has gone by, slowly! Honestly, nothing out of the ordinary was achieved. The usual housework was done, baking, reading, walking. I didn't go anywhere until Friday and that's only because the munchkins had their school music concert so I made the most of going to town and grabbed some groceries, bought some nonessential magazines at the newsagent and posted some parcels and letters at the post office, town is really exciting :P

The weather has been off. Windy and wet for the most part. I did manage a bit of weeding and found concrete edging along the back yard fence that borders a 2 foot wide garden bed so my mission this week is to get it completely weeded and plan for some apple trees to be espaliered along the fence. I can't see a proper orchard in the near future so making the most of what I do have and can manage pn my own is what i'm aiming for. I asked my garden guru aka my mum if it was a good plan and she whole heartedly agrees :) She even suggested espaliering stone fruit trees down the side fence, we'll see, one step at a time ;)

The man of the house seems to be liking his job. He's got himself into a routine. We're looking forward to seeing him, not sure when though.

The animals are all happy and healthy. We've come to the decision we'll sell all the pigs with the aim of starting over again in 2014. This will give us time to build proper housing, fix the fences so they're pig proof and most importantly while the munchkins are still young, give us the opportunity to see more of this beautiful country. Having animals and taking holidays don't work!

Here's to week 2. It's already started with lack of sleep. Last night we had a brilliant thunder storm that rocked the house a couple of times. The munchkins ended up in my bed although to give myself some space, I dragged B3's mattress into my room and we all spent the night rugged up thinking up all sorts of theories as to why thunder happens, it lightened the mood :)

School holidays start this Friday. We're not planning on travelling anywhere. I would have liked to visit my parents but it's just not going to happen. Not sure what we'll do, I guess we'll play it by ear and enjoy the sleep ins ;)

Until next time
~x~

I'm glad I woke up with a positive frame of mind at the beginning of the week! The weather played havoc here with 90km wind gusts that nearly saw our portable chicken coop upended and could have hurt our pony who is currently chomping down the knee high grass in the same paddock.

I honestly didn't think the coop would move. It's big enough to walk in and currently houses 9 chooks. It's made of frames made from c section which isn't light and tin and heavy gauge wire and was firmly, albeit shallowly embedded into the ground. Luckily I can see the coop from the lounge room window and saw it moving about. I went out armed with all the rope I could find and tied the coop to fences and stakes and placed heavy rocks on the roof to stop the tin from flapping around. It's didn't move after that! 5 of the chooks took the chance to escape so I left them to wander the front yard with the thought of putting them back in the coop before dark but when the munchkins came home from school, they gated off an area were I plan to have a garden and enclosed the 5 wanderers so they won't wander too far or become dinner for foxes and they are now happily scratching the earth and weeding the soon to be garden bed! Clever munchkins I have :) We'll continue to move those chooks along the garden bed so they can clear it right to the other end.

yes the pony is sticking his tongue out at me!

Until next time
~x~

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post was the man of the house changed jobs when we moved. Driving trucks would be a distant memory. Yippe! His new job had him home every night :) and weekends were ours to do what we wanted without having to rush through the days just to get everything done before he left again. We got used to having him around more, you could see the small changes for the better in the munchkins with having dad home to do things with them, it was good :)
Then, it all changed. He was offered a job, within his new job, driving trucks up north of Australia, not a bad thing you might think as we'd done it for the past 13 years, but this time it's different, he's away for 3 weeks, home for one, for the next 4 months at this stage :( I've gone from a weekend wife, to a full time wife to a, hmmm, 1 week a month wife? all in a short space of time. Can I do this? is the question I've been asking myself for the past 4 days since he left, my answer has always been the same, no, I don't want to, I shouldn't have to!

This morning when I woke, my answer had changed. I can do this, I will do this and i'll enjoy it! There is so much to do here at home to keep me occupied. I want to get the garden established, the vegie patch formed, the pigs sent to a new home (my main mission in the next 3 weeks), the kids rooms painted and organised so they don't just think of it as a place to sleep with bare walls to stare at, pictures hung all around the house, pack up more at the church so when hubby does come home we can move a little more of the big furniture. There's bound to be more on the to-do list, it shuld be a never ending list!

We have a couple of big weekends coming up, one in October and one in November and I want the munchkins and I to have a few days in QLD with hubby instead of him flying home and the 2 eldest munchkins haven't been to QLD so it'll be an adventure for them. A couple of day trips thrown in to get us out of the house will be planned too now the weather is warming up.
So many plans and things to do, I won't have time to sit and think, which is a good thing for me as I over think things then the anxiety sets in.

So, i'm off to plan my list and hopefuly get some things crossed off or atleast underway by this time next week :)

Until then,
~x~

Another month slips by! I have wanted to blog but I've been keeping a secret for a couple of months and me being me, find it hard to keep my own secrets lol, I can keep everyone elses secrets, just not my own. I can now let you in on this news but not just yet, I have other stuff to blog ;)

The munchkins had a quiet and relaxing 2 weeks of school holidays. Amusing themselves at home, playing together without the usual sibling fighting! We did visit my family for a couple of days, enjoying some much wanted op shopping, coffee at a gorgeous café, birthday celebrations for B3 and myself (my mum sure knows how to make us feel like we don't need to eat for a month after visiting her lol) and general catching up on all the happenings with everyone.

My brother, Jamal, has been selected to represent Australia (proud sister moment right here :) ) at the Special Olympics Asia Pacific Games which are being held in Newcastle, NSW, in December this year. He's one of 2 athletes from Mount Gambier who will be participating. Currently all the Aussie team members are individually fundraising to help cover their costs of getting to and participating in the games. Each member has the same fundraising goal, all monies will cover things like travel, athlete insurance, uniforms, participation fees etc. If you have a spare $ to help Jamal reach his goal it would be greatly appreciated by him and our family or you could simply leave a message of support and cheer here on my blog and i'll pass it on :) https://specialolympics.myetap.org/fundraiser/asiapacgames/individual.do?etapCacheBuster=1371188812248&participationRef=4136.0.845234217

We built a new letter box. Our other one was slightly on the small side and not too weather proof. Our new one is huge and no water gets in. It's made from the top of a rubbish bin (thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, although it was a recycled paper only bin). I think it would look good if we could get 3 more in different colours and replace the neighbours boxes that stand alongside ours.

Miss Pigsy had another litter of piglets. I know, it wasn't meant to happen this soon but the boar couldn't be contained. Luckily for me, there were no complications and Miss Pigsy is such a great mother this time round. 3 more weeks and we should be able to wean them off mum and this time we'll be putting a GREATER distance between boar and sow! I'm waiting on the ear tags to arrive so we can send the 1st lot of piglets to the sale yards, currently we have 17 pigs of varying ages and my gosh, they eat a lot!

 

 

Check out this mushroom our neighbour collected while out mushrooming. It's bigger then a dinner plate! Very edible but this one was destined for show and tell at school with B3. I've never seen one so big before, the munchkins wondered how many fairies would have lived under it! I do hope the fairies were able to find another home ;)

 



 



Hmmm, I guess I should tell you my news. We're moving! Only 10kms down the road and around the corner hehe. We've purchased a farmlet, 40 acres in size with a 4 bedroom house, stables, sheds, tanks, paddocks and more, everything we could ask for. I can't tell you how excited the kids are, they'll each have their own room with walls and doors! After living in this small open plan church with very little privacy and it will be a welcome change. We're keeping the church and will renovate it properly which will be much easier while not living here. It'll become a holiday house of sorts for us when I need to get away from the farm lol or visitors if they choose. The man of the house is looking forward to being a hobby farmer as am I. I'll have calves to rear again, be able to take in orphan lambs, have a huge orchard and vegie patch! So many ideas and drawings have been thrown around. Settlement is at the end of this month so only a few days and we'll be able to slowly move things in. The good thing about keeping the church is the extra storage and we don't have to rush about packing and moving :)

 

Until next time

~x~



 

to our awesome B3 :) 8 years old Saturday just gone..

No big party but it's the 1st time in a looong time that the man of the house has been home for celebrations on the actual day. As requested, we had McMummy's for lunch followed by a Green Piggy Angry Birds chocolate cake that I created, I think it looked pretty good and B3 was very happy with it.

B3 chose his own gift, lego of course and as a family we gave him a dvd player, headphones and a lego dvd, now he doesn't have to borrow his sisters dvd players!

That night we had a bonfire at a neighbours house which was a great end to a special lil mans birthday :)

Until next time
~x~

 

 

Not potatoes I've grown. These came from a spud farm not far from home and are now on their way to the Smith Chip factory in Queensland.

The joys of having a husband who drives trucks, the munchkins and I get to visit places we'd not think of visiting otherwise. Mondays excursion was to a potato farm. The potatoes are normally freshly picked but these ones had been stored in the ground, commonly known as root cellaring, for a couple of weeks, meaning, they were dug, dried out a bit in the sun for a day then turned back into the soil usually with a layer of straw mulch over them so they keep fresh.

B3 was quite excited to help with the grading of the spuds. After the spuds went through the washer he picked out the ones that had rotten soft bits or were cut with the harvest and threw them in a crate that was destined for animal feed or for the farmers dinner table. The really small spuds went into a different crate and were taken to another farm for planting. The spuds then went up a conveyor belt into the truck and off they went on their journey.

Until next time
~x~

*sigh* where do the days go? There's either not enough hours in the day or not enough days in the week, it doesn't help when we keep losing days, or is it we're losing our marble?? lol


Our B1 turned 13 this month. I still find it hard to believe I've been a mum for 13 years! She had a quiet family party at home the weekend prior to her special day and received some special gifts. My mum made a gorgeous quilt for her, not quite a single bed size but much bigger than a lap quilt. B1 has been wrapped in it ever since, it must be warm! On the actual day we had a special dinner and icecream cake with a couple more gifts from her siblings.

the gorgeous quilt

icecream cake 

Family party



Mothers day was also celebrated on the same weekend. I received some great school made gifts from the munchkins as well as a cozy dressing gown and my darling husband gave me the most gorgeous gift, a quaint 1960's caravan. I'm going to give it a big makeover, outside and in, it's something I've been dreaming of for the past 3 or so years and it will probably take another 3 years to get the makeover done! I'm forever looking through the Vintage Caravan magazines and drooling over the cool, retro vans and accessories. I have a pinterest board of all sorts of ideas I can do to my van, who I've named Eveie. I've settled on a colour, just not sure of the shade, I also have half an idea of how I want the inside to look. I'm excited!

Eveie the 10ft 1960's van

The vegie patch is growing well. The brassicas are all forming heads, onions have popped up after I thought the summer heat had been to harsh for them, we even have what we a certain is a sunflower plant growing where the pigs were, don't know how as we've not fed sunflowers to the pigs but we'll let it continue to grow and hopefully it will flower. It seems I also have sunflowers growing in the lawn out the backyard, they can only be from the guinea pig feed, it's such a muddled growing year in the Wimmera of Victoria!

Our little town has been saddened by the sudden death of one of the locals. He was a fit, not quite 70 year old, semi retired farmer. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family.

We've had a couple of bonfires the past month, not as many as we had last year, it seems everyone has busy lives this year and it's no fun having a bonfire on your own lol.

Until next time

Keep your loved ones close

~x~

2 years ago Wednesday just gone we turned this shoe box into a home, got the munchkins settled in school and made new friends. It's been a challenge at times, I miss not having my family in walking distance, the extended family is missed too but I know we did the right thing and we are blessed to have what we have.

Nothing gets done in a hurry around here lol It seems like the house will always be a work in progress but we are having fun doing it so that's ok. Each little bit we do is one less thing we need to do next time :)

Until next time
~x~

Ahh, the hot months are now behind us, the fire restrictions have been lifted and we can start enjoying our weekend bonfires once again.

Here's a look back at some of the 2012 bonfire season :) I have lots more shots but didn't want it to look like we are pyromaniacs lol

On Thursday when The man of the House was home, i made him light our 1st bonfire for the season. Unfortunately B1 wasn't home to celebrate but i wanted it done before we had the 1st neighbourhood bonfire and hubby wasn't going to be home for that. Lots of very dry twigs and leaves, cardboard and the odd unuseable pallet put out a huge amount of heat.

Saturday night the 1st neighbourhood bonfire was lit. Gosh, how i've missed the warm glow of an open fire, the smokey haze, the relaxing with neighbours and friends from afar and of course toasted marshmallows!

The kids had a ball toasting marshies, well, setting them on fire lol, making them crunchy on the outside and a molten gooey mess on the inside.

A simple bbq, a few drinks and lots of laughter made for a lovely night.

toasting marshmallows over the homemade bbq

being silly for the camera

Until next time
~x~

A giant atlantic pumpkin grown by my neighbour. Circumference 123cms. Weight approx 120kgs. Hollow and not at all good for eating but the pigs enjoyed it! Very few seeds. There were a couple of smaller pumpkins on the vine but most of the energy of growing a big pumpkin went into this one.

We'll try to grow an even bigger one next season :)

Until next time
~x~

Easter weekend also saw us at our very 1st tractor pull at Quambatook.

What is tractor pulling? It's simply a motor sport to see who has the most powerful tractor for pulling a heavy weighted sled.
Back in the 1800's farmers would boast about the strength of their horses while pulling farm machinery or fully loaded wagons so neighbouring farmers would hold contests to find the strongest horses.

There were vintage tractors and super modified ones. There were young kids under 12 with modified ride on mowers doing their thing.

It was a looooong day, and sometimes it got a little boring, there's only so many times you can watch a vintage tractor pull a weighted sled a few hundred metres down a dirt track but as the day wore on and the bigger, noisier  faster tractors did their thing it got better and more entertaining. The vibrating ground and the burning fuel was my kind of entertainment lol

The Easter Bunny made an appearance in a monster truck before he hopped around the countryside doing his Easter Saturday egg delivery ;)

Would we go again, hmmm, yes, but we wouldn't spend all day there, we'd go after half the events were over, it was great just long.

Until next time
~x~

Easter weekend saw us heading off to the annual Great Western Rodeo, this is the 2nd year we've attended. There's free camping on the grounds so we pitched the tent and set up camp for the night. Many others set up tents or roll out swags and the horse owners that stay after the events usually sleep in the horse floats. Not a lot of sleeping happens, the younger generation party on through to the wee hours of the morning. At 4am you see the glow of the campfires with people sitting around them winding down after a night full of entertainment.

This rodeo isn't just about bull riding and bucking broncos. There are team roping events where the steer is roped around the horns and the back legs. Chute dogging, where the horse rider has to leap off the horse and wrestle the steer to the ground (it's done in a non harming way),  Breakaway roping where the horse rider attempts to rope the steers horns and barrel racing which is horse and rider racing around 3 barrels in a cloverleaf pattern. All of these events are timed so it's fastest competitor wins.

As with any animal/people event, there are injuries, some minor, some major. 3 riders were carted off in the ambulance at this rodeo. No animals were injured and i've said it before, these bulls and horses are all professionally trained to do what they do, if they don't want to buck and jump around and perform how they should, they won't. The owners of the bulls are very good animal handlers and you could even say some of the bulls are quite tame.

After the events there was a band playing both country and modern music. There was a sideshow alley type area during the day where a lot of the kids spent most of their time, the mechanical bucking bull got a good workout by the little kids. A few stalls selling jewellery, clothing, hats etc. All up a good variety for everyone who attended.

I've said it before on this blog, we're not big on celebrating Easter at this time of the year but Happy Easter to you all if you are.

My mum has done well in her quest in keeping her 30 year old tradition going. I received my sugar candy egg, or rather eggs. Normally it's one big egg but this year she couldn't find the big ones in the supermarkets so 2 packets of little ones did the job well. They weren't hidden in the cereal bowl cupboard like they were when i was younger! 

My candy eggs have never been as fancy as the one in the picture below, but they've been just as colourful and sure are yummy!

The munchkins got a small stash from neighbours as well as their pyjama's (our Easter in March/April tradition) and an egg of choice from us. The man of the house and i splurged on afl pyjama pants which will keep us cozy while watching Friday and Saturday night football on telly :)

Until next time

~x~

B2 has been back and forth to the optomertrist for the past 8 years and they've found her eye sight to be 20/20 each time. Last month she started having regular mild headaches, sometimes worse,during the school week. Off to the optometrist again and this time they've suited her up with a pair of fancy purple rimmed glasses that she is to wear for just about everything apart from playing sports or playing in the school yard.
Wearing glasses has made a vast improvement. She's concentrating more at school and has taken up reading for fun again much to the delight of this book worm mumma ;)

Dear Heartsister,

thank you for the well wishes in your recent letter. I'm as healthy as i can be. The Doctor was quite apologetic when he told me he couldn't find anything wrong with me and all the tests came back clear lol. I'm happy I'm healthy, though it would be nice to know why my heart was giving me grief. Heart disease runs in the family so it is a little scary when the my heart does irregular things.

Did you take the photo of the bird on the front of the card/letter? I'm trying to take more wildlife photos where possible to build my photographic skills.
In regards to the cartoon picture you signed off with, were you a redheaded cheerleader in a past life or are you one now? hehe
I quite enjoy reading your snippets of the history of the places you stay at :)

Did you attend the quilt exhibition? My mum is an avid quilt maker and collector, i just wish she passed on her creative genes to me. At the moment she's making some quilts for the Geltwood festival in Millicent, Sth Aust, The festival is a celebration and an acknowledgement of the quilt making and of the artisans and artists within the area. 
I like quilts that have a history or are made for a specific purpose. Did you see a photo of the quilt on the forum made for the Raine? Just gorgeous!

My munchkins have settled well into the new school year. B1 is in 1st year of high school. She needs to learn how to organise herself better. The amount of homework she's given each week makes me think they do nothing in class. She's on camp at Halls Gap this week. It's a getting to know your fellow classmates and working in teams kind of camp. They're camping in tents they've set up themselves, cooking their own meals in groups, having adventures in canoes, abseiling, archery lessons, doing all sorts of trust games, sounds like a load of fun :) B2 is coasting along with her studies in grade 6. Ask me at mid year how she is doing, it could be quite different lol, she's not a keen scholar, would rather be in the paddock with the horses. We had her to the optometrist on Saturday, she needs glasses for all things except sports, sleeping and walking. It could just make a big difference to her learning. B3 is still coming along in leaps and bounds in grade 2. Once again he has an occupational therapist once a week and i can see significant changes in his learning abilities.

The weather is still hot, humid and yuck! Summer may officially end at the end of this month but this part of Oz will still be sweltering for another month or two. I'm thinking a holiday house in the form of an igloo in the Arctic would be ideal ;) We've had a couple of fantastic storms pass through in the last 2 weeks. Unfortunately all it did was start fires again all around us. The smoke haze from the Grampians fire (200kms away) engulfed us for most of last week. I couldn't see beyond the neighbours back yard. 

We're off to the Great Western Rodeo on Easter weekend. We went last year and have decided it will be another annual event on our calendar. We'll pitch the tent and enjoy a day/night of country fun and games. Hubby also has a week or maybe two weeks off work over the Easter/school holidays so we may find somewhere else to pitch the tent for a few days of relaxing.

Home renovations haven't been happening lately. It's either too hot or hubby has been working too hard. He was in QLD for 2 weeks at the beginning of the month. I'm aiming for the kitchen to be complete over the school holidays, I'm nearly at the point where i can't cope with no running water over the kitchen sink and no stove top or oven to cook on/in. The munchkins are hanging out for all the goodies i usually bake for the school terms.

Well, i must leave you here. I have a piglet to wash and groom for show and tell at school tomorrow. I'm not sure how that's going to go, the piglets are still jumpy and squealy and haven't got used to us as quick as i thought they would. We attempt to play with them daily but they still shy away and get crazy. They're 4 weeks old on Wednesday :)

I look forward to receiving your next letter :)

Until next time
~x~

I have a new, to us, car! A very posh car, well, posh for us country folk lol

I'm a little apprehensive to drive it around the country roads, afraid it will get dirty. 

The funniest thing is now everyone on the road to town waves. No-one knows it's me driving, we've only had the car for 2 days so those who know us haven't had a chance to see it sitting out front of our house yet, and people who don't know us wave too. It's seems we've moved up the ladder in terms of fitting in with the snobby farmers (not all farmers are snobby, just the ones around this area). It's amazing how something like a shiny, fancy car can change peoples attitude towards you. We haven't changed, we just have a more reliable car that we worked hard for, paid in full with no debt incurred.

Me, being a Ford gal, I'm quietly enjoying the Holden hubby chose. It's spacious, which is beneficial for the growing munchkins. Has been well looked after, drives smoothly and quietly and will last us many, many years and it's red/burgundy, we all know red cars go faster lol. The novelty of a shiny new car will not wear thin anytime soon with me, I'm a bit of a car nut ;)

photos courtesy of google images

Until next time
~x~

My neighbour had an altercation with an air compressed nail gun yesterday. I give her credit, she's a doer when it come to building things and isn't afraid to use power tools, unlike me, who stands as far back as possible when someone else is using tools that bite lol

She had one last nail to put in the timber garden arch she was building when disaster struck. The timber moved and the nail drove itself into her thumb, right through the bone and just pierced through to the other side. We called the ambulance and they carted her off to the big town where she had it removed, was pumped full of antibiotics and has returned home with 6 weeks of healing ahead of her. She was very lucky there's no nerve damage or other permanent damage. I don't think she'll be using the nail gun in a hurry again!

Until next time
~x~

The piglets are now 4 weeks old and growing well :) They're eating grower pellets which give them a majority of the nutrient a growing piglet needs aswell as fruit which we're scavanging from the road side apple trees and a trip to Mildura in the next few weeks will see us collecting esky fulls of grapes from the growers that deem them not suitable for the supermarkets. Need to find a stone fruit grower somewhere ;) I freeze the excess fruits so we've got plenty for the animals to munch on for atleast 4 months.
They get along well with the chooks, curling up with some of them at night in the same enclosure. I'm still hesitant to house them near the big pigs so they're still in the backyard. It's saving on mowing the weedy lawns lol

I've sold one, to a neighbour and trying to convince another neighbour she needs one lol. I've got the others advertised all over the place but no interest yet. We may just have to grow them out ourselves and sell them through the markets. We've got 6 months before that happens.

Until next time
~x~

Our gorgeous dog Buffy left for a new home yesterday. She's a sheep dog who needs to be able to run for miles and play with other dogs so we made the heartbreaking decision to let her go to a farm where she'll get to experience the life of a sheep dog. She's still a pup really, not quite 2 years of age so she has a lot of living to do.

It's sad to not have her here but we all know she's better off at her new home.

Enjoy your new found freedom Buffy, we miss you xx

Until next time
~x~

Last Saturday we went to the Dartmoor Rodeo. It's been an annual event for us for the past 4 years, this being our 5th. It doesn't matter where we live, we make the trip to Dartmoor every February to soak up the friendly country atmosphere and some entertaining and professional bullriding.

The riders come from all over the country and we've got to know who the best are and have our favourites.

Not only is there bull riding, there's the buck jumpers, which i'm not overly fond of and the barrel racing for juniors and open ages. It's rather cute watching a 4 year old child on the back of a pony being lead around the barrels by mum or dad, it's a real family affair.

It would be great if we could follow the rodeo circuit all over Australia! We're off to the Great Western rodeo on Easter Weekend where we'll pitch the tent and enjoy a wider variety of eventing.

Until next time
~x~

Over at the Simple Savings forum, i organised what is called a heartsister program. It's where you anonymously send happy thoughts and well wishes to another person via snail mail. This is the 3rd year I've participated, but it's the 1st year I've organised it. It's quite fun and lovely to read what the other heartsisters have received, whether it be a chatty letter, thinking of you gift, birthday present etc.

My lovely heartsister wrote me a chatty letter and as i have no way of contacting her i thought I'd write back to her via my blog. I could write in the forum but it would take up a bit of space and the lovely lady i send to, who isn't the same lady who sends to me, might guess who i am ;) I doubt she reads this blog but if she does, Hi! lol

So, this blog post is for my lovely sending heartsister.

Thank you for your letter. It's nice to sit down and read about other peoples lives. You could say I'm a sticky beak lol but i prefer to call it being interested in others lives. Everyone has a story to tell and I'm happy to listen and perhaps take something from their stories that will enrich my life or learn from their mistakes.

The name you know me by on the forum has stuck with me over the past 7 years of being on the Internet. The 1st part of my forum name is because i like gingerbread people. the 2nd part, well, there really isn't a definition to that word i like. I did sometimes think of myself as a foolish, ignorant person, but happy to say,  not anymore. As for my real name, it's a shortened version of my christian name and middle name which are very common names.

The little town i live in has 11 houses, a pub, a hall, a football oval, a shed where the fire truck is housed and a school that closed a few years ago. The cemetery is 2kms down the hill. There are 3 other Churches on my street, each a different denomination. There are a few farms around the area that are classed as being a part of the town name. It was a very busy town back in its day. I would have liked to have lived here 100 years ago, with the train passing through the town, the many shops and saloons and trades. I'm forever telling my mum i was born in the wrong era :) I was raised in a town with a population of 20,000. While i had a good childhood with friends and shops close by i feel county living is more for me. My children have lived in the country most of their short lives, we had an 8 month stint in a town with a population of 2000. They thoroughly enjoyed having their friends drop in after school, being able to walk down the main street, visit the park, all without mum and dad having to drive them anywhere. It was a culture shock to my husband and i, living on a quarter acre block with neighbours and roads all around us, after living on acreage for 11 years in the middle of a pine forest with our nearest neighbours 1km away.

I adore old furniture. The kitchen table you described is my kind of table, full of history :) I've always had old dressers and mismatched furniture. When we purchased this house i dreamt of new modern furniture with a rustic, country charm. Being a small house i think the white with timber features will make the place look bigger and less cluttered.

You must tell me more about your caravaning travels, and the good places to stay and visit :) If you've read my blog thoroughly, you'll know we have a bus that we've converted into a motorhome. I had dreams of travelling around the country for long periods of time but now our eldest has just started high school, those plans have been put on the backburner. We will need to do shorter trips, which is ok, we'll still get to see and do lots and the munchkins will learn so much. I struggle some days living in such a small house with 4 other people so i'm not sure how well i'd do living in the bus! Living in hubbys truck for a week with just him does my head in lol.

The hot weather knocks us around. It's a very dry heat here. The air conditioner is useless, the house in uninsulated. The swimming pool gets a lot of use and icy poles are a permanent item on the menu. We've been lucky to not be near any major fires. The closest was 50km's away and had no chance of coming close to us. The garden doesn't fair too well during summer. I've come to the conclusion i will not bother with a summer vegie patch. I do have tomatoes that are thriving though. We're harvesting atleast 20 a day :)
I'm looking forward to the cooler months, woodfires, hot chocolate, toasted marshmallows...

Well, this is where i shall end. I hope you are having many adventures and 2013 is full of good health, happiness and love and laughter.

Until next time
~x~

Miss Pigsy gave birth to 11 piglets on Wednesday 16th at 11pm. We missed the birth but it seemed to be an easy labour for her and she did wonderfully well. 1 lil piglet was stillborn.

During the day on Thursday we had a few mishaps. Miss Pigsy, being so big and not used to little piglets running around and under her, accidently squished one. She then squished another 4 but we managed to save one, so from the 11 we were down to 6. Unfortunately i had to make the heartbreaking decision to take the remaining  piglets away from her. There were a few factors that made the decision easier. Miss Pigsy's milk was near non-exsistant. She was moving around a lot and wouldn't lay down for the piglets to feed, it was a very, very hot day, the man of the house wasn't home, the vet is 2 hours away. I did not make the decision lightly, i couldn't bear to lose anymore piglets so i took them and began the process of hand rearing. I trawlled the internet and found a lot of helpful information, i used info that has been repeated multiple times on all different websites. I felt reasonably confident i could help the piglets grow. I'd reared calves for many years so i had a basic understanding of what was right and wrong when it came to animals. They feed well from a bottle and the pink, squishy little piglets made it through that night with my help.

On the Saturday i persisted with them to get them to feed from a shallow dish as i'd read and been told by a few piggy people it's a better option. I was lucky the man of the house was home as i was very sleep deprived from the previous 2 nights and couldn't get the piglet to do what i wanted. Hubby said i was trying too hard lol. He left them to their own devices and sure enough, they got hungry and feed from the dish with no help. They then feed every 3 hours instead of hourly. We had them in a big cage with lots of hay and there they slept all night with their continued 3 hourly feeds.
Fast forward to today, they've been having weetbix mixed with their milk and it's making them fuller for longer. They sleep for 8 hours overnight. They're growing with no set backs whatsoever. I made the right decision on that Thursday and noone can tell me otherwise.

Miss Pigsy hasn't had any side effects from not having the piglets. She's eating, wallowing and looking ok although she does have a sad look about her as she knows she had piglets but doesn't know why they're not there now. The little milk she did have dried up quickly and thankfully she didn't suffer from mastitis.

So, there you have it. We survived our very 1st piglet birth. Would i do it all again, not in a hurry!

Until next time
~x~

I was wandering around blog world and came across a shopping bag swap. I for one can never have too many reuseable shopping bags. I use them for anything and everything.

If you'd like to participate, head over to CreativeChaos and follow the prompts. Sign ups close at the end of the month so get in quick :)

Until next time
~x~

There's nothing more refreshing on a 40 degree (Celsius) day then wallowing in a muddy hole, well, if you're a pig!

Mr Porky who's been with us for 4 months has finally realized there is nothing but goodness in a mud bath. I don't think his previous owners, who had him from birth (he's roughly 14 months old) ever gave him a mud bath or put a sprinkler on for him to get used to water. It's taken us quite a long time to get him used to it. I'm glad he is because with our shocking heat there's no other way to cool down.

Our little black piggy's  Jap and Sulky, have taken to water really well too. They're now 6 months old. I know, i said i was going to have them in the freezer by this month but we've been told they could grow a bit more and just before winter would be a good time for processing.

Miss Pigsy LOVES mud baths, more so now as she is 3 months, 2 weeks and 4 days pregnant :) She's due on the 17th of January but i'm hoping for her sake she births in the next day or 3. She doesn't do a lot these days apart from laying in her wallow. She's huge! I'll be sure to blog when she has her litter, here's hoping all goes smoothly for her.

Until next time
Keep cool
~x~