Introducing chainsaw man and branch girl!

Mum's backyard lot a few trees! 

Cyclone Marcia hits.... it's difficult to explain the force of a cyclone, it's something you have to experience. I happened to be working at the Yeppoon hospital when it made land fall and it passed right over us. Thankfully, being a new hospital, there were no established trees and so the damage was very minimal.

 I would just like to mention the beautiful staff at the Yeppoon hospital who went to work during the cyclone, while at home their houses (and a for some inside were their families) were being tortured by the destructive winds. I think this was a pretty inspiring thing for them to do and what nurses often do in their every day work, on this occasion putting the needs of others before themselves. Due to the shortage of staff on this day, I saw managers cleaning dinner trays and pharmacy staff helping in the kitchen, everyone pulled toether. On top of that most of us had to work a double shift in order to cover for the nurses who were not able to make it in for the afternoon shift. So good on ya girls! 

Meanwhile, at home, when I was in town with mum. 

After my shift at Yeppoon I was stuck in town with mum for 4 days due to the flooded creek at home not letting me in. We had no power for 2 days in town which was good compared to most and we were out for 8 days at home, but we had gennies, so we were pretty fortunate.

Insects were abundant after the cyclone

Thought this guy was pretty cute. 

Lots of this! (Chainsaw man! Branch girl was holding the camera :) ) 

Also a lot of romantic dinners. My candelabra valentines day present was put to good use!  

And of course the beautiful babies!

These were out a day after the cyclone, they were leaving their "brace" position I think. 

Bit of Paleo cooking before the cyclone. 

Eggs bread, 15 eggs!!! OMG. It tasted..... very eggy!

My raw cheese cake. I like it but I think the jury is still out for everyone else! 

The coming week still hold more fencing I believe. But at least we are all safe and sound! That's the main thing!

Some neighbours get all the rain!

Seems like everyone is getting rain bar us! Falls of 4-8 inches recorded in less than a 30km radius of us and all we had was 10mL. But it's 10mL that we will take!

We journeyed last week to Marlborough to help our mate shift some steers to a feedlot. They had, had approx. 200mL (you stop measuring apparently, after a while lol).

Chief enjoying the puddles

 The Stanage Bay road is currently living up to its name! Got to love how the council can spend millions on a bridge/ road out of Rocky, for a flood that happens once every 20 years, but they can't improve this road which gets flooded like this, up to 3 times a year! Grrr (sorry little rant).

 Finally our beautiful girl, gave birth to 6 cute-as-a-button little puppies! The are all gorgeous and very cuddly. There were 2 boys and 4 girls. The only two with any colour were the boys, all the rest were black and white. Waiting patiently for them to open their eyes.

Want a really cool name for this dog, but all we can come up with so far is Smokey lol. 

Palm sized pup. 

 

Helping our neighbour across the way, with some mustering and branding. There was 100mL here while we only had 10!! Only 15km away.

Beautiful day for it though.

Decided to teach this little one to lead lol. 

Strange place to find a crab claw in the middle of a swamp. 

Bit of air fried chicken! Yummo! 

I finally had a night to myself where I thought I would sit down and watch my new series. The first DVD I bought, I hadn't realised was actually Part 2! After I told my darling husband what had happened, the next time he was in town, also bought me part 2 (thinking I had bought season 2). So I finally got back to town and got the guy to search and find me part 1. Yay I thought! So sitting down with hot cuppa and settled in for an evening for TV, I opened Season 1 Part 1, only to find that the guy had put part 2 in the box!!!! So now I have 3 copies of the same bloody thing! Oh well. I have been told it's worth the wait!

Rain!

Two weeks ago forecasts predicted a potential of 8-12 inches of rain, enough, to put our poor little babies under water! The Tuesday brought 40mL when we were only meant to receive 5, and with Thursday being the day for the downpour to being, I diligently went out on Wednesday to shift our cattle to higher ground Justin was away for the day helping a friend.  

 The morning had been stinking hot and I shifted two mobs, before ducking home for smoko. After 5 minutes of sipping tea, the thunder began on the horizon, but nothing really to show. In the next 15 minutes, time enough for me to trot/ canter to the bottom of the paddock, these clouds had formed.

Difficult to explain the anticipation of a big storm bearing down on you, especially when you know that if you don't reach the gate in time, the rain will turn all the cattle back on top of you and I wouldn't have stood a chance of holding them!

My poor pony had a fair bit of sweat dripping off her by the end of the day! The heat was really suffocating!

Dunno who these belong to, but they were abandoned!

 It took me 40 minutes to muster the whole paddock and the cull cows really lived up to their name on this occasion which lead to a significant amount of galloping on mine and Snorts part. But I finally managed to get the last one through the gate, just as the wind started to howl and the rain swept across.

I probably would have been able to trot home and safe myself from the bulk of the rain, but thanks to Pirate following me after smoko, I had to walk home with her reluctantly following me back to the yards. 

I don't look as soaked as I felt. 

Dad always told me that you weren't soaked, unless the water was running down your butt crack...... Success! 

Rain leaves some beautiful sunsets though. 

 We only ended up with 80mL of rain, far less than predicted, however, better safe than sorry. The cattle were returned to their paddock!

Photography while the boys went fishing. 

 Australia day long weekend, came and went. Had a great time catching up with friends, and as our tradition could not be broken, mum visited with lamingtons in hand!! Yummo! Dunno how long we have been spending Australia day together for now, but it has been a while and now I think a necessity.

Me trying to get the lighting right for the image I wanted!! He wasn't helping!

Just loving the afternoon light shows, that this heat is bringing. Although it's best to stay indoors where possible during this heat!

I got back to doing some nursing shifts this past week. Is always lovely to catch up with all the girls. Good to keep a hand it! 

Selfie on route home after a transfer to Rockhampton.