12 months on....

It's hard to believe that it has been 12 months since those devastating fires that hit Victoria. Black Saturday. Mark and I watched the ABC show last night "Into the Firestorm" which recapped the timing of the fire events and the responses (and results) throughout the day. From those events, it is difficult to image that anyone living in even the fringe areas of bush and farmland would not consider fire plans. But sadly, I guess, that is the case.

As members of the CFA, Mark and I both hear from time to time about people who have not got a fire plan, do not know in advance of what they will do and expect someone, somewhere to swoop down and rescue them when the going gets hot. Sometimes, listening to talkback radio gives me the sh*ts, because it is evident that there are people out there that are just itching to lay blame when things do go wrong. I don't for a minute suggest that if negligence or malice is involved, someone should not be held accountable, but there are definately times where things go wrong and are outside of what anyone thought was imaginable or possible. Just listening to the various CFA captains and residents of those fire affected communities bodes this out. Never in their wildest dreams, did they think it could ever have gotten as bad as it did. But it did.

Add onto this, is the fact that those that cop the brunt from the "blame-layers" are in fact the face of the fire agencies. The vast majority of them CFA volunteers. Let me state that again.... VOLUNTEERS. Not necessarily the paid staff of the ones that make the upper management decisions. They are the guys and girls that pick up a line and squirt the wet stuff on the red stuff and hope that they get everything under control ASAP. And in the case of the Marysville crew, they were out trying to save other people's possessions and livelihoods while each and every one of them lost their own houses, possessions, and in one case, much much more.

So what has prompted this diatribe from me? There was an article in the weekend's Age which I received an online copy of. It is a very good article which probably states everything I have said, but in a much more eloquent way. The bottom line; if you want to live in a fire prone area, you need to accept the risks, and these may involve the loss of property and/or life. If you don't want to, or can't, accept these risks, then you need to consider living somewhere else. There simply cannot be guarantees of safety made.

Check out the article by clicking HERE

A busy 6 months ahead

The year is staring to pick up speed and I feel like I am not keeping up with it already!

The start of the year on the farm has proved to be a busy one with an outbreak of pinkeye affecting most of the various mobs of cows. A dreadful condition, which although we have vaccinated the cows to reduce the incidence, the dust and the flies are just having their wicked ways. For the first time in my life, I woke up with a touch of conjunctivitis and Mark suggested (tongue in cheek) that I may also have succumed to the pinkeye outbreak!!! Great!

We have also had all our first calf heifers classified - about 100 odd - and whilst I am yet to see any score sheets, I believe that we averaged in the 80's. I resubmitted Craiglands Luckystrike 3111 for classification and she improved 2 points taking her to VG 87 which I am very pleased with.

On the subject of Luckystrike, I don't think I mentioned that our big black Luckystrike cow (2843...the one we flushed), is FINALLY in calf. Whoo hoo. This is the best news! She is due a week before me! ha ha ha. Because she has been running with 9 bulls, we won't be keeping the calf, but the fact that she is pregnant and hopefully will continue to get back in calf is very welcome news. For those of you not in the cow game, I can appreciate that this is not very interesting and you are probably thinking that I have lost my marbles. Nearly correct, but not quite!

As Jarrod left us to join the Navy, we have been interviewing potential replacements this week. Happily, we had about 11 people apply, and we chose 6 to interview. We will make a choice by early next week and hopefully the new employee will start in February.

Mark and I also took part yesterday in a television commerical shooting for DPI. It has something to do with the future farming program and there are a number of farmers from different industries involved. We may end up on the cutting room floor, and I doubt that we would win any awards for our performances!!

February sees us getting the kids back into a routine of daycare, kinder (first year for Tom!) and swimming. My 40th birthday is also at the end of Feb and we are planning a big bash for that. I am actually looking forward to celebrating my 40th and entering the next decade of my life.

A big March and April is planned as we are taking the kids and the caravan and travelling to Darwin to catch up with the Stevenson's. Already I am very much looking forward to it and I think the big break away with just us and the kids will do the world of good for Tom, especially as in a few weeks after, the focus is going to be on something very different in our lives.......

...the new baby. Yes, the baby arrives sometime in early June. I am now over halfway and have gotten through all the necessary tests that I needed to have done (except diabetes...still to come). Of all the tests that I have gone through - for pregnancies, IVF etc - the most stressful that I encountered was the amniocentises. It was not the actually test that freaked me out, but the odds of having a miscarriage. In fact, it freaked me out so much, that on my first attempt (2 days prior to Christmas) I backed out. Couldn't go through with it. But after a few tears, hours of discussion with Mark, I knew it was for the best. So I did go through with it. And everything is fine. We have the results back and genetically, the baby is normal. Physically, the baby is normal. Mentally, it's mother is borderline!! LOL. But sheesh....the stress of will I/won't I miscarry is just so in your face. But I am past the danger period now and fingers crossed it is all smooth sailing from here on.

We haven't really seen too much of the hot weather so far this summer. Yes, we've had a few days in the high 30's and even low 40's, but I think we are still to face the wrath of Mother Nature. Actually, we need a few stinkers to kill some of these bloody flies!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

I'm a little late with my festive message, but we hope that you all had a great Chrissy filled with good food, good drink, good cheer and not too many tantrums, hissy fits, tears and squabbles (and that is just for the adults!!). No seriously, we hope you had a fabbo day.

We had a great day here at the farm, although one of our milkers was late on the job. And he doesn't even have an excuse of a hangover as he is only 15. I hope Santa bought him a whopping big alarm clock! Sadly, we said goodbye to one of our long term workers. Jarrod Hall had his last milking with us on Christmas morning and it was all I could do to say thanks, give him a kiss and get out of there before I dissolved into tears. Jarrod has been with us 1 month shy of 4 years and we have watched him grow from an awkward teenager, to a strapping young man with a bright future. Jarrod leaves us to join the navy, and since his missed the March intake, we might see him sneak around for the occasional milking to get some money! So heartfelt thanks go to Jarrod for all his work, committment and reliance over the past 4 years.

Jarrod & Mark

Back at the house, the kids were chomping at the bit to get stuck into the pressies! Mum had done a wonderful job of keeping them out of the lounge room until Mark and I got back from the dairy. Of course, they were both spolit rotten and Mark made the commentthat they had more stuff in just their Santa sacks than he usually got in a whole Christmas. It's a fair comment as I think the same was true for me!

Biddy 'relaxing' in her new camping chair with her Dora sunnies!

But the kids had a wonderful day with the main presents being:
Tom - a V-motion console and games, a Tag pen and books, a battery powered Jeep (courtesy of Nanny and the Butler family), clothes, books, the usual array of dinosaur merchandise, a dino quilt (from Gran) and a stack of Hot Wheels racing tracks including the dinosaur tracks.

Biddy - a rocking horse (horses are her FAVOURITE thing at the moment), variety of dolls, tea-set, a crayola table with pens and playdoh, books, clothes, goggles, and a camping chair.

Mark - a set of RM Williams canvas carseat covers, a mini Webber (for the caravan), and Top Gear DVDs and books.

Sam - a water fountain for the garden, a couple of metal garden ornaments including a HUGE spider (loving that one!!), a Soda Stream, the New Moon CD and a rolling table to use near the BBQ (this was handmade by my mum in her woodwork course at U3A and is simply fabulous!).

Unwrapping the Soda Stream

Lunch ran late of course, but luckily, none of us had to milk, so it was no biggie. Had the usual - ham, turkey, pork and also poussin (baby chickens), followed by pudding and another sweet treat. We only had 5 adults and 2 kids for lunch so it was pretty relaxed. Dinner was at my SIL and the whole Billing family got together - LOTS of kids at this one!

Of course, we can't forget that it was also Biddy's real birthday, so on top of all the festive celebrations and food, we also had a birthday cake and a birthday song for her. Every year, Mark and I are buying her a small crystal figurine...this year it was a cat.

Blowing out the candles for her 2nd birthday!

Are we mad?

For those that haven't caught up on the news yet, Mark and I are expecting our third baby in June next year! Yes, Tom will be a big brother x2 and Biddy will finally get the opportunity to terrorise someone younger than her! Things have not been smooth sailing (already...I am 14+ weeks now), but hopefully everything will settle down into an uneventful pregnancy.

Things have been flat out here of late and I feel like I am not even keeping my head above water. I am struggling a little health-wise (pregnancy related), and with Mark still out of action due to back surgery, everything has fallen to me to do. I have had to cancel an event I was organising for Saturday afternoon, purely because I am not able to get everything done in time.

The kids are winding up various activities and now we are facing the run of Christmas parties. As a bit of a run down on what I have booked in:

10th: Back surgeon appointment and OBGYN appointment (both Melb)

11th: free-ish. Have hairdresser appointment!

12th: cancelled event, but now have 6yo party to take kids to

13th: Larpent CFA Christmas BBQ

14th: Kids have their daycare Christmas concert. Judging for HICO on-farm challenge sometime in next 3 days

15th: Swimming group breakup and then Mark and I are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary (in Melb)

16th: Spot of Xmas shopping in Melbourne then home

17th: Cockies picnic (day), dinner with female family members (night)

18th: to Geelong for remainder of Xmas shopping??????

19th: Craiglands staff Christmas party

20th: free

21st: OBGYN appointment in Melb

22nd: Food shopping

23rd: finish cleaning house

24th: to Lorne to pick up seafood

25th: yes I know that you think this is Christmas, but remember, for us, it is also Biddy's REAL birthday, so we have that as well!!!

Phew! December is just crazy isn't it?

Also, I have neglected to mention how we went in the various shows that we took cows to. Colac show was not a great success for us. We did get places (a 2nd and a 3rd), but I was hoping for something a little better, particularly for the Luckystrike cow that we took to the shows last year. My personal opinion was that she was a much better cow this time out and should be in with the mix. At Colac though, she wasn't. However, at Noorat, things were a little different. The cows settled into the different surrounds very quickly and that always helps things along. The Luckystrike (Craiglands Luckystrike 3111) performed exceptionally well taking out Reserve Champion Dairy cow and Supreme Udder in the interbreed sections! This was a terrific result.

Sam with Craiglands Luckystrike 3111 (wearing her ribbons) after just taking part in the Grand Parade

This time round, Carl Moon was unable to join us, so I thank Mike Huth (from BOS Trading) for coming along to both shows and helping me put the finishing touches on the cows, particularly with kids in tow! I also want to thank our farm staff who put up with me juggling cows around, preparing cows whilst they are trying to do their normal duties, helping me with various little jobs both before and after the shows (such as applying sunscreen to clipped udders), and generally supporting my 'hobby'. Thanks guys!

He's back and recovering

Monday week ago, Mark had his back operation. It turned out that the prolapse was much worse than first anticipated and he ended up being in surgery for nearly 2 hours. But the surgeon (Greg Malham) was very pleased with how it all went and was happy with how the remainder of the disc looked.

Mark remained in hospital until Thursday when he came home in an ambulance - because he can't sit at all - he either has to lie, or stand and not for very long. Casting no aspersions on the ambo driver, he said it was like being in a washing machine!!

Mark with the 2 ambulance medics who bought him home

The kids were rapt to see him and immediately got into bed with him. Much supervision is needed when they are with daddy though, although one on one, they are ok. But together, they think that the bed is an amusement playground and jump all over the place.


Recovery is going well except for a slight hiccup Monday morning. Sunday night, Mark complained of being a bit itchy on his back. To me, it looked like a bit of a rash where he'd been lying for a while, and I thought he may have needed a pressure mat or something. But come Monday morning, he was covered from head to toe in a raised itchy red rash. I have never seen any thing like it (just remembering it is making me itchy right now!!) So off to the hospital (slow trip in the car!) to get it checked out, plus taking the little girl with us because she also had a rash on her legs and body.

Turns out it is urticaria (or hives) which has resulted from a reaction to the digesic (painkillers) he was on. Hence, no more painkillers - although he was nearly finished them anyway. So now he is on big doses of antihistamines and cortisone to treat the itchy rash. Today, it is slowly going, which is good. But the itch remains. Biddy, on the other hand, simply has bug bites (mozzies) and she has made them worse by scratching at them. But we have also discovered that she is highly sensitive to the sticky on bandaids (which I used to cover up the bites) and now she has broken out in rashes from them! Sigh.

So the back is good - so far - and he is bored, so all is well on the homefront. I, on the other hand, am run ragged from running after the kids and Mark. LOL!

Sun, silage and shows

Hold on tight everyone, because this is a CRAZY time of year.

Yes, silage season has hit us and a little bit early this year too. We are into it now, with most of the home farm cut and raked and waiting for the contractors to arrive tomorrow morning. The paddocks over the road will be started tomorrow and the contractors will be in them and most likely finished by Friday. I remember when I first arrived at Craiglands about 9 year ago, that silage used to take nearly 2 weeks. Now, if we get good weather, it is all over and done with in about 3 - 4 days and that includes covering the stacks. Improved machinery, different technologies and management have attributed to this. But it is a crazy 4 days still!

And it is just as well that it will be all pretty well finished by the weekend, because Mark has a date for his back operation. He is booked in for Monday 9th November at Epworth in Melbourne. he'll be in hossie for about 3 - 4 days and then will be discharged home in an ambulance (because he cannot sit up) where he'll be useless...ahem, I mean recuperating, for a month. During this time, he is not allowed to sit in a car, do too much walking, absolutely no work, no lifting....nothing. It will be heaven for him, hell for me. After the first month,. he'll be able to start to resume some light activity, and then after another month get into moderate activity and then he should be ok about 12 weeks after the op. So, if anyone is in Melbourne on the 10th - 13th November, give him a call and drop in and see him. I'm sure he'll be grateful for the visitors.

But before he goes under the knife, we are showing cows at Colac show. We are training 3 cows at the moment; 1 from last year who has slotted back into it all quite nicely, and 2 newies. Although I must say that the 2yo we are training has already been halter broken as a calf (never made it to the show though), so she is a piece of cake. She did however stand on my foot yesterday when I was leading her around and I think she may have done a bit of damage as my little toe is PURPLE. Nice one. The other cow we have is a right tart. Is taking a stronger person than me to break her (thanks Huthy!). Hopefully she'll shape up in a couple of days.

So I am in the midst of leading cows, washing cows and specialty feeding cows as well as everything else. And I just remembered that the BAS is due at the end of the week. Good grief.

All over bar the shouting

Well, we are back home now (boo hoo) and pretty much straight back into it. But let me recap the final leg of our journey.....

Day 12
We left Albury headed for Melbourne to visit relatives (the Butlers). We had a final breaky of bacon and eggs, much to Mark's disgust as he wanted to get out a bit earlier, but both the kids and I were up for it! We eventually left just after 10am.

Heading down the Hume Hwy (one of the most boring roads I have driven on.....maybe because I have driven it MANY times), I was lamenting about all the towns that are now bypassed. Yes, I agree that when you want to get from point A to point B in a hurry, major arterials like the Hume are great. But the towns along the Hume that have been bypassed have not always done well and some are a mere shadow of what they were. I don't want to really mention any in particular, because as soon as I do, someone from that town will be on me like a shot saying how the town is fine, but I reckon you can all understand what I mean. As a result of these bypasses, great monoliths have sprung up, usually adorned with a giant golden "M" or similar. Sigh.....

We took some of the backroads and called in to some of the towns - Euroa for example, where we had lunch. Mark said we were travelling route 66 (for those that have seen "Cars" you'll know what I mean!).

We headed to Melbourne via Alexandra, Marysville and surrounds to see how things were recovering after the devastating fires earlier in the year. OMG. I hadn't been up this way for a few years (I think the last time was when played waterpolo for the last time at Alex back in about 2001) and I was gobsmaked. It was really hard to get your bearings, particularly in Marysville where hardly any of the buildings survived and all the trees are gone. As mentioned in earlier posts from this year, Mark fought fires up at the Alexandra fire and he was interested to see how it can recovered. I am no tree expert, but from what I could see from the ute, many of the trees on the Cathedral Range looked dead.

Leaving this sad, but recovering area, we headed to Beaconsfield. For the first time for the whole trip (my opinion only), the GPS did it's job. I really didn't think about how to get there from NE Vic, but it directed us to drop from Marysville through the Black Spur, down to Emerald and then to Beaconsfield. Easy!

We spent the next couple of nights with family, not doing very much but catching up. Mark hadn't been down to see the Butlers since early December last year and I hadn't been there since April, so it was nice to catch up. We just parked the van out the front and hooked up to their power!

On Sunday, we packed up and headed home. Everyone was a bit quiet and like the end of all trips, it was a bit sad to drive in the front gate.

Here it is Wednesday and the van is still not 100% unpacked. Life on the farm started the moment we drove in the gate - Mark was out to look at a cow, I was sorting bills getting ready to pay... Mark's eyes have started to play up again, and in the last couple of days have gunked up again and are blood red. Even the cows are looking at him funny. If he's not careful, he'll get pulled out for a vet treatment the next time Mike comes to look at one of the cows!!

So that's it. Our first family holiday with Biddy and the caravan. I'm happy to say that everything went better than I expected (with the kids and the van). Thanks to those that have followed my ramblings. We are now looking forward to planning our next trip which is to Darwin to catch up with the Stevenson's in mid March 2010. In the meantime, we have harvest, Colac show, Mark's back operation, Biddy's birthday, Christmas and the usually madness that accompanies our general lives!