Renewed faith

I have to say I am glad we went back to Hillston, even though it was for Darren’s funeral. It was lovely to see how the town had supported his family. When we got to town there we got our room and went to get Chinese. When we got to the counter there was a sign saying “Heidi’s freezer is full, please no more food, a tab has been organised at Milne’s (butchers)” When we got out to her place she told us how people had brought over heaps of supplies, one fellow even came out just to chop her wood, another brought a load of wood. The P and C, CWA and CFA all did the catering for the funeral and didn’t charge for it. It reminded me just how awesome a small town is. Fair enough they mightn’t have credit card facilities at 99% of the businesses, but they sure know how to support each other.  

When we left Hillston, I was so angry and even bitter at how we were treated at Cowl Cowl, with what Russel and Jim did, over time I’d really begun to hate Hillston as well. This has renewed my faith in that little town.

Sad :’(

We got some sad news today that Darren a mate from the farm passed away last week. Darren was a top bloke, he was always willing to help and one to do the right thing. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends. 
Rest In Peace ‘Big Fella’ 

Card making madness

As some of you will know there is a card drive for Victorian farmers, which will be given out in Christmas hampers for them to give away to their friends and families when they need a card. I posted it as a topic, so if you want to have a read here it is... Rak Victorian Farmers. The Christmas cards I have made, may go to the actual farmers, or to my friends lol, will have to find out if she needs any Christmas ones ;)

	This is a card for a male, not really happy with it. Just never went the way I wanted lol.
	I like this card. It is cute. Well the stamps are hehe. This is for a child.
	To toot my own horn I really like this card hehe. I think I did a pretty good job :D Again, the stamps are just so cute, how could you not do a good job?
	This card I made after watching a demo at Roz's online SU party. I used 2 new embossing folders, new BG paper and new sentiment stamp that I got from the lovely Ebony. The rose stamp is one I have had for a year or so, love it :)
	This one is similar to the above, but instead of the embossing folder I used a text stamp, which is more like Roz's one. I made 2 like this.
	I like this Christmas card. The photo doesn't show it right, but where the red ends on the left the card itself is finished (the white you see after is the paper I took the photo on). When it opens the green circle stays on the bottom. I used my new embossing border file on this card. Made 3 of these.
	This card I made using a cricut cut file, my new embossing file, 3 new stamps and a sentiments stamp.

OMG -Some serious whinging going on here...

So the party was last night... It was so lame, well not lame as such just the 'manager & wife' who were 'hosting' the party never even spoke to like 1/2 the people. They stuck to their little group of "we're so much better than everyone else" people. Mind you most of us didn't mind as we can't stand him, or his off-sider, or their wives, their noses are so high in the air I imagine they are lucky planes don't fly up them.
The food was pretty crap, the 'hostess' bought it all at one of the wholesale places in Griffith.. First time that has happened, we always used to make the food so it used to be very fresh and yummo, this time it was even served in the containers it was bought in, so much for effort... The steak was horrible, ok well the steak was good, it is just that the 'host' cooked it and did a dreadful job, it was hard/crisp on the outside and it was dry in the middle. Mahrey TRIED to cook it, but master wouldn't (like normal) give up the reins.. In the end he ruined like $70 worth of meat.
Mick and I spent most of the time talking to people we liked, was good we all reminisced about different things.. One of the newer boys asked what was the most interesting 'your fired' story. Man there was alot of them.. One day I will write them all down so I don't forget them. There has been alot of 'interesting' times out here. I remember Johnno and I used to sit and wonder how so much can happen on a little farm in the middle of nowhere, we used to wonder if we were really on a reality tv show that was being broadcast to Germany... This was around the time we had 18 Chinese, 1 Taiwanese, and about 10 Korean's staying on the farm. I felt really sorry for the Taiwanese guy he couldn't speak Chinese or Korean and he knew very little English.
Oh we went at 6pm tonight to the barracks so we could eat left overs, they cooked up the ?last of the steak, did a better job but I didn't try it. Couldn't be bothered trying to chat to the hob nobs so sat inside and ate prawns with the other people that just didn't want to climb an invisible social ladder. Apart from anything who wants to be attacked by 30,000 flies when your trying to eat??
I have to laugh at them, they have all been on the farm for like under 1 year, who the blooming heck do they think they are??? They are so snooty it is sickening, the big boss (the owner), who is worth gazillions is so much nicer than any of these try hards. He is down to earth not like these people that have been hired. Grrr I wish he knew what a pain in the backside they are!
Ahh I feel somewhat better after a vent..

The Animals take over

We have had a heap of animals around in the last few days. I am not sure whether it is because it has been getting hotter. I went out to put the rubbish in the bin(who says I never do that lol)

I got quiet a shock when I saw the little Roo, not that it scared me, just that I wasn't expecting to see it lol.
Here are millions of ?Ibis' that descended on to the condo lawn, there must have either been lots of bugs in the ground or possibly the sprinklers had been on and there was water... I have never seen so many there before.

Under Attack (Relocated)

The other day I heard the birds going off, so I went out to see what was the matter. This poor little blighter was under fire from the maggies and the butcher birds. I went out to protect him, while we walked together he was safe, but as soon as he went outside the yard back in to the birds territory he was fair game.



This photo was taken just milliseconds before that bird struck the goanna on the head. It made a sickening noise! The birds continued to follow him till he got to the trees... No doubt to raid a nest... The cycle continues.. lol

Oh My Poor Babies

In March this year I bought 5 baby Chicks.
I love chooks, and these little gals (and a guy who I never heard crow, but had just started) lived inside for about 8 weeks, were hand fed (like ate off my hand) came running when they saw or heard me and were just the cutest.

Last week all my baby chickens were killed. A contractor on the farm had his dog off of the leash, Michael had forgotten to shut the pen up, and the dog got in and killed 4/5, the last little one died later that night =(( They were just 18 weeks old.

I have been away from home for 8 weeks and I was really looking foward to seeing them again, seeing how much they had grown. The contractor got us 4 new chooks (.....!!!) so I am yet to meet them, they are almost ready to lay and Mick already got one egg from them. Anyhow there is that sad story. I am looking foward to being home and seeing Mick and Trouble (our dog), but I am going to be sad my babies aren't there.

Visiting Friends

Goanna looking for bird eggs.
I live in Outback NSW, I have a lot of 'friends' dropping in to say G'day. I shall post some more visitors another day.

A friendly shingle-back lizard who stopped by our house for a much needed drink. One of our pipes was leaking and there was a large puddle on the ground, this gal stayed and drank for about 15 minutes.

Around the Farm

I don't have my license, and there really is nothing to do outhere anyhow lol. Occassionally I have been out with Michael, on the 4 wheelers. The farm that we live on is pretty huge, I have lived out here for about 4 years and I still haven't been every where on it. There isn't that much of interest on the farm to look at, sometimes there is a nice sunset or sunrise, and although there are roos around, they are hard to get a good photo of. There used to be Emus in one section of the farm, where we lived when we first moved on farm. That is about 20kms from where we live now, so needless to say that I haven't been over that way for quiet a while. I might have to do a mission over there to see if there is any around that aren't camera shy.
These are a few photos I have taken while out and about on the 4 wheelers.

I really love this tree. I have always loved trees with big holes in the centre, lol I have no idea why. As a kid I always thought about people hiding out in them in storms, in later years I realised that probably wouldn't be a good idea as there would be a greater risk of electrocution.
This is the Lachlin river, not much water was passing through there at the time of the photo, I am not sure how much is running at the moment either. In November there was a huge rise in the river, the most water I had seen in all my time here.

This is a pretty sunset, the water is actually Campbells dam. The water that is stored there goes down the channels and is eventually sucked up by the laterals (sorta like mechanical soaker hoses on legs). Each Lateral is 1km long, these water the crops.

One Beautiful Morning

These are some of my favorite photos that I have taken. They were all taken on the same morning. My mum got me a digital camera about a year and a half ago and I LOVE taking pics! I do prefer film, but digital is so much cheaper and practical! You can snap and snap and snap until you get just the photo you want !!