I'm going to be a new aunt today!

As I write this my sister is being induced.  I so wish I was there with her.
I was their for the birth of her second girl and it was such a great experience.

This will be her third baby.  Above is my 2 nieces Tilly and Bella.  This shot was taken in March 2011.
My sister had been on the phone and could hear the girls giggling, she didn't take much notice, the
thought was at least their not fighting.  Anyway she could still hear them giggling a few minutes later
and thought she should check on them.   This is what she found!  Tilly decided that Bella needed
sunburn cream before she went out to play.  LOL.  What a caring sister....

Love this shot!

Anyway good luck today Emma and Gus.  I know the sex is a surprise, but whatever it may be
as long as it is healthy.  You guys make beautiful babies!



Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year To All

Well I hope everyone had a Great

Christmas, I know we did.

We had friends fly up from

Pittsworth near Toowoomba in QLD

to spend a couple of weeks with us.

It was so great catching up with the Glasgows

who were good friends of ours when we all

lived in Karumba in the Gulf of Carpentaria

in North Queensland.

Jim worked with my husband on a couple

of occasions, Cheryl taught both of my

boys at some stage and our boys are

all around the same age and all used to

hang together.  Over the years

we have all kept in touch,

especially Will and Jay and I

have posted of escapades from these

pair in the past.

Anyway we split our holidays between

Koolpinyah and the block at Dundee Beach.

Here is our old wagon loaded no jokes to the roof in the back

 and backseat with a space left to fit 2 large dogs (just),

 then loaded the trailer with the quads and swags.

On top of this Jim's car was loaded fully and then

 my wagon Cheryl and I filled

with Groceries on the way out of town!

On top of that Margaret turned up with

her little car filled to the roof with yummy

goodies and Christine and Mark

turned up with Phoebe (Christine's car)

actually  more a mini bus filled with a Queen Bed

I bought and lots of alcohol!!!!!

So we were pretty prepared for the 4 1/2 days

we were spending there and I'm pretty sure

we would have had enough to last us for

a longer period if the so called predicted cyclone

had hit us which thankfully it didn't!  There

was a couple of indepth conversations as

to where we should go if a cyclone hit and it

was decided one of the shipping containers would be the go.

All I could picture was one of these being picked up

in the air and flying around with 12 of us inside.

I think I've been watching too many twister movies!

Here's the Glasgow's

Tyger, Sam, Cheryl, William and Jim

We hadn't seen them since end of 2006 but it was like we had seen them yesterday.

Jim looked exactly the same, boys were so much bigger and Cheryl so much

smaller (well done Cheryl you are an inspiration!) but apart from that so much the

same.  They are the sort of friends that just fit in and we really

enjoyed their company!

Here's us on Christmas day.

John reckons Jay looks nothing like him.  But they say a

picture tells the story.

We have some really great neighbours at the block, and dropping cooked crabs off for us

on a daily basis was part of our Christmas.  This view was a

common occurance and I just had to get a photo of all

chowing down on Crab claws.

Fishing was a daily occurance but they were in short supply.

We had to land fish as with the cyclone hanging around

the sea was a bit rough and dirty for the boat.

The boys got out over the new year period but

fish were in short supply, not sure whether it

was still run off from the cyclone, tides or what.

They caught enough for a feed which was good.

That's Todd above catching live bait with the bait net.

Here is the spot we spent Christmas Eve fishing.

And that is my gorgous husband going for a walk.

This is the mouth of a creek aqnd he is walking towards the

beach and sea.

So as you can see we had a ball with too much

alchohol drunk and toooooo much

food eaten.

Now everyone is gone including my husband who has

headed to Karumba to do work on our

house with Jay.

Todd and I are left here to caretake.

I am trying to find myself a new job and the enthusiasm to

Clean my house, really need to get myself organised

so New Year Resolutions.........

Not another Jewicide!

We had a great weekend at the block, we never stopped the whole time but

it was really relaxing.

John got his new door welded up and I painted it, we just have to put the

iron on the front of it next trip and then we'll be able to leave the boat

on our block.

We spent all day Saturday doing this as looked like it might have been

a bit windy on the water.  We were supposed to have a day off

on Friday and head up to the Perrons and overnight on the boat

but due to a fire here John ended up backburning most of

Thursday night and needed to keep an eye on it on Friday so

we gave it a miss, will be better fishing in September anyway.

We got out fishing on Sunday morning.

Got the boat in the water by 8am (John slept in :-)

Had both of these in the boat by 9am!  Time to go home.....

A Beautiful Jew Fish

Then about 15 mins later.........

You got him..............................

Yeah Baby!!!!!!!

Thanks to the great and skilled person on the net, we landed

this beauty!

LOL none of me.  I was so pleased for John, but jealous into

the bargain I so wanted a big fish! We caught a lot more but after

those two we just threw them back, a few fingermark, grunter

of course Rock Cod and lots of stripies.  We were home by 2pm.

Talking about throwing them back.......

We had this dolphin come up beside the boat and stuck with us most of the day, we think that is why a lot

of the bigger fish stopped bighting, I think he spooked them.  He had the top of his fin missing and a bit

out of his lower back and tail poor thing.  They were healed so it looks like it had it for some time.

Didn't seem to worry it, but it was alone, which is strange and seemed to have to come up for air

quite a bit.  We were throwing our smaller fish to it, which it would just race up and grab.

So anyway their is a bit of eye candy for all the fishos out there, and it is so nice to have

the freezer full of fish.  (Even if we have given a lot away already).

Can't wait for the next trip.

Catching Crocs

                                      Koolpinyah has a permit to catch crocodiles that are a

nuisance to cattle.  These crocs are relocated to Crocodilus Park

in Darwin.  If they are suitable they are used for breeding, if not

they are used for meat and skins.

About the 3rd week that we started here this croc was caught in a tiny little dam.

The photos aren't great as I had a plaster on and was on crutches, then my battery ran out.

The photo above are the men ontop of the cage. The men pull the nose up and tape it shut.

The crocodile is then dragged a little bit out of the trap and kept pinned with the gate. 

Remember it's nose is taped shut and it also has a rope around it's nose as well.

They then tape a hessian bag over the crocs eyes, apparently if the croc can't see

it settles right down.

The croc is then pulled the remainder of the way out and it's legs tied.  It is then put on

the back of a truck and taken off to the the croc farm where it is weighed and measured.

This croc was just under 4 metres, but the tip was missing off the end of it's tail

so they said it would have easily been 4 metres.

There was actually a shot of me on the croc taken, so when I get it I'll post it.

Hope everyone has a great day.

 

We have moved!

And I tell you this picture wasn't too far off the mark.

Well I broke my foot a couple of weeks before we were

due to leave so that made things very interesting.

John's cousin Christine offered to come help me

and was a godsend, I don't think I would still be married

if it weren't for her!

We have had a bit of a seachange or more like

citychange!  We put a lot of thought into our

decision and just decided with the amount of

stress that was thrown at us from many directions

and the distance you needed to travel for any downtime

was just too much.  We knew that our health was

suffering and decided we didn't want to keep

going with that for the sake of money!

So we made the move! 

We are still on a station but only about 45km's

out of Darwin.  And only 1 1/2 hrs from

our block at Dundee Beach.

So we are settling in and making a new home.

John is full on as things are a bit run down

but is really enjoying it, as NO PRESSURE

at all.  Me - well I have been a bit

slack, I think the broken foot and the shift

and going from full time work with a lot thrown at you

 to none, has been a bit of a shock to the system, and

mentally it has really taken me some time to

get going again.  I am slowly getting the house

in order (being in plaster has made it hard) and

slowly working through the business course I am

doing but apart from a card swap have really been

slack on the crafting front, but in the last few days have

been finding stuff out of boxes and ready to get into it

again. 

So that's the latest so far will try and keep things

more up to date and start blogging a bit more, when

my intermittant internet will let me on!

Hope everyone has a great weekend we are in for a long

weekend here as Picnic day holiday on Monday :-)

Photo of the day for Friday

Everytime Todd comes for holidays I keep meaning to get some
photos of him, I know that after the next couple of holidays and
he hits the job world next year, that we won't see much of him.
And as usual it is time for him to go and I still hadn't taken any
shots. They were just about to head out and I raced in and grabbed
the camera, so along to the sounds of John's groaning I grabbed
some shots. They turned out really nice.

Todd did a great job these holidays. Our cook went to town for
the weekend and didn't bother to return, so Todd has spent
the 4 weeks of his holiday cooking inthe station kitchen for
about 20 people and he did a great job. This also gave him
enough wages for the much sort after car. So beware
everyone in Rocky, cause from Monday on Todd will
be on the road.

Anyway well done mate you did such a great job
and we are so proud of you!

Photo of the day for Thursday

These are my 2 boys unimpressed at having their photos taken. Jay on
the left who is 13 and Todd on the right who is 17. You wouldn't believe
they were brothers if you met them on the street, they are so different.

Photo of the day for Wednesday

This is Diana, she comes up to the fence to say hello to me every
morning, they all come up on the off chance I have an apple or slice
of bread for them. We purchased her about 7 years ago from friends
Greg and Diana Simons hence the name. She is the most beautiful
quite mare that you can do anything with.

Photo of the day for Tuesday

This is Freckles, John has called him by some other name (actually
John calls him by a lot of names, but some I shouldn't repeat on
here, but he is now just known as Freckles. He has Doc's Freckles
Oak heritage but the main reason which doesn't show really well
in this photo is his white stripe on his face is actually covered
in spots (brown hair) hence the nickname. He is a real character
and goes out of his way to get into anything he shouldn't be!

Beautiful Bella

As mentioned earlier, I flew down in August to go in for the birth of my little
niece and to spend some time with my sister and her family. Here is her
birth announcement that I have been meaning to post.
I would love to be having a hug right now. Sniff... Tell that husband of
yours he needs to move closer!

You don't know anything about fashion!

My HUSBAND is going to kill me for this post, but I just
couldn't help it, I had to do it.

Now any of you who have a 16 year old know exactly
where I am coming from. What is with the fashion these
days! The wearing of the jocks above the jeans/shorts,
the fluro shoe laces, the folding of shorts legs that weren't
meant to be folded, I could go on and on, but I won't
BECAUSE I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT
I AM TALKING ABOUT!

That is what my 16 year old reckons about both me and
his father, and his grandfather, not his grandmother, cause
he's her darling and wont admit that he looks like the
"VILLIAGE IDIOT"!
I know, I know! They all dress like that, but if I wanted
to walk down the street with a Lorikeet I would buy myself
one. But like I said before, we don't know style these days.

Now it was time for us to drive Todd back to Darwin to
put on the plane to fly back to school, so his father and
I thought it would be a good idea and very in fashion for
him to wear the revolting Harley Davidson singlet that he
bought in the States.
I think it is meant for a big bikie fella who is double the
size of John with massive arms to come out of the sides
of the singlet, and I have, after numerous doubled over
laughing sessions convinced him that it is only a good
shirt to wear around the house and there is no way
that I would be seen in public with him wearing it!

So out John comes, ready to leave for Darwin in the
below outfit. ROFL.......

The look on Todd's face was PRICELESS.

"You're not wearing that are you"?

"Yeah, why? What's the matter with it?"

"It looks weird."

"But this is the fashion for people MY AGE"

"Well, I'm not coming with you if you are
wearing that"

"OK, well you better start walking".......

Needless to say he didn't wear it to Darwin, and even though

I was rolling around on the floor laughing, and to us we were

obviously being sarcastic, the point we were trying to make

still didn't hit home, it went straight over Todd's head.

Cause we have NO IDEA

ON FASHION today!

So hopefully you all get a chuckle as I do everytime I
look at this photo, and remember if you are having
fashion trouble, just ask a 16 year old........

The school room.

I promised my sister that I would post a picture of the curtains and
cushions for the school room. When they were here in December
we gave it a big clean out, before the new governess started.
We pulled absolutly everything out of the room. You wouldn't believe
the things we found behind stuff in there. Dead frog's, spiders
and lots and lots of dust.
We scrubbed the walls and the floors, I actually mopped the floor
6 times and the water was still coming up dirty. The stainless
steel sinks in there were disgusting and with a bit of elbow
grease over 2 days I got them up sparkling, they actually
looked brand new. It goes to show if your willing to put a
bit of work in and have a bit of pride in your home/work
place how great you can have it looking.
We pulled the 2 long trellis tables out that were in there
and put together 3 trapezium tables, 2 for the 3 kids and
one for the tutor. We shifted the computer (we have 2 now)
onto the high bench and put some old stools in there.
I grabbed some really colourful fabric to brighten the room up
and made some curtains and some cushions for the stools.
The difference in this room is unbelievable and I am so
dissapointed we didn't take some before and after shots.



This is not the biggest room, it is actually an ex laundry/ablution block
for a caravan park. I think it's about 3 x 3. I finally talked John into
puttting the school room into here as the only other option was our house
and I really didn't want everyone traipsing in and out of the house,
especially if there was a chance of other kids being taught in the school
room (which happened this year) so I really didn'twant it in the house.
So with 3 kids and 1 teacher it is a tight fit, but everyone makes it work
which when you live on a station is part of life - making it work with
what you've got!

Do you like the red tin on the table. It's great I got it from Spotlight
and I think it's actually for bbq's to put your cutlery etc in. Pencils fit
in a couple, felts in a couple, then one holds pens, pencils etc, one holds
rulers, scissors and glue stick and the last one I bent a cardboard piece
and put in so it's raised and the rubbers are in there where they can
easily get to them. I think next trip to Darwin I need to grab a couple
for my craft room.....
Anyway enough of my dribbling on, hope everyone has a great day!
Soon to be a wet one here.

My first blog!

This is a photo of the boys in one of the waterholes at Hodgson Downs on the September school holidays.

Well my profile pretty well tells it all already. My husband and I manage a cattle station in the Northern Territory called Hodgson Downs Station. The station is over a million acres. My husband is the manager and I am employed as the Administration Officer.

We have been happily married for 16 years and have 2 great kids. My eldest is Todd who boards with his grandparents in Rockhampton in Qld and is doing year 9. My youngest is doing Year 5 with Katherine School of the Air and I home tutor him.

When I have time my favourite thing is crafts. I try my hand at many, but at the moment my love is scrapbooking and card making and I am in the process at the moment of becoming a Stampin' Up demonstrator.

The idea of this blog is to keep family and friends up to date with what we are up to, but also to put some of my craft projects online for my crafty friends. I hope to keep this site up to date as much as possible and try and upload photos of cards etc as I make them, but also photos of our day to day.

We are in the process of getting a house out there at the moment, so I am living in Katherine and John is living in a cabin at Hodgson. We do a lot of driving between the 2 places. (Just under 3 hours). So that is the gist of it all, I hope I don't bore you to tears. Please don't hesitate to comment or contact me at any time, it will be great to hear from you!