Outside

Autumn is so beautiful. I may have already said, once or twice, that it's my favourite time of year.

The Plymouth Rocks are growing; I have three different age groups now.

The next batch of silkie teenagers are mostly roosters; a disappointing ratio between cockerels and pullets has resulted in only 5 females from 15 hatchings.

This is the permaculture family; the girls came from Mr P who lives down the road from us. They are slowly becoming quieter and look forward to their spinach leaf each morning.

Permaculture garden action has been quiet; I've just been planting lettuce and spinach for both human and poultry consumption. The worms are still there!

Self seeded flowers continuing to bloom.

I have a problem, same as last year - grubs eating holes in just about everything.

The latest crop of tomatoes have been unsuccessful. Before they get any size or any hint of colour they are stung/bitten/infected and don't develop.

I think this must be the culprit; they're all over the fruit.

Grubs don't like capsicum; they continue to do well.

Thanks Drew

Drew sent me this during the week...................it made me burst out laughing!!

The Kids are Complaining!!

The kids have been commenting (aka complaining) that there's never anything new on sliprail. Meg said "that sliprail blogger is pretty slack" and Drew said "I check it every day but there's nothing new on it"! I haven't had the urge to post anything lately, mainly because NOTHING HAS HAPPENED!! It's two weeks since the last entry and I've wracked my brain for something interesting to share but there's not a lot there............so here's a wrap up of the last fortnight.

The last time we met, the kids had enjoyed a fairy party and a pirate/go-kart party in T (children of their cousins). On the Monday we had a Pizza and Beer night at our house with some of the staff; on the Tuesday Gibbo drove to pick up the guru of the Japanese Wagyu industry from the airport in Brisbane, brought him back to D and took him out for dinner; on the Wednesday he took him to Surat; on the Thursday he drove to Warwick and spoke at a field day; on the Friday we went to see our accountant and then to the bank to see our agribusiness manager. On Saturday (last weekend) Meg and Chris came home and brought Lachie (of pirate/go-kart party fame) home for the weekend while his parents went to see Tim and Faith. On Sunday we had these for breakfast.

I really like the pattern of Meg's skirt.

This week has flown too. On Monday Ferg came to stay; on Tuesday he and Gibbo left early for a 3 day KLR Training course in Brisbane; I stayed home and attended to the livestock. Gibbo has 46 PENS OF POULTRY to feed - yes, you heard me correctly - FORTY-SIX. No wonder I don't like doing them. Add my 18 pens and you can see why it takes a while to feed up in the mornings. Here's the help, being helpful.



On Thursday I went to Brisbane with MF for a group meeting on Friday. After it finished we caught up with the kids and went for an early dinner (Meg had a 4 day weekend so she was visiting Chris). Meg and Drew had been shopping earlier in the day; she spoils him. He loves it. So does she.

Meg's job in T is going well although she is finding out that there are some frustrations involved in managing people. Drew is still loving College life and is coming to terms with the pressures of being a Uni student with workloads and deadlines. Chris is enjoying his course and his job. Gibbo is crazy busy and can't wait 'til we own the new farm. Then he'll be even busier. I am just going with the flow as much as I can, keeping on top of finances, dealing with the accountant, the bank and the solicitor. A persistent situation at work continues to present challenges that I feel fall on my shoulders; my mindset at the moment is to deal with it one day at a time until we are through the rough patch.

This morning I took an editor and two photographers around the feedlot so they could grab pics for an upcoming article in a trade service magazine in which chefs are being partnered with the person who actually produces the product they use. Gibbo's partnered chef is from Urbane in Brisbane. It's an interesting concept; goat and lamb will also be featured and both grain and grassfed british bred and wagyu (organic) beef. We could have done the goat story too. We could have used Peach hey Meg? You could have been the producer, Gibbo could have been the butcher, I could have been the featured chef and Drew could have been the customer at the end of the chain, eating goat curry. A real family affair!!!!

In my Next Life

I want to be a cat or a dog in the Gibbons Family. It's gunna be really cool. I'll get fed all day, I'll be able to sleep where I want, even when the hoomans want to do some work and I'll get loved and patted and nursed and squeezed. Sometimes I'll even get to visit Grandma's house, where the food's even better; I'll be able to get ice-cream and honey and waffles when I go there. Yep, that's what I wanna be.

The Photos, a Week Late

These are the photos from our flying visit to Twba last Sunday to celebrate Meg's new job. I didn't get a pic of the fabulous dessert. Front left pizza was the best - alfredo sauce, olives, cheese and chicken.

Deja Vu

And so it came to pass that one day I opened an envelope and read, for the second time in my life:

One day in early 2004 I checked my emails and found the exact same correspondence, except it read: "Dear Megan, Your application has been successful" etc etc. I went up to her bedroom and asked had she applied for the YE; yes in fact, she had....but had forgotten/neglected/didn't bother/ to tell us! So off she went in August of that year, down to Sydney with Gibbo on the plane. He delivered her to the ship and then flew home the same day. She sailed up the east coast to Brisbane where we met her 12 days later. It was just incredible watching them sail in, all standing on the rigging, right up to the top of the mast. They were singing as they came. We could hear them before we could see them and then we could just see the top of the mast as the ship came around a bend in the river; when they came into full view - it was one of the most magnificent things I'd ever seen! We got to walk all over the ship and check out where she'd been living for the previous nearly two weeks. Drew was so inspired by what she had done! I remember him saying, "I'm gonna do this one day".....and now he is! Dreams do come true!

365ing

My second 365 book continues to grow but I haven't taken many photos of it yet. I ordered some fresh stickers last weekend and they arrived while we were away. It's hard to source new ideas but I found a good website and took full advantage of the free postage offer.

The Macaron Queen

The Macaron Queen is at it again! Meg ordered some special colouring paste and they arrived during the week. She made lots of these for the fairy party!

Home Again

Before leaving Brisbane we caught up with Drew and had lunch with him at the fish and chip place at The Ville. They have excellent soft drinks there that they import from New Orleans; the food's pretty good too. I think this is a very unflattering photo of me but it shows us together so I'll post it! Think I need a haircut and a makeover!

It was fun to catch up and the boys laughed a lot between themselves; just boy stuff that a female probably doesn't really "get" but a wife and mother and daughter (Meg) understands anyway! I can't really explain it any better than that but it was good to see how much they enjoyed seeing each other!

We were nearly in Twba when we found out that the farm sale had settled. I checked the bank account. Nice numbers. Pity it won't look like that for long; it will be the other way, by considerably more!! Well, you can't take it with you! We picked up the tv with it's 16 now working capacitors, dropped in at Mandy's to deliver Meg's camera cord and hightailed it back to D in time to pick up the purchase contract, take it to the agent AND SIGN IT! He was taking it out to the vendor last night so by now, hopefully, it's all signed. Now it's 28 days to finance it and then a further 40 days to settle. Late May/early June and it's ours. 

I'm sitting here in front of the 3 big windows at my desk; it's raining; it's beautiful. I'll miss this scene when we move but I'll make it an even better one at the new house (although that does mean I'll probably have to set myself up in the small dining area as the designated "office" is right in the middle of the house with no view to outside). 

So. We woke up this morning and wondered what we'd do! Gibbo couldn't go to the farm because we don't own one, so we went to town instead and bought chook food (the base I use to mix the rest of the grains with) and G priced portable fence panels. We're selling most of ours and the race because we don't need them at the new place. G is already calling it 'Sliprail'! He told his boss and his other manager mates about it when he saw them in Bris; they all thought it was cheap! Cheap!! "Haha, she cried! Cheap?"! His boss suggested belted galloways in the front paddock. 

Meg is in Twba getting ready for Georgie's 5th birthday party - a fairy party - right up Meg's alley. 

Chris picked Drew up and they made their way up the Range to go to Lachie's 4th birthday party; a pirate go-kart party! What a combination. 

It's all happening in E Street, Twba today (in the rain). Meg made her specialty; it deserves a separate post. 

Gibbo has gone to town to have a nets session with the Q boys before the big semi-final game tomorrow. Bit late now to start practising fellas!

And So.....

Gibbo judged half the poultry section at the Pittsworth Show last weekend; MF did the other half. They must have done ok; there were no complaints or threats and they made it out of town safely.

On Sunday he played cricket and they won; they've now made the playoffs (which isn't a hard thing to do when the number of teams in the entire competition is only one more than the minimum number required to actually have semi-finals).

Sunday night we made a surprise flying trip to Twba to celebrate Meg getting the permanent Supervisor's position that she interviewed for last Thursday. We only told Mandy that we were coming just before we drove out the gate. We had pizzas and a really nice dessert that Mandy prepared - crepes with frozen berries, ice-cream and berry flavoured syrup. Very delicious, very quick and definitely a dessert I'll serve one day. Meg was very surprised to see us! We wanted to acknowledge and celebrate her achievement before too much time passed. Well done Meg, we love you! I have photos but haven't downloaded them yet.

A copy of the contract on the new farm arrived late Monday afternoon via email. I read over it, found a couple of simple careless mistakes which meant we can't sign it until we return at the end of the week.

New members of the Board were heading to Surat on Tuesday where Gibbo was going to drive out to meet and show them around and then fly to Brisbane with them but problems delayed the plane in Mt Isa. After a few tweaks they re-directed to home; we gave them hastily ordered sandwiches and slices  and a quick tour before they took off again. Gibbo and I drove down to Bris later in the afternoon, dropping our massive tv off in Twba on the way. It has 16 capacitors in it (whatever they are) which have ceased to perform their crucial duties i.e. turning the tv on. We couldn't get a room at our regular place so ended up in a business suite on the street behind the shopping centre at Toowong. What a fantastic location. Very quiet; food close by; a few minutes walk to the ferry at The Regatta......and the local library on my doorstep. I spent yesterday doing not much while Gibbo had meetings all day and then a dinner in the City with the Board last night. It rained nearly all day. I read a lot and kept up with work emails....and then ended up at the library where I trawled through the gardening section looking for books on anything related to permaculture, vege gardens and true stories of people making a tree change. I found four and spent the next two hours engrossed in two of them, reading the first few chapters of each, until the library closed at 5.30.

Today Gibbo had a full quota of meetings and I caught the ferry over to Uni and visited Drew. I haven't seen him since he moved down there; it was nice to catch up. The workload is heavy and we talked about his hardest subject, International Inequality and Development. He became so animated and enthusiastic when discussing one of the recent papers he'd read and the essay that's due in two weeks; at that moment he was the epitome of a university student with passion and views and a hunger for knowledge! He was energised and excited by what he had learnt. We walked to The Ville in the rain, discussing life at College as we went, and had a coffee and milkshake at Little Bean. We did a bit of shopping for snacks and cheese and cheap wine. He then had a Spanish lesson to get to so I caught the ferry and went back to the library again, found my two books on the shelf where I'd left them yesterday and started reading. Five and a half hours later I had finished them both! How self-indulgent! Hours and hours of sitting in a comfortable chair, reading in front of a floor to ceiling window, watching the rain falling from the grey, cloudy sky. This was the view when I walked back outside to go back to the hotel. How can they do this every day?

The Company AGM is on tomorrow; I'm not attending; Gibbo will go. I will hang about in the morning and we'll head home after lunch and pick up the tv on our way through Twba. G will be able to watch the football again for the first time in weeks.

Our farm sale settles tomorrow!