Charlie!

We had a very sad end to 2013 with our beautiful big boy "Charlie" passing away :(!  He was only 8 1/2 but he became ill a few months ago and the vet thought he may have had lung cancer or a virus!  Nothing was conclusive with all the investigations the vet did and one surgery to drain fluid from Charlie's lungs.  But when Charlie started having real difficulty breathing last week we decided to have him put down.  We were on our way to the vets when he died in the car.  We buried him under the lemon scented gum in the last photo below - he has a beautiful view of the farm!

Christmas 2013

Daniel and Ange moved into their brand new house the week before Christmas.  We made the trek to Deniliquin to spend Christmas day with the extended family.  

It's a beautiful home and I'm sure they'll be extremely happy in it!  Although there is still a lot of work to do - lawn, gardens, fence, shed to be built etc, etc!!

Daniel just had the keys to the new house handed over!  Excited!!

Pippa!

After losing our Jack last Christmas it has taken a while to get another dog.  We wanted another Jack Russell but his time I wanted a female and a wire-haired one that wouldn't remind me so much of Jack.  Farmer Phil wanted one exactly the same as Jack!!

So in August I found an advertisement in the local paper and went to check out the litter of puppies.  I came home with Pippa - she was 8 weeks old and tiny!

She has a naughty streak in her!

She joined me on the header a few times during harvest!

25 Years!

On August 26th Farmer Phil and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary!!  I know - we can't be that old!!

We spent 2 nights at The Buckland Retreat near Bright, VIC.  It was just beautiful and soooo peaceful!!

This was out accommodation!

    

This was the view from the deck!

We did some beautiful walks in the mountains, ate, drank and relaxed for 2 days!

Daniel and Ange - Exciting Times Ahead!!

Daniel is 24 1/2 years old, so it is time for him and Ange his partner of 5 years to build their first home!  We had a look at the display home which was in Shepparton, Victoria a few weeks before we went on holidays.  I must say it's a gorgeous home and much flasher than the first home Farmer Phil and I purchased!!  They have bought a beautiful 1 acre block of land near the Edwards River at Deniliquin.  The slab is to be poured in the next few weeks, then it'll be full steam ahead from there.  Hopefully they will be in their new home by Christmas.

 

 

The Chelsea by Metricon

 

Fabulous entertaining area

 

Gorgeous kitchen with a walk through pantry

Our First Overseas Adventure!!

We've been home almost 3 weeks so I thought I'd better get some photos posted about our amazing trip to Canada and USA!!  Here is a tiny selection of the 850 I took!!

We had 2 weeks with the Emma's school travelling around Canada and some of the USA, and we then had 5 nights in Orlando, Florida to see Ryan while he's there for 13 weeks water ski training.

Beautiful Vancouver Harbour

Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco

Lombard Street - the crookedest street in the world - San Francisco

The most famous streetscape - you might recognise it as the "Full House" house - San Francisco

Alcatraz Island - excellent tour - San Francisco

Emma looking a bit bewildered about the size of her breakfast!

Every second vehicle is a "pickup truck"!!

Custer's Last Stand - Montana

The water towers in every town.

Oil rigs or "grasshoppers" as they're called are on almost every farm throughout Montana

Our fabulous host family in Sidney, Montana - Krista, Kathy, Kirk, Hailey and Jared

The prairies heading towards Canada - all wheat and canola

We visited a Huterite community near Sasskatoon, Saskatchewan.  They farmed 12,000ac, had a large commercial dairy, beef feedlot and poultry farm to support the 105 people living there.

All the females wore neck to ankle outfits with headscarves, and they all wore their hair this way

Our teenagers were fascinated with the Huterite teenagers, just as they were fascinated by ours!

It was 30 degrees when we drove through a huge hailstorm

Very odd!

American red barns were everywhere

Calgary Tower

Emma and one of the Calgary Stampede mascots

Visiting the Calgary Stampede

The chuck wagon races - so much action and super fast horses!

An Indian village at the Stampede

Canadian Mounties

Calf roping at the Stampede Rodeo

The bullrider who wins on the final day takes home $100,000 prizemoney!!

Heading for the Canadian Rockies

The Fairmont Hotel at Banff

Castle Rock 

Farmer Phil and I at Lake Louise - this was the highlight for me!

Beautiful Lake Louise

Friendly critters!

Moraine Lake - so blue it was ridiculous!

Farmer Phil and Emma heading up the valley to the Colombia Icefields

Athabasca Glacier

Some of the Yanco kids posing with the Canadian flag on top of the glacier

Gorgeous lake and Rockies

The luckiest kids in the world!

Hogwarts Castle at Universal Studios, Orlando Florida

Emma was super excited to have a "butter beer"

The Weasley car

Sea World, Orlando Florida

Ryan jumping at Lake Grew, Orlando

Ryan, Jason, Hilary, Jeff, Nic, Casey and Michael - more of the luckiest kids in the world!