A few weeks ago we  got a phone call  to let us know that my elderly mother who is 96 and lives alone  had taken a fall in her bathroom and had been taken to hospital. The x rays and scans showed that she had  broken 3 ribs and some other associated damage.  I was unable to go over immediately as Brian had contracted Leptospirosis, a bacterial infection passed from the mice in the plague that we have been dealing with and was quite ill. He spent a full week either in bed or on the couch which  is very rare for him. My brother and sister in law  who l ..read more

 Every year for as long as I can remember our little town has commemorated ANZAC Day with a march and a service,now held  in the local park. As a child I remember my parents being very involved with many aspects of the day. We would be dropped at the school to assemble  with the return service men and march  to the Memorial Hall for the service. My father used to call the march and take part in the service. My mother would be in the kitchen with the other RSL ladies Auxiliary members cooking up a storm to feed the large number of returned servicemen after the service. Once ..read more

 When we first moved to the farm we purchased an incubator and a brooder with the intention of always raising our own laying and table poultry, but slowly we put it on the back burner and a few times purchased the laying hens from a local supplier, which worked quite well for a few years. The last two lots of hens we purchased at point of lay failed to meet our expectations miserably , laying much later than normal and  nowhere near  reaching the laying totals that our earlier birds had done, even though they were all the same breed( Isa Browns). The prices had also dramatically ..read more

 We have had bees at the farm for a few years now. We originally purchased a box for Brian's 60th birthday and after a few years  a friend in town who has bees supplied our first nuc of bees to us. We gradually added a few more hives and Brian and our friend Rob have been caring for them. Our main reason to have bees originally was to increase the pollination of plants here at the farm as there had been a decline in bees in our area. We agreed  with Rob that if he helped look after our hives and  harvest the honey he could take it and sell  at our local craft shop and ..read more

 Each year here at the farm we try to tackle  one major project each year. It doesn't always happen as smoothly  and last year was no exception. The following post as usual contains many photographs,( hopefully not too many) but that is what I do, I love to look back at all our photos that record our progress through the years. The plan for early last year was to remove our old carport which had seen better days, and to replace it with a much bigger covered area which would be much more user friendly. Brian dismantled it piece by piece with the help of the tractor and bucket ..read more

 It was Thursday the 3rd December 2020, we had just enjoyed a lovely lunch with Brian's brother Bill and his wife Yvette who were visiting from Brisbane,ready to get together with the brother next door for a working bee and there were a few storm clouds and thunder rolling around  so we decided to sit out on the back verandah , have a cuppa and wait it out as the plan was to build some new metal stockyards at next door's farm. All of a sudden there was  a big rumble, a really bright lightning flash that lit up the whole sky and an almighty bang, the effects of which radiated up ..read more

 It's funny how small things and events from our childhood stay in our memory and sometimes  become probably more important in our minds than what they really were at the time. I have very fond memories as a child and as a young teenager happily spending time at one of our local town's  parks while my parents were doing other business and activities that I wasn't involved with. I had a particular attraction to two main pieces of equipment in the park, the glider swing and the pyramid climbing frame. Many years passed and I grew up, married, moved away and had children and then w ..read more

 That erratic  pendulum of nature has finally decided to swing back in our favour and this year has been so much kinder to us here on our little farm. We have had beautiful rain, the tanks are full, the grass green and even needing slashing and the garden and  our orchard producing extremely well and providing an abundance of fruit. I have not posted for over 12 months and it was a post that came to my attention from a fellow blogger that also hadn't posted for quite a while that spurred me into action.  This post will be mainly a pictorial post of the preserving and food s ..read more

I know I haven't posted for a while but things were a bit depressing around here with this horrible ongoing drought and I just haven't felt the drive to get back into posting. Not far from our farm is a property where many of the past cars owned by Brian's family have  gone to rest as they have died.  Recently  Brian's  brothers were together and discussed the possibility of maybe restoring one of these old cars  as a great sentimental project. The chosen car was a  1963 Ford Fairlane that Brian's parents owned. This photograph of the proud new owners, my in laws ..read more

My brother recently had a milestone birthday and when asked what he wanted for his birthday he said a gathering of family and friends at the Gulargambone Caravan park. My sister in law  grew up in Gulargambone and my brother worked there early in his career and that was where they met so it has a special connection for them. We had expected to see Gulargambone  drier and dustier than here as it is about 140 klms  north west from here but were pleasantly surprised to find it a green oasis. The caravan park is owned and ran by the very friendly  David and Bernadette Frazier ..read more