Busy,Busy,Busy...now taking a breather.!

We have just had a really busy full on 10 days, Our  youngest daughter had to go to Adelaide for a few days and hubby had to work so we offered to take little miss Holly,now three up to the farm for a week or so.
We picked her up down near Wollongong(about 3 hours south  and then drove back to Newcastle and then after picking up the trailer fully loaded with stuff for the farm and the two dogs we set off for the four hour drive out west  to the farm
Immediately upon arrival she bolted out of the car and was amazed at the sheep,she just couldn't take her eyes off them.

It was freezing cold when we arrived late in the afternoon so we got the fires going and unpacked the car.(The farm is a new experience for Holly as she had only been there overnight once before when she was much younger).
The next morning my husband  had to assemble a small motorbike(now christened Motor Mike) for ever more.We had bought it cheaply on ebay just so that my husband could save his legs a little rounding up the sheep and other jobs around the place.

We have found it to be wonderful, It is a little on the small size, but has a 125 cc engine, so gets along quite well.
Holly was given the responsibility of feeding the dry biscuits to the dogs, a job she took very seriously.Anytime we would  wonder where she was, we just had to look for the dogs, because they were always together.

She just loves the dogs, has done since she was a little baby.
She owns the black labrador, her name is Josie, she calls her Josie Jo..
Brian  went to clean out one of the stock troughs and Holly and the dogs just had to help him empty it and refill with clean water. She was cute, got soaking wet and was covered in mud and slime,she told me she was being Peppa Pig and was "jumping in Muddy Puddles".The Kelpie belongs to our oldest daughter.

Our oldest daughter also came to the farm to visit  while we were there too and brought her baby girl Claudia with here. We had a lovely time with the little girls together and also some more cousins from in town came out to visit  as well, it was like we were running a day care centre.

We had hair braiding, chocolate cup cake making(and Bowl Licking), and a first photo of Nanny and Poppy with both of their grand daughters. holly also got to do some other exciting things, like sitting up on Poppy's  big blue tractor, and feeding the little pony  at the next door neighbours,Going to the playground in town, cutting and pasting pictures and playing with play dough.( what more could a little girl want.)

While we were there Brian went up the hill with his trusty old blue tractor and cut a load of good wood, while he was up there I took little Miss for a big walk "Up the Mountain" and we gathered many pockets full of pretty  stones along the track.

Our little "feed" block that we had shut off from the sheep had progressed quite well so we let the

sheep onto it for an extra bit of feed for them, they thoroughly enjoyed it. Elsewhere around the garden spring  is rapidly creeping up on us, the apricot tree was bursting into blossom and the hardenberger"native Sarsparella' was in flower, all is looking good.Brian also weeded the rhubarb and set up an old bathtub to make a new garden the next time we are up.
We had a day with the sheep while we were there too,We keep some of our sheep on Brian's brothers bigger block of land. All the new lambs needed tailing,tagging and marking, The adult sheep all needed drenching and checking over and the alpaca(which belongs to my Brother in law) needed drenching and his toenails trimmed.Holly just adored all the baby lambs, and had a wonderful morning followed by a picnic with the sheep(which was just a cuppa in the paddock)

On our final day, we travelled to Dubbo to catch up with my elderly mum and my sister(who just happened to be visiting our Mum also. We had a lovely catch up, lunch out and a bit of grocery shopping for great Nanny.My mum is nearly 89 and doing very well.It was lovely she got to have the day with her Great grand daughter.

We had a huge week, feel like we never stopped, we are totally exhausted, but in the best possible way. Hopefully my next posts will be more farm related, but I just had to share our wonderful week with everyone. We travelled home the day following the Dubbo excursion, and never heard a peep from our little princess, Holly's Mum had loaned us her portable DVD player, and she watched Pepper Pig and Wiggles all the way home,(with a lunch break in the middle). The dogs happily sat either side  of her.

So until next time, best wishes to all,
and cheers from Jane in Aus.

The old Blue girl

When my husband refers to "The Old Blue Girl" it usually either means our old blue cattle dog {Tilly} or he means the other love of his life, the old blue Fordson Tractor.

She is about as old as he is,and we bought her off the local town Progress association cheaply  as it was becoming a burden for them to  find  volunteer drivers for her to do slashing and mowing, as they needed to have the appropriate training and certificates to operate it in the town.So the council now does all that work for them.
We use her for so much, there is rarely a visit to the farm goes by that she isn't brought out for  some work.

We used her to rip all the trenches down to the bore that we drilled, and up to the generator with the aid of a big old heavy single ripper that we borrowed off friends in Dubbo. Then after all the pipework and electric cables were laid we borrowed a blade off one of our neighbours and filled all the trenches in.

My husband hooks up the old scarifyer in the above photos and drags it around to break up the earth to plant a bit of feed or grass, this old piece of machinery was on the property when we bought it and has been very useful.,It's not the greatest way to do it, but serves the purpose for now.
Every time I hear him on the tractor ,I take my camera out, and if caught photographing him I usually get a cheeky smile or a slightly rude gesture telling me to go away.

I think he just loves to drive around his little farm, wishing it was bigger. I often say to him to slow down, to take it easy, that he's on holidays... but he reckons it's like he is on holidays ,and he loves working on the tractor.

We have done so much with the old blue girl, pulled tree stumps, carted rubbish, carted the water cart when we are burning  rubbish, Carted  these huge loads of rocks, which were every where in our house yard. We use her with a jib on the back as a hoist when we are  butchering the sheep or pigs, and she is used regularly for getting loads of firewood from up on the hill behind the house and dragging around all the fencing materials as my husband has renewed most of the fencing on our place and added a few new ones.

We had a very  tumble down unused and messy  old chicken yard with some old sour plum trees,and when we had a very good old friend visiting we took advantage of the extra hands to remove the posts. I always hate to watch when he is  pulling posts or stumps, as I have a real fear of tractors  as they can be very dangerous if not handled sensibly,but he has worked with them most of his life.
Unfortunately  at some point all machinery needs repairs. While doing some work the tyre was staked and had to be replaced, and as there had been an ongoing issue with brakes my man  had a big day of repairs. Thank goodness he is handy with all that stuff other wise it would cost a fortune in repair bills.
And last but not least the tractor is a social vehicle, . The  final photo is one I love, my man and his brother next door were busy beavering away on  slashing the grass down on both of  our places, and he seemed to be taking quite a while longer then normal when I looked out and found them chatting away over the fence, their respective machines parked nearby...and they reckon that women can talk, you should see and hear these two together. They are good mates, and that's good !!!

So here's hoping the "Old Blue Girl" is around a while yet, I don't mind sharing my man with her and I hope that their relationship lasts for many years to come.
So until I  am back next time,
Cheers to everyone
Jane from Aus.