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~