Little Bo Peep found some sheep and other livestock stories

Just in case anyone thought my tales about Micky were a bit fablesque (hope you like my word, lol), here is photographic proof. This was taken the same night he had been looking at me from the kitchen table! He has eaten through one whole box of 'death to mice' and is on to his second box. I may have to check out the Fair Trade Act or the Aussi equivalent because I do believe the box suggests one feed will result in death. What do the mean, a snack meal, the equivalent of a three course meal or is it more of a banquet size meal, in which case, two boxes is probably my limit. The upside of Micky still being alive as of the day before yesterday, is that there is no smell of dying vermin in my house - yet!


Micky

On Tuesday one of our ex staff rang up and asked the WM if she would like to go for a drive to feed out sheep. As I was visiting at the time, I was included in the invite. We both grabbed our cameras and off we went. We were picked up in the farm ute, the thing on the back (apart from the round haybale and the WM, lol) is a seed carrying whats'it. We went about 8k down the road and turned left onto two paddocks that would have encompassed most of Karioatahi (the district where I come from). The acreage was covered in wheat stubble and after going through two of the biggest Taranaki type gates I've ever seen, we reached the sheep. (Taranaki gates - for the townies - are wire and batten gates rather than wooden or pipe gates).



Thought I would show you one of our familiar sights - usually seen on the side of the roads. This is an ex-kangaroo - possibly shot in a clean up much like the rabbiter coming across the farm in NZ. Apparently they usually take the carcasses for the dogs but this one was obviously missed. Fortunately, I did not have to open the gate,there or back, as I believe the smell was still clinging to what was left - which wasn't much, lol.



We finally reached the sheep - 1500 sheep that have 18,000 acres to be raised on. This was my first experience with Aussi sheep - as we moved into the 'paddock' seed was realeased onto the ground in a longish line. The ewes all moved to the line and began eating and the lambs all moved into groups slightly apart from the ewes while they were eating! Apparently that is sheep etiquette out here, lol. We had one round haybale that was also left in the paddock for the herd and some had started in on that before we left. I think this breed is Suffolk/merino cross - do not hold me to that though. I had some staff fall about laughing when I commented later I did not think they were as good looking as our (NZ) sheep, lol.


Last but not least, is a photo of what the dust storm looked like though one photo cannot convey the enormity of dust storm that sweeped through here. The workmate had to change every bed in her house and vaccum all her floors that evening. At my place, the pocket handkercheif kitchen floor had enough dirt on it to measure a 6" square, about 1/2" deep when I swept it up later that week. I took have wiped sills and surfaces. The kitchen bench and all that was on it (toaster etc) had a film of dust that had to be wiped off- one way to get the place spring cleaned, lol. I am told that there was roughly 49mls of rain last week and there has been more. The plouging and seeding is going on around the clock, with huge tractors etc lit up like alien space craft - I saw one going down the road just before midnight last week as I walked to my house from the workmate's place.


PS: RIP Mickey - I came back here on Thursday last week to find one very ex Mickey lying deceased on the floor between a book and a CD that were on the floor. He was tossed over the fence via an old shovel I found outside. I have not seen any of his friends or family since so am hoping that is an end to the mouse problem in this house.

The Lights are Out but we are at Home!!!

OMG we are having the BIGGEST dust storm I have ever seen (have one other to compare with LOL) but it is HUGE! It started about 8.30am this morning, its 1.30pm and we are surrounded by it. Naturally there is a good amount of wind as well. All the pink galahs from miles around have come in and are all roosting in various trees about the property - near buildings. I am at the WM's place and am able to type this because I am working off battery. We have just had lunch and had settled back to watch our afternoon DVD when flick, and the lights went off. Have got freshly made coffee beside me, computer still going and have got a gazillion photos of the storm. There was 18mm of rain in Geraldton last night and I believe there are storms along the coastline - the last time we had a big dust storm - we had torrential rain the next day. It would not be before time. It is 168 days since Kalbarri last had rain (I think it is raining there today)and upwards of over 100 days here since we last had rain so everyone is keeping their fingers crossed we will get rain after this. Otherwise, who ever has planted wheat already in Three Springs (nearly two hours away), we will be able to harvest it here, LOL, given the amount of wind and dirt in the air.

Have been experiencing amazing blood red and orange sunsets over the past two weeks with all the smoke in the air from wheat paddocks being burnt off and the dust from plowing. It looks pretty spectacular at night when you see the horizon on fire with flames as the wheat burns for miles. Have tried to capture the flames on my camera but with not a lot of luck as still working out how it goes.

Sunset at Tardun

The Moon over Tardun - am very impressed with myself at this photo.


It has been awhile since I last did a post, but have been pretty hectic with one thing and another. Last Wednesday ended up in Geraldton with the WM & WMH. The WM had gone in and stayed the night before and they we both going to catch up with their girls for Parent meetings that night. The WMH and I did some jobs for school on the way in and then we all went to the Camel Bar for lunch - it was great and felt very much like playing hooky, lol. Can thorougly recommend the place AGAIN as the food was delcious. We had to go to the local sports shop to get table tennis bats and balls for one of the staff - ended up by costing us $1000 between us!!! Mainly because we also bought and exercycle and hired a TZone vibration exercise machine for three months. The thing is, I had been thinking of getting a cross trainer and the WM really wanted an exercise bike just so we could exercise and get fit without swallowing flies and coping with icky outdoors things, lol. We tried to talk the boss into hiring some machines for the kids at school and in the end got such a good deal, thought, what the heck - it's not if we do a lot of anything else. We had some very perky young thing show is the TZone thingie - basically, 10 mins of exercise on that is the equivalent of an hour at the gym - you can see what attracted me, LOL. It is meant to build bone density, increase blood circulation, aids back pain, blah blah blah. The first time I tried it, I thought I might just shoot through the window I was standing in front of, as I vibrated to bits, lol. One of the exercises is a wide squat for 30 secs (with back straight, lol. The WMH told me to bend (while I was probably 45o instead of 90o to which I replied, I WAS!!!!. The same when I had to do a press up whilst my hands were on the machine - my knees never left the floor, lol. However, after several session, I can now report my knees will leave the floor AND I can bend at 90o!!!!

I have built up slowly to use the cycle - got on it the first time today and did 5k in 12 mins losing 58 calories (for those playing at home). I also saw stars and felt like I was in another dimension by the time I hopped off - feel the pain indeed. It's early days, but I do feel better for using both machines, and it definitely cuts the appetite down immensely. Watch this space for results. The WMH was in hysterics the first time I used the vibration machine and I believe there maybe video evidence - I was laughing so much trying the different exercises, it is a wonder I didn't cause myself a mischief.

It's been a bit of a rock and roll time regarding our jobs. It is possible we may have no girls left next term. It seems the twins might be moving to another school next term, which will mean their other friend will stay where she comes from and try to finish school there and our other girl from the Kimberly's more than likely would not come back to be on her own. We are keeping our fingers crossed as the entire group of students still here have absolutely taken off on the new program they have started this term. Over one hundred assessments have been sent off to TAFFE to be marked and the students are eating up the work. It will give them the equivalent of work based units that will give them entry to TAFFE in Yr 11 if they want. Most nights the girls are doing an hour extra homework at night which was unthinkable last year. Be still my beating heart, lol.

Had a great weekend last weekend as we went into Geraldton shopping on Saturday and went to see "Monsters v Aliens" at the movies. I had somehow thought it was going to be the Monsters from Monsters Inc v Aliens but it was a whole new set of mosters. The movie, though set for a young audience had lots of laughs in it and I enjoyed it anyway, (once I got over the disappointment of not having Scully and Co from Monsters Inc in it, LOL). The girls have been a captive audience while I have been playing my CD's in the car as we drive to town and back although I listened to one of theirs last week to keep some balance, lol. The twins really blew me away last week when 'On the Good Ship Lollypop' (on a compilation CD that No 1 son did for me for Christmas a couple of years ago) came on and they knew it and wanted to hear it twice!!!! Apparently it is on some recent movie - they had no idea who Shirley Temple was and that it was a little girl that sang it - but it is one of the driving favourites now, lol. (cue in some movie history)

On the way into town, just as we were going down Dean Rd (17k almost straight road )we saw two of these birds - not sure what they are but they are still young and the closest I can get is they are some type of hawk. Stopped a wee way away to take photos with the zoom lens and then drove VERY slowly towards this one with one of the girls steering the wheel, while I am snapping furiously at the birds out the open window, lol.
So, this is most exciting latest wildlife I have spotted.




Sunday, we had a very slow start to the day, then a big house clean before lunch and after lunch we had a pamper session. I tried to make a face mask using yoghurt, honey and in lieu of oatmeal had got rolled oats, lol. Unfortunately the rolled oats were just too much and the whole mask thing was a failure from that point of view,as it kept dropping off my first victims face, but wait, I had a Nutrimetics one in my collection so did the girls with that. While the masks were drying, the girls had their hands soaking before doing their nails, cuticles, finishing with a buff and french polish for some and nail polish for others. I had collected another staff member who came for the pamper session and we ended up with a foot soak and scrub and more polish. I did the whole skin care thing once I had taken the masks off faces so everyone was cleansed, toned and moisturised by the time they were finished. Had to laugh when our girl from the Kimberly's put moisturiser ALL over her feet and then went whallop and measured her length on the hall tiles as her feet shot out from under her. Luckily she sustained no injuries and so we warned the rest about moisturising UNDER their feet.

We finished the day with some of the girls collecting wood and then the boys came down for dinner as I cooked barbeque in two fry pans. It was just like having family round at home - I think we 12 all together which would be a small amount for a gathering at home, LOL. The boys were great and helped to clean up afterwards so will have them back again. The WM had had them all down on Friday night too when she had organised a Campfire at the back of our house with damper and marshmellows. She gathered up a whole lot of old car seats from the dump so we have quite a posh set up round our campfire now, lol. Will close now and sort through photos of the dust storm once I have checked them out. Will do a part two, hopefully tomorrow. It is now nearly 3.15pm and we have had some rain - not enough, but it is a start. Time to get the girls from school and open up the house.

I have a MOUSE in MY house!!!!

I was at the computer LATE on Friday night, playing games - as you do (my excuse is that it is staving off alzheimers, heh, heh), when I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I was zooming on the game which is timed so only cast a quick glance, and then another movement (as I was reloading the game) before the fattest mouse I have seen in a long time ran across the floor and dashed behind the couch again. The next morning I found visiting cards on top of the washing machine AND the kitchen table which is really my office table!!!!! So, all food stuffs are nailed down, in containers or put away, as not only but also, I am experiencing an ant infestation of biblical proportions.

Last night when I had assumed the position again and was merrily typing away, the mouse not only made several movements, poking its nose out from behind the lounge wall but only dashed back when I hissed at it. Today, it shot across the kitchen floor under the bench, possibly into the laundry!!! I had a thought tonight - maybe it's fat because it is a pregnant mouse!! Hopefully after my next trip to town to get bait and steel wool to block any hole I can find in the place, it will soon be an ex mouse.

Last Sunday when the girls and I went into Geralton, I decided to try and catch a photo of a seagull on the wing. There was me lying on the grass on my back, while the girls threw bread obligingly to encourage the birds for my photo shoot. Most of them merely hopped over, and it was with nervous trepidation that I lay there looking up in case they might unload their previous meal, lol. The photos below are two with birds actually in the frame. I did get a good amount of experimental shots of the sky, grass etc which have since been deleted, heh, heh.



I knew I should have taken the camera to town with me on Wednesday last week as right in the middle of the road not far from school was sat a kangaroo and it would have been good to get a shot of one in situ. There are several kangaroos about on site at the moment - I have seen two as I have driven home in the evening which has been a bit unnerving as I often walk home from the Workmate's home in pitch black, with the house lights to give me a focus to walk towards - I only have a torch when I remember. Since spotting them hopping across the road I walk back on, the WM has lent me their vehicle to drive back in.

Ah the bliss of the weekend off. I have had a very home and hearth type weekend as I have been washing, ironing, cleaning and cooking!!! As it is getting colder morning and night, it is feeling wintery and with that feeling goes homemade soup. I went to get a bacon hock last week and nearly had to be resuscitated when I looked at the price - $10!!!! plus. I barely coped with the NZ price so when I told the lady behind the counter I would leave it, she suggested I get a ham bone instead. The difference being no second mortgage on the house to buy it. It was something like $3.5ok, the one that was left cost me $4.50 which fed me one lunch with the meat left on it, with a good amount still left for the soup pot. I shall be asking for ham bones from henceforth!!

The WMH arrived with the boys yesterday morning mid chaos, for coffee, just in time for the boys to help me kitchen whizz the vegies for the soup. Found I had no soup mix but had a packet of red lentils so used them, and then found some pearl barley in another packet and threw that in as well (Mouse has just scurried from the kitchen back into the lounge!!). The WMH had bought some turkish bread and some new dipping mixture called Zar z'tar which is DEVINE. We are both hopeless foodies - I have educated his palate about appropriate olive oil for one, and now he is constantly on the lookout for new things for us to try. The ZZ mixture is much like dukka (combination of nuts, spices and seeds that you dip with oil, then mix, with bread) except it has a spice called sumac in it that gives a lemony flavour to the sesame seeds, cumin, thyme etc that are the ingredients. I had bought some sumac after reading about it in my niece's foodie blog and will now investigate more into how I might use itas am loving the lemony flavour.

As well as the soup - I BAKED. Not without challenge though (naturally). In a moment of organisation, I pulled the key ingredients out of the pantry only to find I had run out of coconut. A quick call up the hill, and the WMH bought some down for me. Had the butter etc melted, dry ingreds ready to go and %%&^&* where was the baking powder??? I know I had some because I have baked before (last year, lol)and how many tins of baking powder does one go through in a life time. I then went through the pantry and my cupboards like a dose of salts looking for said BP. Had to ring up the WMH again - what do Aussies put their bloody BP in - I already knew it was hopeless looking for the red/orange of the Edmonds packet. He had none in the cupboard but said it was in a blue tin - once again, every item moved about, things repackaged but no luck. In disgust, I put the (cooled) melted stuff, pot and all in the fridge, the dry ingreds in the microwave which I hoped was mouse proof and went off for tea. (the mouse has just come and and sat on the floor and looked at me!!) Fortunately, the school kitchen had 4k of BP so got an amount from there and finally put everything together this morning with the end result being...


I cannot take credit for the recipe myself - It's called Takaka Ginger Crunch taken from one of the supplements of one of the NZ Sunday papers from a segment by Annabelle White. Apparently this slice used to be a signature slice of the
Takaka Cafe in Golden Bay. For those playing at home I will give the recipe because it is easier than falling off a log and I will not be home until December to show off my cullinary skills and this is too good to wait until then.

Takaka Ginger Crunch
150 g butter
2Tbsp golden syrup
3/4 C brown sugar
3/4 C coconut
1&1/2 C rolled oats (not the instant sor - the Anzac biscuit sort)
3/4 C flour
1&1/2 tsp baking powder
1&1/2 tsp ground ginger
pinch of salt
Melt butter, brown sugar and golden syrup. Remove from heat and add the cocnut, rolled oats, flour, baking powder, ginger and salt. Mix until combined and press into greased slice tin. Bake at 180C for 15 -20 mins - longer means crunchier. Ice when cool.
Icing
75g butter
3/4 C iding sugar
2 Tbsp golden syrup
3 tsp ground ginger
Mix the softened butter with the other ingredients (can thorougly recommend licking the bowl afterwards, lol).
Hope you like it if you try it. I figure it is nearly healthy with the rolled oats being involved, LOL.

Hope all the mothers had a nice day today - I got to see No1 son, wife and grandson on skype this evening, had spoken to my Mum as family had just visited, and my sister who had spoken to her children for the day. From No 1 son I heard that No 2 son was in Wellington working and had been there most of the week working during the night in buildings that were carrying on their business during the day. Rang daughter in law No 2 to see how she was doing on her first Mother's Day and was able to hear Zachary in the background.
Not working until tomorrow afternoon as have swapped shifts later in the week to accomdate WM going to parent teacher meetings so get an extra sleep in tomorrow - yay.
OMG the dammned mouse has just looked at me from behind a pile of papers on the table!!! I don't know who got the bigger surprise but how cheeky is that!!!!! It has now zoomed off again and I am going to bed.

Sunset over Tardun

Whilst I was home I bought a new camera after long debate with myself. Did I want an SLR (have no idea what that stands for but it means you can change lenses on the camera and take a gazillion photos a minute, lol) or an ordinary digital one, then, what brand should I get???? I had checked out prices duty free at both ends of my trip and scanned all the throwaways in NZ to see what deals were going. After MORE perusal at actual cameras on my lightening trip to Hamilton, I finally ended up at Harvey Norman in Pukekohe where family members have a connection to one of the sales folk there and ended up by getting a Canon Powershot SX10 IS (for those playing at home) which has 10 megapixels and most importantly, 20zoom whatsits for a very reasonable price, better in fact than duty free as it was already on special. Of course, this does not make me a world class photographer, more's the pity, but the following are a few photos taken by the new beast, without me having read any of the instruction manual (yet)LOL.



This was taken from the top of the Workmates balcony about 5.30pmish last Tuesday night. Because this was such a great sunset, and we had visitors to the school last Thursday, a decision was made to get up on top of the roof of the boarding school to watch the sunset again (armed with nibbles and red wine as there were no boarders back on site) It was not as spectacular as two nights previously as there was no cloud to get the amazing colours of earlier in the week but I think they are still pretty special. I spent most of my time feeling extreme trepidation in case I fell through said roof, and did not venture away from the line of nails, hopefully the strongest piece of the roof being the beams I was walking on!!!


As the sun is setting/


Immediately post sunset.

After a mammoth effort last week of moving - I thought I would show you our new abode. It is deceptive as there are 7 bedrooms, an office, an en suite plus two other bathrooms and toilets, a laundry and an annex between the house and four of the bedrooms, one bathroom/toilet which was added for the previous Principal's seven children. We are located behind the school, to the right and rear of the chapel. We do have a neighbour - one of the staff and his wife to the left hand side of the house, otherwise we are very much the not so little 'house on the prairie'. I stayed on duty over the weekend, with a whole three girls to look after, and the house flows really well for its new purpose.


This is a picture of our new kitchen which is possibly the best kitchen on the entire site - I kid you not. There are plentiful cupboards, a rubbish bin cupboard, pantry, a cupboard with a lazy susan type doohicky in the corner, and a three pronged thing that you can hang tea towels on in the cupboard under the sink!!!!!!! I am in 7th heaven in this spot - there is even a space for a dishwasher - and I am working on that, heh, heh. The only downside to the place is the proliferation of mickey's about the place. (mice for the uninitiated, lol) Have put numerous baits about the place having removed all the traps that were through the house as they are only good if you can remove the demised beastie, or worse, sort beastie as it is demising.


Saturday was spent unpacking and sorting the office and my part of our new room, in between driving the ute so the WMH could get rid of the rubbish and then helping him paint school desks so the new term could be started with a fresh (ish) look. OMG - the rubbish tip - how many sorts of illegal is this - may have to take a photo the next time I am up there, lol. Just about everybody at home (NZ) would have a field day from the Council to the greenies. There is a huge hole where everything, and I mean everything - paper, old furniture, glass, plastic, household rubbish, kitchen rubbish - is taken to the edge and literally thrown in. The surrounding paddocks, bushes etc are FULL of paper, plastic bags and the like, that have blown out of said hole. Goodness only knows what is leaching into the soil,etc etc etc. Every so often, a fire is lit there to have a bit of a burn off and flying ash from paper etc also lies about. All I can say is HEALTH & SAFETY - or OH&S as they call it over here!!!

To paint the desks, we used what paint was surplus to requirements, hence a choice of icky brown or camouflage green, so green it was. We had the girls helping which kept them occupied for some time. On Sunday we did a trip into Geraldton so the girls could get supplies, - I know, they had just had 3 weeks off school but who would think to get their shampoos etc before their return???? I bought a cooked chook at the IGA with some fresh bread and we had a picnic lunch along the beach front before a quick trip up to the HMAS Sydney memorial to pay our respects post ANZAC day before heading back again.

Got back to my own little house later that night - and caught a good amount of the Logies - Australia's answer to the Emmies I think. Rove got 2 Logies making it the eighth year in a row he has won his category. It was great seeing "Packed to the Rafters" which has Rebecca Gibney, 'Mitch' out of "All Saints" and 'Harry' out of "The Sullivans" with the rest of the cast take out 6 Logies altogether for their series. Not sure if it is on NZ TV yet, but well worth a look if/when it comes. Rebecca Gibney won the Gold Logie award that topped the night.

School began yesterday with the new program and had delighted responses from the girl's when I dropped in last night on my way up to dinner (after sleeping nearly the entire day away!!!). Have cooked some pickled pork for tonight's dinner and am off to pick up the Workmate's boys from footie practice shortly so will sign off for now.