Back to the Farm

Gibbo and I went back to the farm today to continue gardening. The parsley and oregano are loving the manure and mulch from last week.

The manure we spread last weekend (that I was too tired to photograph) received 3mm of rain during the week.

Poofy came to inspect.

Here's my offsider.

Poor Poofy followed us all the way up the paddock and back and was exhausted by the time he got back.

We went to check these - 7 new angus babies and a charolais that Mum had hidden in the grass.

We finished spreading the manure in the big garden then started on the two narrow strips at the house.

We used bark chip in the smaller gardens. I didn't like it at first - too white - but once it was spread I liked it better.

 And the other side.

I cleaned out one of the smaller round gardens of all its straggly daisy bushes and discovered quite a few clivia plants. I really like clivia so this is a bonus.

A third bale of hay didn't go far enough; there's still nearly half the big area to go.

 It was raining when we left. It was very peaceful and calm down there in the late afternoon light.

Brotherly Love

I've just been away for three days of meetings. I didn't take my wifi for my laptop so was only checking emails on my phone. In response to my birthday invitation I received a series of one line messages from my older brother last night and was a little baffled by some (most) of them. I thought them to be the reminiscent ramblings of someone who may have had one beer too many.

He rang me this afternoon at work upon our return from Twba and asked me if I'd received the emails. I said well yes, I had but I didn't really "get" them and we went on to talk of other things.

Imagine my complete surprise when I got home and pulled my emails in on the laptop - and discovered that there were actually PHOTOS attached to each email - which put a completely and utterly different perspective to his words.......then I understood what he meant and realised there was no rambling involved at all - it was just brotherly love that drove him to send them.

Here they are, recreated in order of sending and receiving - imagine as you read the words (in italics) just what I might have been thinking when I received the messages but no photos last night. Then relate the words to the photos - they make all the difference don't they?

THE BLOKE ON THE RIGHT WILL SHOW UP FOR A WHILE....taken at Jeanette's wedding - I still have that bear (my grandparents gave him to me when I was 3 months old) - it's the one the boys used to kidnap from my bedroom and leave a ransom note in his place; I'd find him dangling at the end of a piece of string tied to the clothesline, blowing in the breeze.

HANG ON...I'LL HAVE TA CHECK MY SCHEDULE.....not sure what my mother was thinking when she dressed me this day - or Peter for that matter.

OOOO! THERE'LL BE GAMES THEN? not sure what's going on here either; I remember the plastic footballs we had but can't believe I did much with them except stub my toe. I'm not a fan of football. My clothing would indicate that this photo was taken the same day as the one above. Don't know why I'm almost rugged up and Peter is half naked. Obviously even as a child I felt the cold. My thongs fit well tho....and it's a nice hat. That's important.

YOU STILL GONNA DRESS UP AND LOOK HAPPY? well I don't look overly thrilled do I? My bear was probably kidnapped that morning.

MAYBE HAVE A DRINK? sitting on the huge piece of marble which formed one half of the built in barbecue at my grandparent's property, 3/4 of a mile up the road from where we lived. That's my grandma's back on the right. I'm enjoying some light refreshment while Peter concentrates on his lamb chop. I'm sure it's a lamb chop; it's all we ever ate considering it was a sheep property. Note the beautiful bird fountain in the background. Also note how my mother dressed us both the same. Perhaps these photos explain where I got my lack of fashion sense from. Also note that Andrew hasn't shown up yet. He still wasn't thought of.

OR PONDER THINGS UNFATHOMABLE at the beach; fabulous fashion sense again - green and white check bloomers with a red, white and blue hat. Yep, definitely a pattern developing here.

LIKE HOW YOU GONNA PERFECT THAT LOOK FOR YOUR FUTURE HUSBAND say no more!

I HOPE NO UNDESIREABLES SHOW UP! at last, here he is, putting in an appearance. Our baby brother, Andrew, the third child my mother never meant to have. I'm so glad she did!!! He pulled faces like that through most of his childhood...and beyond.

DRY YOUR EYES GIRL! here we are, the three of us on the bank of the Condamine River where we grew up. We practically lived at the river. I remember the dress - it had a sailor theme, hence the rope. Peter loves this photo and wants to have it blown up for his wall; it speaks to him of our childhood - it does to me too. Andrew was a skinny little runt; never had an ounce of fat on him and still doesn't.

So there you have it - can you see why I thought his words were a bit random? I could kind of get the gist of what he was saying but once the photos were added - well, it's all obvious. 

I rang him back tonight as soon as I realised there were photos and explained the situation; he said he was a bit puzzled by my initial reaction and we laughed about how it all now makes sense.

I love that he took the time and effort to pick them out and give them captions and send them in response to my invitation photo; he left the best one 'til last and he told me to wipe my tears; he knows me well. I love it too because it shows his love and we don't often see that. I just love it and him and the memory of the three of us.

Wow

This week disappeared in a cloud of dust. Gibbo went to the chiller at 4am Monday to inspect cow carcases then continued on to Bris for meetings; he brought Drew home for mid-semester break.

Tuesday saw us getting ready for 3 days of meetings in Twba; Drew went spraying.

We left early Wednesday for a day of succession/continuity planning within the Group. The session was presented by a favourite of mine and all the attendees were very impressed with the content, delivery and her ability to keep them all focussed for the entire day - no mean feat when you're dealing with a bunch of blokes who normally can't sit still for very long. That night at dinner TS and I delivered a surprise presentation to G on his 25 years of employment here - GG, this is your life.... He was lost for words - momentarily.

Thursday was 2013 budget day, round 1. This was a considerably less stressful process than last year although there is a way to go. Meg picked me up in the afternoon and we raced over to buy Drew two masquerade masks for an upcoming ball. Note the giraffe patterned fingernails.

The group ate at Weis that night - always difficult for me to get my money's worth but G makes up for it.

This morning I drove back to D to pick Drew up then took him to Twba so that he could get a lift back to Uni. Budget work continued until lunchtime then we all split to head back to our respective properties.

And - there's chickens. Our annual breeding program has started and these aren't the first of them....and they certainly won't be the last, not by a long shot. I've sold all my barnevelders and will just breed and sell rocks and silkies. I've got a lot to save my pennies for - my 2013 bike ride, my trip to NZ, a junket to Hawaii next April...and maybe a thermomix.

These are (Gibbo's) 2 large white wyandottes and a silver laced, cradled ever so carefully in the bosses hands. There was an accidental drowning in the incubator at work this morning, in the bowl that keeps the humidity and moisture consistent. The girls in the office were traumatised.

Now I sit on the couch, tired and glad to be home, planning the next few weeks in my head. I have a lot of lists to make. My ear operation is only just over two weeks away - before then, there's a rather important party to organise and get through and a small mountain of things to prepare for the wagyu conference. I'm not really thinking about much beyond the 16th.

Keep calm and breathe.

Too Sore to Think

Gibbo borrowed Rocky's truck for the weekend and carted the last of the unburnt trees from our pruning operations to the local dump. He also carted around 6 tonne of horse manure and two big bales of barley straw to the garden. We spent yesterday afternoon spreading most of the manure and about 2/3 of one bale of mulch. Backbreaking work in the hot sun.

I can ride 540km and feel fantastic - I do 4 hours of gardening work and have aching, aching muscles and can hardly walk. In the end I said to him, "I got no muscles left Gibbo" so we called it a day. I was even too tired to remember to take photos of the big area we spread and watered in; next visit.

One wheelbarrow load doesn't really go very far.

I lost count of the number of loads to fill the intended herb garden but we got it done.

Then we mulched it, nice and thick and used over half a big bale - Gibbo thinks there's plenty of seed in the barley straw - so that will be the next challenge.