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~