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.........

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.

 

DId I say off our front verandah!

This is the view off our verandah at sunset.  It is so nice to sit out in the arv and have a drink.

Now you may have noticed the talk on the move so I figured I needed a new look

for the blog.  Do you like it?  I wanted something a little less busy.

Is the writing easy to understand or should I go with a simpler text?

Please let me know.

Anyway I am heading back to my craft room to start making a card!

Shock I know, enjoy the rest of your afternoon and thanks for

coming over for a look.

Off our front Verandah

Sitting having lunch the other day and the birds at the lagoon

out the front of our house were going ballistic!  When

we looked out there were 3 buffalo running across the dirt

ledge on the lagoon.  You can't see the bull in this shot he was

back a little.  They tried prawn farming in the dam at some

stage so there is this division going across the front of the

lagoon.  We think maybe a croc had a go at them near the

beginning and forward was the only way they could go, so

they were very nervous with the whole idea of it and were

going flat!

Here they are a bit closer, the cow looks to be in calf and she

is followed by her weiner calf.

So that's off our front verandah!