The big push for the north

I must admit that I didn’t intend to be as lax with our blog entries for the trip, but we have had some big travelling days and some pretty poor phone/internet service while we’ve been away. Add onto this that most nights we are absolutely buggered, and you start to get a picture of why I haven’t been blogging.

But the time has come, so I’ll do a bit of an update for you all.

The first day (March 19^th) we did end up leaving home well before I thought we actually would but a bit later than planned (I think we drove out the gate at about 8.45am). This day was pretty much spent in the car travelling to Adelaide, where we stayed out the north side of the city so we had a jump on the next day’s driving. Distance travelled today: 730kms

Day 2 was another big travelling day as we are trying to get as much distance between us and the farm as possible! No, seriously, if we don’t put in some big days then we are simply going to leave our time in either Darwin or the trip home a bit short. The outback pretty much starts after Port Augusta as there is nothing much to see from here on out. We stopped at a place called Pimba for a refuel (just out of Woomera) and I could not believe the flies. I thought they were bad at home, but my god.....these were just unbelievable. As soon as you got out of the ute, they just attacked you. And they were no better 200km or so up the road at Glendambo where we pulled in for the night. The temperature today was up around the 38◦C. Distance travelled today: 605kms

Day 3 was a short run to Coober Pedy. The kids need a break out of the car and frankly, so do we. We are finding that they still have all their energy reserves for the day when we pull up at night and they are not getting to sleep until 11pm....not great when we need to be on the road early the next day. Coober Pedy on a Sunday is just a bit of a ghost town. Much like Sundays were when we were growing up....nothing much open, no-one around.... But it is as hot as hell here! The pool at the caravan park is inside a sort of water tank – completely out of the sun. Freezing cold..or maybe it just feels that way because we are so hot! Distance travelled today: 250kms

Day 4 was spent being tourists around Coober Pedy. We visited the dog fence and the Breakaways which are located about 15 – 20kms out of town towards Oodnadatta. The dog fence is an amazing structure as it extends 5,600kms from almost Surfers Paradise down to the Great Australian Bight near Ceduna. The longest continuous man made structure in the world. The landscape around Coober Pedy is just barren, and a number of movies have been shot around here that play on this rocky, red, hot environment (Mad Max, Pricilla Queen of the Desert, Red Planet). Later in the day we took the kids on a tour of an example of an opal mine, an underground house and one of the underground churches. It really is not that cool underground...quite muggy in fact. It struck us that Coober Pedy feels like it has fallen a bit on hard times, tourist wise, as there were a lot of things closed and obviously big ventures now not operating. Sort of feels a bit sad. Didn’t buy any opals here as they are not any cheaper here than anywhere else in Australia. Distance travelled today: 50kms

Biddy near the dog fence just out of Coober Pedy (can you see her? Right in the middle of the pic)

Tom and Biddy in the Old Timers Mine, Coober Pedy

Day 5 was an early start out of Coober Pedy headed for Alice Springs. Another big day of travelling broken up really only by a photo opportunity at the SA/NT border. Both Mark and I had not long been to Ularu, Kings Canyon and the Olgas, so we didn’t bother taking the 400km round trip to go there this time. The kids at their age would not be that interested and it is a bloody long way to go. So we pushed on past the turn off at Erldunda and kept going. It was amazing how green it is up here. The last time we were up this way (about 8 years ago), it was like a dust bowl. But this time, there is greenery everywhere. There have been some extensive rains in recent weeks – in fact enough to get the Todd River in Alice flowing which actually drowned someone! We pulled into Alice at about 5pm and headed straight for the caravan park. This park is one of the Big 4 chains and it is really well appointed. There are 3 pools here and the kids were in heaven! Distance travelled today: 692kms

Mark and the kids at the SA/NT border

Day 6 was another tourist day. We took the kids to the Alice Springs Desert Park in the morning where they got to walk around and view different desert habitats. It is simple enough to walk around (in fact, we took Biddy’s pram for the inevitable slow periods) but it was so hot. You are out in the heat for pretty much the whole time, although there are water stops along the way (which we made good use of). Tom did so well walking around the park, but by the end he was buggered – so was I. I think I was bringing up the rear! (give me a break, I’m nearly 7 months pregnant). After lunch we headed for the Reptile Centre in town. This is a bit run down and institutional looking, but there are heaps of exhibits to view and even a “pet” goanna that meanders about the place on its own that you can pat (but don’t touch its head or tail unless you want a nip!). Tom was hugely impressed by the snakes and geckos.

Tom with the goanna at the Alice Reptile Centre

We are now at day 7 and the novelty of living in the caravan and travelling has worn off the kids and they are now settling into a routine much better. For the first couple of days, Tom was a bloody nightmare to deal with, mainly because he had so much pent up energy, but now he is getting a lot better. Biddy is also settling into it all as well, sleeping better at night. This day also sees us leaving Alice and heading for Tennant Creek. We passed through Aileron which has a huge statue of an Aileron man overlooking the town and another of an Aileron woman and child down in the town. I’m not sure how big they are (I’ll google it), but they are enormous (impressive!). Not much at Barrow Creek and we ate lunch in the van under the only tree in the roadside stop. Temperature is in the 40’s today and after lunch, both the kids and I fell asleep and missed Wycliffe Well and Wauchope. Wycliffe Well is reknown for being a UFO hot spot and is even marked on maps as being the UFO centre. Mark said that there was a tin cutout of a UFO and another of a green man at the entrance to the town. The “centre” was just the arse-end of the roadhouse! But the highlight of the trip for me so far was the next stop – the Devils Marbles. When I was a little girl, we used to have a big book at home that was all about travelling Australia. In it, was a picture of the marbles and I always thought they looked so cool. I remember knowing that I would visit them one day and now here I am! They are spectacular in real life! I made both kids and Mark get out and come for a walk with me. I really enjoyed this bit of the trip. Onto Tennant Creek afterwards. Distance travelled today: 529kms

Aileron woman and child statue

All of us at the Devil's Marbles

We were going to head to Katherine today (day 8) and spend a couple of days here, but that would mean that would put us in Darwin a day later, and we really wanted to get there. So we decided to go as far as Mataranka (100kms less) and then do a short jump to Darwin the following day. So onwards from Tennant Creek to Mataranka we went (Mark insisted on calling it Madagascar!). On the way, we turned off and stopped at Daly Waters Pub. This pub is famous the world over and heaps of international visitors come here. The bar is covered in stuff (no other word for it really) – from bras, undies, rugby tops, stubbie holders, cloth patches, money, hats etc... The kids had a good time wandering around and it was a good half hour break for the out of the car. Mataranka is reknown for 2 things: thermal pools and also the place that the book (and film) “We of the Never Never” was about. Never having read the book, I’m not sure what the story is about (although I could venture a guess). The thermal pool is located just near the Mataranka Homestead where we are camping for the night (and I mean camping...this is just about bush camping), and we all toodled off for a look and a dip. What we thought initially were noisy birds turned out to be red flying foxes – thousands of them! And you had to walk under them to get to the pool. I’m sure we were piddled and pooed on for the round trip! The pool was beautiful although I couldn’t help but think of it as one giant bat toilet! It is now quite muggy and we are feeling the tropical weather more and more. Distance travelled today: 575kms

Sam and Biddy enjoying a cold one at Daly Waters Pub

Mark at the Day Waters bar

Red flying foxes

Us in the thermal pool at Mataranka

Day 9 saw us wake to a beautiful morning, but very muggy. The kids spotted a hand reared kangaroo near our camp site and took off to give it something to eat and for a pat.

We packed up and left for Darwin today, although things seem to be a bit slower going as any exertion results in you swimming in your own sweat! We arrived in Darwin at about 3.30pm and the kids and I left Mark to set up the annex while we took off for the pool. Deb, Chris, Will and Laura Stevenson came over to the caravan park to meet and greet us – the friends who are main reason for coming up all this way! – and to stay for tea. It was great to catch up with them and find out all the goings on (from both sides). Will and Laura have grown so much since we saw them last. Just as we were finishing dinner, a HUGE storm hit us and held us all captive under shelter. There have been cyclone warnings for a number of days and whilst Darwin itself is not in line for it, we will receive the rain from it. But the rain was warm and the kids had a ball running around in it. I’m glad that we have finally arrived and am looking forward to staying put for a week or so. Distance travelled today: 421kms

Tom, Biddy, Laura and Will

Deb, Mark and Stevo

Today (day 10) we took off with the Stevos and Deb’s friend Caz to Litchfield National Park for a look about and a swim in some rockpools. We started at the furthest one (Wangi Falls) and then worked our way back towards home. Wangi was unfortunately closed for swimming (crocs) but it is a beautiful waterfall. There is also a walk around the base and up over the top of the falls. We all started the walk, but after getting to the first stop (300m up stairs), I was knackered and was not going further. Neither was Deb or Caz (who is also pregnant – 13wks). The young boys took off up more stairs with Biddy, so Mark followed them. When they didn’t come back within 5 minutes, we figured that they decided to keep going the whole circuit. So we headed back and waited for them at the bottom. When they got back, Tom was still going strong, Will was holding his own, but poor Biddy was being carried by Mark. And apparently, had been for most of the walk! So Mark was a pool of sweat and his arms and legs were killing him!! We stopped then at Tolmer Falls for a look before heading to a rockpool near Florence Falls for a swim and some lunch. The water was beautiful – clear, cool, although there were some murderous rocks! We even spotted a couple of water monitors that hopped in with us for a bit (freaked Deb out!). Afterwards we went to the Magnetic Termite Mounds which are enormous before a visit to the Batchelor Pub for a quick beer before heading back to the caravan and another swim. Distance travelled today: 240kms

Mark at Wangi Falls

Mark and kids at Florence Falls rockpool

Sam with the kids at the giant termite mounds

Packing, lists and time running out!

Get ready for a flurry of posts over the next 4 weeks as we set off on our epic journey north to visit the Stevenson family in Darwin. But before we even drive out the gate, there is a flurry of activity right here! The organisation that goes into being able to take 4 weeks away from the farm is astonishing to say the least. I really think it will take Mark about 1 week to settle into the holiday, so it is just as well we are taking a great slab of time!

In the meantime, I am madly washing clothes, making lists and going shopping for all the things that pop into my mind at 3am! We drive out the gate at 7am THIS FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned.......

My 40th party

Aloha!

Over the past weekend, the calf shed had been recreated to resemble a south island tropical resort. If only the weather played the game, it would have been perfect (Friday it was about 36 degrees...Saturday (party night) it was about 15!). Ahh well....we can't have it all.

Yes, it was the setting for my 40th birthday and about 65 guests came along to help me celebrate. I want to once again thank all of them for making the effort to not only come along, but to also get into the spirit of the occasion by dressing up in hula skirts, hawaiian shirts and sarongs despite the cold. I had a wonderful night. I'm sorry to say that I missed a heap of people leaving as I had to go back tot he house and put tired kids to bed, but I'm sure those people understood. After all, most of them were leaving to do the same or at least relieve baby sitters!

The bulk of this post is photos, so sit back and have a squizz.

A couple of big thankyous though....

my mum: for cutting out all the palm trees that we had as part of the decorations (you can see one in a photo below. These were 7" high and made of MDF....a bit of work gone into them). Also for helping with the shopping, the food preparation and serving and also the baby sitting while I was trying to get organised!

Butler ladies: Bernie made my cake, helped with decorations and dished out the food. Emma and Monnie made some great decos to bring to the farm. Emma also acted as bartender for a bit to get cocktails organised.

Mark: for running around, picking up and dropping off hire gear, helping to set up the shed and also for helping me to clean up today! (very important job)

Trevor and Terry: our farm guys pitched in to help set up, help Mark pick up hire gear, mow lawns, move machinery around.... general dogs bodies.

Mooka: for arranging the coolroom for the drinks and the food. A damn godsend!

Alfie: for cutting up the meat and making sure it was cooked properly.

And finally my cousin Dean and his family: for travelling from Adelaide especially for the night. It was great to see them all (it's been too long guys!)

Biddy

Tom

Mum, Emma and Bernie

Mark

The (6 months pregnant) birthday girl giving a speech

Kids on the "beach"

Some of the guests (you can see a palm tree in the background...one of 12!)

Blowing out the candles

The following morning, we put on a breakfast of bacon and eggs for all those that stayed overnight. Much to our amazement (and delight), Biddy decided to give us all an impromptu performance. "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" was her song of choice. And of course, she HAD to have the microphone on. Singing into it with it turned off was just NOT ON. Mark had to go and crank it all up for her! She lived it up for her "fans".

Do you think a karaoke machine might be on Santa's 2010 list?

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!