Emma's 15 Minutes of Fame!!

If you look really hard you'll see Emma's face on today's edition of The Border Mail newspaper - see in the top right hand corner!!

Yesterday I drove her to Albury to audition for X-Factor. I only saw the ad on tv at the weekend which said that auditions were in Albury which is only 1 1/2 hours from home. I suggested she try out just for the experience and also for feedback from the judges on what they thought of Emma's voice.

Although Emma did a fantastic job at her audition, she wasn't picked to go onto the next round. The judge was very impressed with her voice saying that he was surprised that she had such a strong voice, but at 15 years old she just needs some more performance experience and to definitely try again next year. He just told her to go out and do as much performing as she could.

Emma was really happy with her audition and even happier with the judges comments. She was just glad that he didn't tell her she was a "crap singer", to use Emma's exact words! So she's very excited about the year ahead and what it could hold for her!
Check out http://www.bordermail.com.au/news/local/news/general/wouldbe-stars-face-auditions/2464954.aspx to read the whole article and watch a quick video of Emma practising before her audition.

Always Busy

Every second day Ryan has been inspecting the grain bags of wheat filled at harvest to make sure that they are in good condition. Birds, foxes, kangaroos and emus will put holes in them which need to be patched up with silo tape.


Some of the bags have a lot of tape on them and resemble a patchwork quilt!

Look at what I had to contend with this morning!!! We have not owned sheep for about 5 years now - Farmer Phil hates sheep and does not tolerate them on his cropping paddocks at all! We have a mob of sheep being agisted on one of the paddocks that we do not grow crop on as it's too steep and full of rocks and trees. I received a mercy call this morning from Farmer Phil - the sheep had escaped their paddock and were happily tramping all over Farmer Phil's good cropping paddock.

I grabbed Lucy the retired sheep dog and rounded the rogues up and got them back in their correct paddock. I haven't worked sheep in quite a few years but was happy that they all behaved themselves and marched straight back into their paddock.

Lucy was happy to stay on the back of the ute and bark instead of rounding the sheep up. Actually, I didn't want to let her off in case she ran around in front of them by mistake as she hasn't seen a sheep in a long time and maybe wouldn't remember what to do! Jack kept her company and let out a few helpful barks along the way too!

Farmer Phil has been busy doing more spraying after we received rain again on Friday. It's mainly just self sown wheat from harvest time which has sprouted. Easy to get rid of with Roundup.

We've had a water ski tournament on every weekend for the last month with one more next weekend before we get two weekends in a row at home - yeah! Ryan is jumping 6m more than last season so he's happy with that! He will be skiing at the Australian Nationals at Easter, so we'll be skiing for another few months yet!

Emma is back at school as a Senior in Year 11. She is a dormitory prefect for the Year 7's and 8's. During week one she had to soothe each girl in her dorm who were all feeling homesick! She said they've all now settled into life at boarding school with no more crying episodes! She dressed as a fairy complete with tutu, wings and tiara for the annual swimming carnival and went in every race except butterfly to get points for her house. It must have worked because Mighty Mutch House won the carnival yet again!

Jack Takes Over!

It was my birthday 2 weeks ago and I received this gorgeous wicker sun lounge for the deck from the family, but it looks like I'll have a fight on my hands with Jack for any rights to said lounge!!!

Back Again!

Well, 2011 is done and dusted and 2012 is almost 1/12 finished!! Can you believe it?!

We had a quiet family Christmas with Farmer Phil trying to get as much stubble sprayed as possible before we headed away on our annual 2 week water skiing holiday to Renmark, SA. The rain from late Spring and early Summer has meant that lots of unwanted weeds have grown and need to be controlled quickly.

Our New Years Eve incorporated a 50th birthday party for a good friend and neighbour and I finally met a fellow "farmers wife" blogger in Polly from Duality.

I do not have a single photo of our holiday this year - the camera never came out of it's cover! We spent the whole two weeks very relaxed just skiing, chatting, having a few drinks, eating ourselves silly and generally chillin' with our friends Andrew, Michelle, Lucy and Hannah. We had a rather large camp this year with Daniel and Ange visiting for the first week, Ryan stayed only for the first week too and then went to a water ski training camp. Emma had her friend Hannah stay with us for the whole two weeks which was very entertaining! And Andrew's brother and family visited for a weekend too! We've also made friends with some fellow campers from Victoria who we catch up with each year at Renmark. So, we're home now and getting back to some normality! Although we're off to Port Macquarie tomorrow for Ryan to compete in the Australian Junior Masters Water Ski Tournament! No rest for the wicked as they say!

I thought I'd share with you a few of the Christmas presents I received this year. I was very impressed that my family have actually listened to me when I've dropped hints over the last 12 months!

First of all I wanted a silver balls necklace and I did receive! Yeah!! Now to get the matching bracelet?!


A few new cookbooks were also unwrapped so it either means I'm a terrible cook and the family wants me to get inspired, or they think I love to cook?!

And this is a picture of one of my bookcases absolutely chocked with books - I'm an avid reader and can get through a large number of books quickly when I've got my reading mojo on!

So Emma remembered that I'd been looking at getting myself a Kindle a few years ago but that never eventuated, so I received one on Christmas day! It's the best thing - so easy and cheap to use (lots of free and 99c books to download! The funny thing is that my sister Lisa also received a Kindle from her family for Christmas without either family knowing! If you know either Lisa or myself then you'll know that we're very much alike - we hate coffee but love chocolate, we order the same food whether it's just a sandwich or a meal, and we have the same taste in home decor, clothes, shoes etc. It's very spooky sometimes!

Since receiving my Kindle on Christmas Day I have read:

Cocktails for Three by Sophie Kinsella/Madeleine Wickham

Dodge the Bullet by Christy Hayes

Girl & The Ghost Grey Mare by Rachael Treasure

How to Break Your Own Heart by Maggie Alderson

Six Geese a-Laying by Sophie Kinsella

Wedding Bell Blues by Ellie Ferguson

Territory by Judy Nunn - 16% read so far

I've also downloaded ready to read:

Campaign Ruby by Jessica Rudd

Ruby Blues by Jessica Rudd

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

So there's a really quick round-up of the last month or so here on the farm since harvest finished. More to follow later!

More Home Improvements

The builders have just packed up their tools and left after 3 days work installing a verandah across the south western side of our house and a covered walkway to the shed. All it needs now is some potted hydrangeas (one of my favourite plants) and maybe a staghorn or elkhorn on the wall to make it look even cooler. It'll be so good to kick off your workboots at the back door without fear of them getting drenched in a downpour!

Harvest 2011 Finished!!

We finished harvest yesterday at 5pm and today it has started to rain - perfect timing!!!

It feels so good to know that we've finished and can now relax and enjoy Christmas. We put in some very late nights last week to beat the rain we knew was coming - try 1.30, 2.30 and 3.30 am!!!

Today we slept in and have just woken up from an afternoon nap. Now to get the final Christmas shopping done and get this house back to normal!

End of School Year Bragging

Both Fiona and Corrie have recently posted about their kids school achievements at their respective presentation assemblies. Well, now it's my turn to do some bragging about Emma's achievements!

Friday was Emma's last day of school for 2011 and it culminated in the school's Speech Day assembly. It starts at 10am and does not finish until at least 1pm. The parents then have to collect all their kids clothing, bedding, horses if they have one at school and general junk before making the long journey home to all corners of Eastern Australia.

If you've read my blog you will know that Emma is a bit of a singer. At the assembly she received a class award for music, she also received the whole school music award, and on top of that she was awarded a special Cultural "Blue" award for excellence in music.

The school only awards a few "Blue" awards each year. This year there was one given for academic excellence, two for agriculture, two for sport and two for cultural excellence. Each recipient had a half page write up in the Speech Day programme about their achievements in their special field.

Unfortunately neither Farmer Phil or I could make it to Speech Day as we were flat out harvesting with wet weather on the way. We had to get friends who have a son at school with Emma to bring her home. The school didn't inform us that Emma was to receive this special award and Emma didn't tell us as she wanted it to be a surprise. It would've been lovely to see her receive her awards but it is an especially busy time of year for us with harvest.

We can always look forward to next year and see if she wins another "Blue" award!

ALDI Gingerbread House

I bought this gingerbread house kit from ALDI a few weeks ago and today Emma put it together. I think they only cost about $10 and they look really cute with the wicked witch and Hansel and Gretel already made out of marzipan. I know it's cheating but really who has time to make one from scratch anyway?

Floordrobe??

Our almost 23yo son Daniel has been home helping us with the harvest for the past few weeks. He is occupying his old bedroom which has been converted to my sewing/ironing/spare bedroom ever since he left home almost 5 years ago.

I thought I'd show you all a photo of the whirlwind he has created...... he calls it his "floordrobe"!! Arrgghhh! All I can do is close the door so I don't have to look at it!

PS - Harvest is on hold again after receiving another 12mm of rain. We still have 1500ac of wheat to go - it's been a frustrating harvest with breakdowns and wet weather. The yield is down a little from last year but the quality of the wheat has been very high which is great!

Sunset at "Fairfield"

I snapped this photo on my phone on Saturday night in between driving the header, fueling up vehicles, setting up lights at the silo pad, moving augers, sampling wheat etc. Too pretty to let it go unnoticed!