Thought I'd let all my lovely followers know I've moved my blog and started afresh over at http://totalprocrastination.wordpress.com/

Blogger hasn't playing nicely for me the past few months so I hope to see you all over the other side :)

~x~

albeit at a caravan park in a basic cabin :)

We stayed 2 nights and I had precooked our meals before leaving home which saved $$ and a bit of time. The meals were on the menu planner for those days anyways :)

As it was 40+ degrees both days, we spent a majority of our time in the pool and at the water park. The water park is a fairly recent addition to the Big4 caravan park in Swan Hill and it's fun for children and adults! The only gripe I have is it needs a shade sail over it. There is no protection from the sun whatsoever.

We did venture out for a morning of sightseeing at the Pioneer Settlement Village. We have been twice before but they've done some improvements and had some hands on things to do like butter making and rope making. There was also a school where you could learn to write with either chalk and a slate or an ink quill. A horse and cart ride was had too!

We left for home extra early on the Tuesday morning as it was going to be a shocker of a day weather wise and we had to get home to the animals. A small hiccup involving a flat tyre halfway home meant I had to completely unpack the boot to get to the spare tyre lol. We arrived home in time for breakfast ;)

A fun time away was had by all :)

Until next time
~x~

We're sheep farmers now :) We have a lovely heard of 85 Dorper ewes and lambs and a good stocky ram. We purchased them about 6 weeks ago and they've settled in well, coming up to the fence, albeit tentatively, for a chat. Since we've had them, we've had 3 lambings, they are oh so cute when newborns!

Here's hoping in the next couple of months we'll have some fat youngens to sell through the markets and in 4 months time, some more newborns as the ram has been doing what good rams do ;)

Until next time
~x~

Wishing each and every one of you, a happy and healthy 2014. May it be filled with love, laughter, adventures and memorable moments.

Looking back on the year just gone, life has been good to my family and I. It's safe to say we are in our happy place after a few years of more lows than highs. We're grabbing 2014 by the horns, finishing tasks that were started many moons ago lol, starting new ones that will make our lives richer and making new memories for and with each other.

My new years resolution is to learn to crotchet! Stay tuned for updates :)

But, 1st thing on the agenda is a visit to the dentist! That is the reason i'm sitting here writing this quick blog at 4.30am on New Years morning *rolls eyes*, tooth aches are not nice!

Until next time (i'm back to regular blogging, it's my life diary)
Smiles and blessings
~x~

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~