Australian Talk.

[wbvs58]

Well I got a few things sorted out today, so I can get a reasonably early start for Brisbane tomorrow. This arvo I found 5 cows that I hadn't seen for almost 2 weeks, they were all old tarts just split off from the rest doing their own thing for a while, right over on the far side of the tin mine. They look in pretty good nick so they must be on a bit of a purple patch of feed. Even though I new they would be ok it is nice to eyeball them.
Ken

[Suzie Q]

No worries Ken.

My Birthday today.

We started off at the Bowls Club for breakfast yesterday. Mum and my sister came after picking up Mum's new car in Beaudesert and the lady and guy who helps us with our hay came. He also brought his son and a friend of his son's so there was 7 of us all up.

A very nice breaky. People were leaving as we arrived and we were the only ones in there until we left and 2 others turned up. They said they had 270 booked for this morning for Mother's Day. (Hubby and Papa just arrived back from going into Town and said that there are vehicles everywhere at the Bowls Club this morning).

The lady who helps us with our hay and I then went to the Weekend Markets. I bought a triple bird house and have put it in the tree in the front yard so maybe some birds will like it or maybe not for $12.00.

I also bought 2 gardening books for 50cents each and some clips to put on my pot plants in the water garden, a pineapple and some bananas.

I then came home and hung out my washing and figured it was too hot to go to the local Show yet so I stayed to wait for hubby and Papa to come home. I put on the TV and promptly fell asleep.

They arrived home and we went to the show. Here is a couple of photos of the scarecrow I made. One before going to the Show..... ah nuts that one is on the works camera. It shows his legs and boots and gloves. I will have to send it to me from work, but I won't be able to do that until I am moved back into my office and have the card reader back.

Here is one of him at the show. The Salesman said he was the biggest Attraction for them all day.



We stayed for the Night Entertainment and it was mostly like a Speedway, which was quite boring for me after a while. I prefer animals or farm equipment to racing machines. First they raced motorbikes, (which went for aaggeeesss) then go carts, then lawnmowers, then quads. then lawnmowers, then a jet powered quad, Which actually wasn't as fast as the other quads probably because not long enough in a straight line, but sounded like a big plane and the fuel is astronomically priced and a full tank lasts 3 minutes!!!! He also could make flames come out the back. Then the final for the lawnmowers.

I enjoyed the hay stacking race which I hadn't seen before and the calf scruffing, the monster truck was a bit different to the racing. The fireworks went for ages. I did put my head on hubby's shoulder and close my eyes during the night -several times, then came home, slept well and didn't wake until after 7am when the breakfast horn was rung.

This morning I have been up and tackled the orchard. It started with 4 foot grass which I mowed in the dark with my new lawn mower a couple of times after dark.

I have had a look for a before photo, but haven't really found one. Here is the one I put up of the Spider Lillies so you can see that the grass is starting to grow outside the garden and with no lawn mower it continued to grow.



Then I put down papers



Then I raked the grass already mown and put on top of the papers and that meant that I was able to mow again as the mower would no longer be choked by the loose grass



Remember I said I was gong to put the Cana Lillies in the water garden? and I thought they might die as I had taken so long to do so? Well here it is and the red and yellow canna lilly has bloomed this morning.



I still have to figure out what I am going to do with the outside of the tub so as it blends in with the surroundings better.


I was lucky I had finished putting the first lot of grass on the paper in time, the wind had really picked up by the time I finished mowing. It is blowing quite hard now.

ARGH I managed to get electric fence cord wound around the blades. I went around a picked it all up beforehand as well as hoses, but nope. I managed to get it out in the end after being stumped and thinking, "What would hubby do?" and went and collected some spanners and undid the mower blade so as more room to work with.


Now I am playing on the net and this afternoon I will go through my clothes and anything that is now too big, I will pack and take to a garage sale at Mum's next weekend.

[jilleroo]

Happy birthday for today Suzie!! My dad would have been 83 today ....

[wbvs58]

Happy birthday Suzie, was it 30 or 31?
I made it back this arvo. I got most things done that I wanted to. The dinghy is home and I picked up a lot of odds and ends for the caravan. Today I ducked over the bridge and got 4 cheap tires for the Rodeo, with fitting they cost $135 each, the last tires I got for it cost over $300 and only scraped in 60000km. These felt very good on the drive home, nowhere near as twitchy as the previous tires. We will see how they go.
I also picked up 20, 75x75 steel fence posts at $16.50/ post. They are galvanised but have rust marks on them from the floods as they were bundled together and didn't dry out. I will find a use for them and clean them up a bit.
Its getting a bit nippy outside, 3.7C at 7.00pm and falling, apparently -2C this morning.
Ken

[melking]

Happy Belated Birthday Suzie! Best wishes for many many more. Ken, if I am correct, -2c is below freezing. A bit nippy I guess. Where I live, when it drops below 60F we light the fireplace. I spent the weeken helping the plumber work on our house. We set the claw foot tub and hung the tankless water heater, and dug the 100 foot ditch for the gas line.

[Suzie Q]

Sigh the older one Ken and then add a year and then add a decade!!!! How sweet of you to put up that age after you have met me!!!!!!!!!!

Yes under 0 would mean a frost. I am hoping that the frost holds off for a little while. The pumpkin vine will wither and die overnight with the first frost and I will have to pick the pumkins. At least one is getting to nearly be quite a nice size now.

Too cold, yes I am being a wimp, to try clothes on after work or before work. So if I get a quiet day I will come home at lunch time and do a bit of sorting. Otherwise it will have to be Saturday.

They have done the walls in my office. No window for me, but a window in the salesman's office and a new office put in for the Manager that has a window. So I will still be able to hide in my office!!!!!!!

They started 'setting' the walls yesterday. They turned the electricity off again in the morning, so computers up and down all day, and eventually got our fax,printer going, when the phones wouldn't let us call out. Then people couldn't call in. The computers weren't up by then so I did manage to get some work done and left about 10 minutes late with no lunch.

[wbvs58]

Its starting to look a lot like winter. Good frost this morning. I like a good frost, I don't have to wear my gumboots of a morning as all the dew is frozen and just falls off the boots and trousers. I think it is going to be a more typical winter this year, it is a bit drier and things are burning off. I saw it about -1.9C.
Mel, where I am, it is undisputedly the coldest place in Queensland. We occaisionally get a light dusting of snow, but the frosts are very severe and regular through winter. We do enjoy 4 distinct seasons and I like it.
I took the tractor around to the other block this morning and started digging deco and hauled it down to back fill the grid. I just got to rake it out a bit tomorrow. I drove out over it this arvo, it works well.
Last off I pulled the carbie off the outboard and cleaned all the gum out of it and then in fading light started it up, it went on the 3rd pull. I'll give it a proper run in the morning.
Ken

[melking]

Good job on the outboard Ken, You will be able to get closer to the fish. What would be the coldest temp you might see Ken? Suzie, I like my office without windows. If I could just get the door to the office hidden so that everybody would leave me alone, I would get a lot more work done.

[Suzie Q]

There was a frost here yesterday morning. My pumpkin vine and sweet potato vine are half burned. No other damage yet and they were saying another frost this morning, but it doesn't seem that cold now, so I won't be surprised if there isn't one this morning.

Sorry I meant a window into the Showroom so as I can see customers and they can see me when they enter the Shop. I do have a window to outside.

No lunch for me again yesterday. The Grandson was down again and I no longer have to go and do the banking in the morning. Great for me getting lunch - not so great for my waist line, so I will have to make sure I do something at lunch time now.

[wbvs58]

Mel, we sometimes get down to -8C. The plumbers and sparkies are kept busy then repairing pipes and water damage in the ceilings of houses when the copper pipes burst. They can handle a couple of freezes, but unlike poly pipe, they don't go back to normal size when they thaw, so in the next freeze they burst.
Well I finished off the grid today, just got to concrete in some posts and hang the gates next to it and restrain the fence.
I'm starting to sort out a few things for the bulls. I located some 3Day vaccine so that I don't have to buy $700 worth just to do 2 bulls. Also Kirsten in town has some Snap PI tests in her fridge, so if it is ok by the committee I will be able to do the Pestivirus test myself.
Ken

[wbvs58]

I cleaned up a few things in the shed this morning. This afternoon I went with Mario down to his hunting block, his Bobcat broke down at the bottom of his hill the other day, he asked if I could sort it out for him. Fortunately it was a simple fix. A Teatree branch must have caught the shut off cable and then when he tried to start it again a dirty battery terminal shut the electrics down so we quickly got it going. We then had time to go for a walk with Bo looking for pigs. Bo didn't disappoint and quickly located a medium size sow, she got it baled up in some long bladey grass, and it was a shot at virtually point blank range.
Ken

[jilleroo]

Back again, I've been down to Moranbah to visit with the family. It was lovely driving through the Highlands, the sunflowers are just about ready to be harvested, thousands of acres all worshipping the sun, just love to see them. Struck a heavy fog coming home yesterday though, all the way through to this side of Clermont, slowed me down a little. Called in at the Longreach Show, met hubby there, and we went to the charolais bull sale which is held there annually. Werent really looking to buy but picked up a beautiful S$ Montana Silver son for base price. Quiet and polled, really like him. Hubby went home and got the truck to collect him - I went to go home and found I'd lost the keys to my wagon! Uh oh....luckily some lovely person handed them into the Secretary's office a little while later and I was able to get on the last leg of my long journey home. Hubby trucked the bull out the back of the place before I could get a photo to post, goodness knows when I'll see him again - hubby said he served a cow as soon as he got off the truck.
Had a quick look at my pony at the show ready to go into the ring again. She'd won her led class and was looking very flash indeed. There was a fair crowd at the show which was pleasing to see for the organisers.
Off to Bris tomorrow for a week visiting my mum in the Geriatric Rehab Unit at the PA Hospital....I'll go up the wall there, will have to go out and walk around the block. Hubby said just remember to come out again, don't let them keep me in there, oh dear! Lots of bookwork to catch up on before I go, cooking to do for hubby, etc etc. The bull calf is still very well, so easy to feed and look after. Bluebelle isnt due to calve until about July - wish it was sooner so I could poddy him onto her.

[wbvs58]

Yeh watch the doors on those places Jilleroo, they are easy to get in but don't let you out. Why don't you do a day trip to Stanthorpe? I'd like to see some photos of the new bull when you find him again.
Ken

[jilleroo]

Ken don't think I'll get to Stanthorpe this trip, better spend the time with mum. I do want to do a tour up there though, I think my nephew lives right near you somewhere - I do not know that area at all - in fact, I think I only went to Stanthorpe once as a child! Are you still thinking of heading out this way?
Have finally got the office under control, casserole, corned meat and scones cooking for hubby, pool cleaned, garden watered, clothes washed. Will venture down the paddock for a last look after I take the cooking out of the oven. I hate leaving home, especially without hubby.
Would love to see that clawfoot bath Melking. In fact, I want to see your whole house when its finished, I suspect it will be fantastic!

[wbvs58]

I think time has beaten me Jilleroo, I'll have a go down the track. I was feeling pretty ratshyt a month or so ago and was hard to get motivated to do anything. At the moment I'm feeling ok but am pretty busy. Pam is having a week off work early June and I have promised her I would take her down to Yamba for a few days. It can't be long before you go on your trip to the Kimberleys?
I have been putting a couple of posts in next to the grid and will hang the old gates next to it in a couple of days. I spent the rest of the day in the shed making rollers for the rear rack to put the dinghy on the Rodeo.
Ken