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~

8 days in to 2013 and I've not had the energy to do a lot. The heat has been atrocious. Our high ceilinged, uninsulated home doesn't fare well during 40+ degree days. The air con is useless. The only things keeping us from becoming puddles on the floor are the swimming pool and icy poles. I'm sure we'll grow gills if this weather keeps forcing us into the pool lol

Christmas was quiet. On the 23rd we visited my parents for our annual fish and chips at the beach for my mums birthday. The munchkins had a lovely time body boarding on the foreshore. We even saw a couple of small stingrays.

 stingray skimming across the shallow water

the munchkins attempting to body surf with no waves

The 25th we stayed home and celebrated Christmas quietly, just the 5 of us. The munchkins were overjoyed with their stash of gifts. Lunch was cold meats and salads, no room for dessert! The evening meal was left overs and then we managed fruit mince tarts with custard for dessert.

Santa has been!

New Years Eve the man of the house was working during the day so we took a quick day trip to Melbourne with him. Did some shopping, tried to do a bit of plane spotting at Tullamarine Airport but we were on the wrong side of the airport this time. The planes weren't taking off or landing where they were last time. We returned home just on dark and celebrated the night away into the new year with neighbours.

 Plane spotting near the control tower

A festive town tree at Ararat

B1 had her room extended. The man of the house surrended one of his sheds, near my laundry so now her bedroom is the same size as B2's room. It's not finished. The ceiling and 2 walls need gyproking, skirting boards etc to finish the room off then i can paint it all. She's much happier with more space, i've been told she has more room to make a mess!

The extension of B1's room

There you have it. The first post for the new year with a rundown of what we did in the last week of the old year :)

Until next time
~x~