoon thinking "ooooo it's going to turn it on", so when the sun was starting to go down, we all made a quick dash for home to quickly grab the buggy and head out to my new spot!
I bought myself a new camera bag that I can sling across myself and I can ride my horse with so I was able to get some action shots of the kids while we were out and about.
G man seems to be a bit quicker on the pegs and I think having a bit smaller horse, he can weave a bit better, so I had to stretch Kaka's course out a bit for big Bobby to get around.
And finally that's the end from my good camera. Now to go through whats been happening on my phone. Which often makes me realise how busy we have been and that my lack of attention to my blog is actually well founded.
Phone Photos:
Our babies, from our first calf heifers.
We ventured out to Springsure for Justin's grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary, which also fell on the same weekend as the Springsure show, so we got to catch up with lots of people from Springsure and from school, so that was excellent.
We had a nice little reunion for the 50th wedding anniversary celebration, which is so good to catch up with the rest of the family as some are as far away as Melbourne. Such a fun bunch so catch up with, always plenty of laughs.
On our way home from Springsure, we called in to see Justin's other grandma Shirley. It's such a blessing to still have great grandparents and these moments are so precious. I can't recall how old I was when my great grandma passed away and my grandparents had all passed on before my kids were born, so they never knew them.
Ratbag child it is! I'm pretty sure this was a sugar induced high still ongoing from being at the show!
Home again!
I try to spend most afternoons after school, getting the kids out on their horses. Good to get us all out of the house!
"No dad, I'm not eating horse food!"
This gave me a giggle.
We even put Grandma to work this month, doing some mustering for the weaning. Old girl still rides, like she does it every day!
I'm so grateful for our plant of horses! I don't think you really learn to appreciate a good horse until you have children or grandmas that you want to put on them!
A few strays that the chopper pilot found for us and blew into this old set of yards.
Our weaners that we sold! They did absolutely amazing averaging 275kg and $2019/head. Compared to an invoice I found from 2018 where they averaged 235kg and $639/head. Makes a pretty big difference to your budget when it fluctuates like that. My mind boggles at what must happens with much larger operations than ours. No wonder there is so much money in the property market at the moment.
We weaned the rest of what wasn't quite ready to sell and we are selling them next week but they didn't weigh as heavy as these guys did, especially after being weaned.
Grandma doing the babysitting while we were doing the cattle work.
Kids of mine are becoming little photographers!! Not hard with such a photogenic father though!
Dad took the kids to the sale to check out our babies and see if they were behaving.
Meanwhile, I got my truck license..... Finally. Was a bit amusing, as we walked out to the truck, the assessor was asking me "have you had much driver training?"... I go, "Uuuum, is that a test question?.... Do lick runs count? Mate, I've never even driven in town, this will be my first time, as my husband dropped the truck here!" lol!! Funny in hindsight, but I wonder what he was thinking. No one will ever say that I'm dishonest!
G man had his sports day and I'm obviously not the best parent, as I didn't get one photo.
Someone was using their new makeup.
Master Minti in his little home.
That sky!!
I bought myself a new stick vacuum which I absolutely love!
This guy is such a dude! I really need to spend some more time on him, trying to get him a bit more cowy!
Helping dad tail the weaners.
I walked out through not very deep water, so I could get a shot of these swan eggs. I will have to go and check and see if they have hatched yet. I guess they knew that more rain was coming because I was thinking that they were going to be in trouble if it dried up any more.
Kaka asking why dad got more dinner than her, so we had to be compared!
Me and missy on our maiden truck trip to town.
Dick and Heather at Lara. Can't half tell that they are from the cold country!
Check out my gorgeous new quilt! My dear friend Sheree Zumpe made a heap and she showed me. I couldn't stop thinking about this one, so she gifted it to me!
Viv and Grandma
We were late on our journey out to Lara because we did a bearing on our trailer. Fortunately we had dad on the job and he got us back on the road again. I was so grateful that a guy at the emerald servo heard it and told us about it, otherwise we could have been in big trouble down the road with no spare parts or anything.
We found a rock at Lara. I think think one came from Newcastle.
Kaka taking 100 photos so I ask her to take some of us.... she took 1, this one!
We took a day trip to the stockmans hall of fame. It was good, but I think I would rather just listen to a book or and autobiography from some of the explorers or pioneers.
The woodchopping team.
Kaka learning to ride her bike. Riding with G man and Poppy.
My Brie which turned out really well, but it was a little bit overdone! Should have eaten it a few weeks earlier, but I was waiting for our trip.
Check out this old timer!
Barcaldine and the Tree of Knowledge.
I didn't feel any more knowledgable
Another rock find at Jericho
We had a fairly leisurely trip from Barcaldine back to our friends place at Rutland, outside Anakie, so we took the opportunity to make a few little stops along the way, at the lookout.
On our way to Emerald Agrow.
Was so awesome for the cousins to have a catch up at agrow and I actually got out to buy a few little things for me. Kaka, Mia, Garrett and Darcy.
Sheree and I checking out the horses. I was so proud of her buying herself a beautiful little mare and she tells me that she's really happy with her. I'm so pleased!
Dad and G man checking out the can-ams
Miss put her face inside her bow and pulled the string! *insert face palm here*
Kindy gets a little bit neglected, so I took the opportunity while I had some spare time during the holidays to do an experiment. They loved it!
Baby sitting our friends pody.
The sickness that claimed us all, has been much comforted by our little mate.
Bit of an excessive fire more marshmallows.
Kaka talking to a lizard.
Coming home from being away for over a week and coming down off the high of doing something that I had been anticipating for a while, I needed some comfort food. So I made some apple turnovers and custard.
Grandma and Poppy stayed on at Lara for a bit longer after we had left and she sent me a few photos of her cake baking and hanging out with Miss Molly.
I've been unwell all week and it got to Wednesday and I was a bit wrecked, but I thought, I'll just mow the lawn and then I can have a shower and have a steady afternoon. Anyhow, just as I walked inside to make a cup of tea, the power goes out..... no big deal, I'll start the generator..... nope, no go. I text big fella. "Go to Marlborough, get fuel, dog, horse food and vaccine."... So I pile the sick child, the none sick child and myself into the ute and go to town. Three hours later the power is still not back on, I've still not had a cup of tea, but ergon said 2pm it would be, so I opt to wait the 50mins, plus I still can't manage to get the genny going (turns out I have too do more weights). 3pm, still no power. So I go and run the dogs, feed the pody etc.... 5pm, still no power, so I go and get my gas burner to finally have my cup of tea that I had wanted 7hrs prior.... I was not very happy! Kids had noodles for dinner. Fortunately, I had decided to cook dinner for all the workmen on the BBQ otherwise they would't have had much for tea. It was 6:30 by the time we had power again, but the kids had just gone to bed. No power and dark, so not a lot else to do I guess.
We got our weaners in on Thursday, to draft out rest of the steers that are going to the sale next week. As the weather prediction is for rain all weekend, we thought we would get the jump on it and get it done, so they were all ready to go.
Moments like these when I really miss my dear old friend Les Farr. I can just imagine how proud he would be of our weaners and our kids and how well they are riding and it really just catches you off guard somedays.
The Thursday night after coming in late from drafting the weaners, I walked into my bedroom to an unmistakable smell! Turns out that in my haste to set the Roomba in the kitchen, I had locked the kitten inside the house. And the place the he felt most comfortable to do his business was on our bed. So at 7:30 at night after mustering and drafting all day, being sick all week..... I was now washing sheets and doona and doing a deep clean with the spot cleaner on our mattress, spraying vinegar and sprinkling bi carb soda like fairy dust all over the bed..... and with the impending rain, there was no way anything was going to dry, so I had to set up a clothesline in the bedroom with the heater running. Just to get everything dry.
Needless to say I was very tempted in that moment to go to town and buy a new mattress and burn the old one!
Thursday night, miss finally got the illness, so we were up a few times through the night with her, and by late lunch the following day, she had reached the end of her poor little tether. My fault because I had forgotten to give her more panadol at smoko time! She was cold and had pains in the belly and was almost doubled over on her horse. So when the cattle were almost in reach of their paddock and we had cleared the creek, I led her all the way home. Straight up the front stairs and into a warm bath. With some panadol on board, I left her to let our horses go. I guess this is just a part of that face of agriculture, where the cattle and the markets wait for no one and there are no sick days when there's work to be done, so the whole sick family just has to process cattle and turn out and get on with it.
SO! Today is now Saturday and I'm pleased to say that missy is much improved. Mum is also much better than I was although I'm still a little unwell. Dad had gone downhill a fair bit today and G man is almost back to 100%. It has been raining all day and all night and we have had a beautiful 30mm so far and it has been such a blessing, because we have all needed a rest. Hence why I am finally getting to my overdue blog.
So this post is a little bit of a mammoth one, but that's life sometimes. I am listening to an amazing book called "An Ordinary Day", by Leigh Sales and it is very interesting, I need to do some more driving time to finish it.
Hope you are all getting some of this lovely rain.
With Love
