Ryan - 15 Today!

What happened to my beautiful baby boy - grown up into a teenager! We took the boat out yesterday for our first ski since Autumn. The water was cold but no one else was on the water so it was perfect!

Another Ag n Chat Trip

10 of us intrepid Ag n Chatters headed off last week for an overnight trip to the Snowy mountains. We are all active partners in our farming enterprises so it's nice to get away with the girls sometimes! Here we are, minus Cathie who is taking the photo, at Batlow.


Our first stop was at the Agrivest Apple Orchard and Fruit Packing Facility. Here are the workers packing the apples after they've been through a wash, wax, sort and sticker process.

Our next stop was the Pioneer Women's Hut at Tumbarumba. What a great collection of household items from years gone by. Beautiful antique quilts, clothing and needlework from Australia's past.

Paddy's River Falls in all their late afternoon glory.

Our quaint accommodation at McPherson's Plains Alpine Retreat.

The following day we had an exciting 4WD experience where we saw lots of beautiful brumbies. Here are just a few of the photo's I took.

After a few hours of 4WD'ing, we finally made it to Tumut 3 Powerstation (part of the Snowy Hydro Scheme) at Talbingo to discover that the road was closed due to maintenance at the plant. Our only alternative was to turn around and go back the way we came. Nobody was looking forward to the return trip when the Snowy workers obviously felt sorry for a bunch of women and removed a crane to let us pass. We were very appreciative!!

Our last sightseeing stop was to view Rusconi's Marble Masterpiece at Gundagai. It took Mr Rusconi 28 years to make and construct (finished in 1938) and has over 20,000 pieces of turned marble - amazing!

My camera batteries died, so I didn't get a photo of our last stop which was a very late lunch at Gundagai Wines in the old Nargoon Woolshed but if you're ever in the Gundagai area I can highly recommend a visit.

We all had a great time and did lots of talking and laughing which is what our little ag n chat group is all about!!

Covered Ute Sprayer & Drought!!

Farmer Phil has been busy this last week making a covered sprayer to attach to the back of the ute to spray the fire-breaks. His dad, Noel is using it today to get some spraying done before the weeds take over!

There is no rain predicted for at least another week and the crops are starting to struggle with no moisture. We received minimal rainfall (30mm in total) in August when the crops start looking for a good soaking. It looks like it's turning into another disappointing year for the farmer!

I said to Farmer Phil that we should be getting used to being disappointed when the crops fail as this has been happening every year since 2001!!! Older farmers comment that they've never seen a run of bad years like this in their lifetime. They experienced drought years but maybe only one or two in a row and then the following years were either back to normal or bumper harvests. We can't seem to get even one decent harvest!!

Football Grand Final

Last weekend we watched Daniel play in his footy Grand Final. I think you can tell from this photo taken after the game that his team lost! There were lots of heartbroken boys and men! It was very disappointing as the scores were equal at full time, and still equal with about 2 minutes to go in extra time then the other team kicked a goal and that was game over!! All we can do now is look forward to 2010.

Now and Then!

Farmer Phil and I - April 2009 at Rach & Jess' wedding.


Farmer Phil and I - 21 years ago today!! Happy Anniversary!

New Job for Daniel

Daniel is starting a new job tomorrow. Farmer Phil and I helped him move his furniture and gear to his new house yesterday. He is now jackarooing on "Avenel" which is 40km north of Deniliquin at Wanganella. "Avenel" is a merino sheep stud and kelpie dog stud, so he'll get a fair bit of variation in his work there.


His new quarters are very neat and modern compared to where he lived before. He can even have a fruit salad every day if he wants with an orange tree, a lemon tree and a mandarin tree just off his verandah.

Father and son!

Daniel's two "knucklehead" dogs, Rex and Wally will hopefully learn to become useful sheep dogs whilst at "Avenel". Here are their new "digs".

Winter Dip in the Pool

Here is our first winter swimmer in the pool. He wasn't invited, but ended up having a lovely dip!

P!NK

I took Emma to see Pink's "Funhouse" Concert held in Canberra on Monday night. Well, Pink is absolutely UNBELIEVABLE!!! It wasn't just a concert, but more an extravagant production. Emma hadn't been to anything like it before and she was just buzzing with excitement before and after.

The tickets we had were for standing only, so I didn't really know how much we'd see. We positioned ourselves at the top of the runway stage and we had a fantastic view because Pink performed many of her songs at the end of the runway.

The stage setting was fantastic with so much colour and action. Pink's costumes were amazing and she has the best looking, fittest body of any woman I know! These are just a few of the photo's I took. Click on any of them and they'll open to a larger format to see them better.

If you ever get a chance to see Pink in concert I can guarantee you'll have a wonderful time.

Crop Update

The canola is flowering it's heart out at present, so we need some decent Spring rain to make it fill to it's full potential. We had about 4mm of rain today, which is nowhere near enough. This area should have received 360mm of rain to date for the year - we've just made it to 206mm! Barely more than half the average rainfall! The crops are in not bad shape considering this.

The wheat is a nice, lush dark green. The seed head is about 1/3 the way up the stem, so the head should poke out in another few weeks. Same story for the wheat as the canola needing decent Spring rain to live up to it's potential.

Our Zoo

Farmer Phil quite often refers to our house as "The Zoo" because the cats have a free run of the place. As you can see from the photo of Daisy on my dressing table, she's happy to curl up for a sleep wherever she likes!

Squirt is a fully grown cat now, but his broken leg still gives him trouble. This is how he sits on the arm of the lounge with his bung leg hanging down. He can't seem to tuck it up comfortably. We always laugh at him when he sits like this and he gets very indignant with us!