Station from the Air

Here is a photo of the station in February that Emma
took for me while she was here. Emma does professional
photography and she jumped at the chance to get some
photos from the chopper, as she had never been in one before.
This photo shows all the buildings that have gone in since the
last photo taken from above in June.

This is a photo of some of the country between here and the community
over the wet. A quarter of the way down on the left is the main road.

Up in the air we go......

The shed builders bought a scissor lift out (I think they also call them cherry pickers) out to help put up the new shed, when Blue offered to take us up for
a photo op we jumped at the chance.


Here is Lyn the governess, Blue the shed contractor and Jay.
Here is our house.


On the left is my office, which Murray is also at the moment occupying for
accommodation. On the right you have the schoolroom, store room and ladies
bathroom and on the back of the building is the laundry and the men's bathroom.
Here we have in the background is Lancen's soon to be new house, it still needs a bit of work but shouldn't be too much longer and in the foreground is Lancen's donga which Murray will move into when Lancen move's into his house.

On the right you have the men's quarters, the one on the left is the one we
have had for a while, the one on the right has just been put in along with the
building behind that which is an ablution block. Over beyond that is the generator shed.

You can see our shadow on the scissor lift.

Our new shedAn overall picture. Cabin on the left is just being put in, it will be visitors quarters.
Then office, school building etc., Lyn's cabin, Lancen's hous, Lancen's cabin and
men's quarters. Over behind the office is where the contractors are camping at
the moment.

Jay up in the clouds


Lyn's cabin and behind that the tank and the horse yards and saddle shed.

It was amazing what we could see up there and it gives such a good idea from
that height where everything is.

Latest photos of Hodgson from the air.

Fiona went up in the chopper and took these photos for me in July. Here is a

front view of the house. My little patch of grass is a little bigger and greener

at the moment. We are slowly getting there.

As you can see from the shots we have a few extra things since the last lot
of photos were shown. The generator shed is off to the far right. There is
a 5 bed donga put in, and an outdoor men's kitchen with firepit. The house
and garden shed weren't in the last lot of photos. You can also see in some of
the photos the saddle shed and horse yards that John and the boys built over
the wet. We're getting there.

Hope my friends read this and next time they whinge at me about dusting,
I'll just have to tell them to get on here and have a look.
LOL! You wanna tell
me about dust!

Will not win the best blogger award!

I know it's been forever since I blogged. I think about doing it every
day, but it is so hard to find the time lately. I have to share the school
computer which is over in the school room, and as it's not in the house,
I find it hard as I used to blog early morning and late at night.

We've all settled into the new house and almost everything is unpacked.
We don't have a shed so there is still quite a bit sitting on the back verandah.
Hopefully we'll at least have a garden shed built in the next couple of weeks.

This is how the house arrived. It came in 3 pieces and then they joined them altogether.

This is a photo taken just after it was finished. We have been trying to plant
lawn seed, but have been fighting a losing battle as the continuous rain keeps
washing it all away. We've had over 40 inches for the year since January.
The creeks across the roads are continually up and down, and the community
has been cut off for almost 2 months off and on. Bad for them, but good for
us as hardly any traffic on the road. Our men if they want to go in to their
families for the weekend, swim the creek. When I checked it yesterday it was
a metre and a half still. I am dying for mail as haven't had any for about 3 weeks.
This is a photo of our front yard, as you can see it all just flows down under the house and out the back, so we should have lovely lawn come up in the bush out the back!!!!
This is a photo from the air just after the house was finished. There has been a few changes since this was taken. We have put in an outdoor kitchen area/shed for the men and a saddle shed and horse yards. It is all looking great and really coming together, just the odd day of sunshine is great as we can get in and get a bit done!

I've been slack!

At least that's what everyone keeps telling me!
I keep checking your blog and you haven't posted
for ages. Must say I have been far from slack,
just haven't stopped at the moment. The first
hurdle was getting all of the school work
finished for the year, and I have to admit
Jay and I did a little dance and cheer session
when we finished that last maths book for the year.
I am so looking forward to Lyn (the governess)
doing it with him next year. But I have to admit
that I really enjoyed it, and if I didn't have
so much extra stuff to be doing I would keep doing it.
Saying that,my hat off to the ladies that do it
with 3 or more kids, you guys need a meddle.
We had what is calles Swim week last week with
the School of the Air. All the kids come to town
and do swimming and life saving activities at the
pools in the morning and in the afternoon they
do other activities like roller skating, movies etc.
Guess who went roller skating for the first
time in about 25 years, yes thats right this fool.
Should have seen the bruises. All the kids thought
it was great that I got out and had a go with them.

Well the house got in! JUST. They had an inch and a 1/2
the night before,then the day they were due they rang
me at lunch and said they were at Daly Waters and were
going to stay the night there and come in the morning.
I don't think so!!!!!!! I told them it might be a good
idea to get their you know whats into gear as the sky
was black and more rain was heading in. So they lead
footed it in and got in late that afternoon. That night
there was another 2 inches!
I haven't seen it yet but John says it looks good.
He's amazed I haven't jumped in the car and driven the
almost 3 hours out there to check it out. Mmmm he
obviously does not realise what I have to do at the moment.
Anyway it's there so that's a relief. So now they are in
the process of joining it all, and that should be
finished by Sunday. Then we have to put in the
sewerage and water, and power etc.
I started packing today, but will put in a big week next
week as I should have the house to myself.
Anyway I will have to put some photos on here when I
get some, that will be depending on whether I have
internet access too,not sure what's happening yet!

Missed a day!

This is the third time I have tried to do this post. Every time I add the picture it deletes the writing. Last time.

I didn't blog yesterday as John came home Friday night and as we don't see him much anymore we thought we'd have a family day. All we did was watch movies, but with John being so buggered and the weather so hot, in the air-conditioning doing this was the place to be, I think it was just what he needed. He went back just after lunch today, so I thought I'd get on and do a post. I didn't post any new cards yesterday as explained and now John has taken the camera. I have 8 new ones to put on, so will try scanning some tonight and see how I go.

My last blog had a big gap at the bottom so if anyone knows how I can get rid of this that would be great!

I thought I would post a photo I took from the air the other day which shows the homestead site at the moment (not a lot), but gives you a bit of an idea what is there. There is 3 cabins, one is Johns, one is the Assistant Managers and one is the office, then the long building is the ablution block, which has a bathroom, laundry and store room. We have built an extra bathroom onto the back of it. Since the photo was taken another 5 bedroom men's quarters has been put in. The shed will go on the far right hopefully next month, and the house will go in somewhere on the top right, hopefully if it doesn't rain in the first week of December! Fingers crossed!!! and toes!!! As you can see there is lots of red dirt at the moment, so we are hoping to topsoil that and put grass seed in after the first lot of rain, and before the wet so it can get a go on.