Off to Biloela

We head for Biloela tomorrow - hopefully leave Lochlea around mid afternoon. We are going to give Squirt a hand with the angels while Mother Edwina is off to a week in Gladstone for a school course. We should be back this coming weekend. 

 

Our house is painting up nicely with the front finished and the side where you drive in also all painted clean and bright including polishing the floor with three coats of Ultradeck. It really does look good. Dad is now mowing in all sorts of places.

 

The crop looks good but there are quite a few dead heads and this has us a bit worried. We would not have a clue what has caused it, as the rain has been good. They are talking about rust in crops in the area, but that does not seem to be the problem.   Just have to keep on hoping and praying.

 

We had a good few days helping Mary to move into our unit.  She has not been real well, spilled some cleaning stuff on her face and did not get it off properly. Anyway, I was talking to her this afternoon and she is now much better. She has a lovely little grass area alongside her unit with gum trees rising high above the fence and an old lounge chair to sit on. She said she was out enjoying it with a wine and cheese. (Doesn't sound like Mary!)

 

We had sad news when we arrived home. A fox (and probably her babies) had tried to dig under the fence in two or three places and eventually managed to get under the wire. Rooster, Hen and four chickens were killed, all except for one little half grown chick. The rotton things had just chewed the heads off two of the other chickens and only half ate the rooster.  It would not have been so bad if they were hungry and looking for a feed.  One of our neighbours said that they lost six full grown hens that they had not long bought for over $100.

 

Visit by Pete & Boys

Pete here - blogging on behalf of slack parents.
I really do believe that one day they will do a blog entry of their own. :)

The four boys and I drove out to see the folks at the farm this weekend, leaving Alli at home to have a sanity break. It has been raining a lot in Brisbane and it looks like the farm has received a good sprinkle too. Actually, the farm is as lush & green as I can ever recall seeing it. Mum & Dad have one of their best crops ever. If they had corn, it would be as high as an elephant's eye, but it's wheat. :) The house dam is overflowing and running down the road before becoming a creek again.
I like the green farm much better than the brown farm I have to say. If it was always like this, I'd contemplate becoming a farmer, but I've seen too much brown in the past.

We drove out on Saturday and went to church that night. Father Michael greeted us at the door afterward. I think we have been to his church more than we have been to the one in Brissy.

The boys and I had a ball playing around the dam and down the flooded road all weekend. The boys also had a fun time in the treehouse searching for treats left by the fairies. Grandma & Grandad also have some little chicks which the boys were excited to play with, although they did scare the chicks half to death. :(

Mum took the boys over to visit the Sloss's who are neighbours. They have a horde (or even a hoard) :) of kittens and puppies. The boys loved it. They often ask if they can have a puppy or a cat, but we are worried about what we would do whenever we go away on holiday or away for the weekend. The Sloss girls are so good at looking after our boys whenever they visit. They are all lovely girls.

Poor young Mr Riley was fairly miserable all weekend and needed to be constantly cuddled. Grandma & Grandad had to do a fair bit of this as I was off with the boys a fair bit. Fairly sure he's sick but will have to wait for a diagnosis.

We even managed to go fishing in the dam just before we left, but it was the middle of the day and not much was biting - although we could see fish jumping occasionally. We did find quite a large blue claw in the water - presumably from a decent sized yabby.

The boys were very sad to go home as always. Thanks Mum & Dad for helping with a miserable bubby all weekend !

Winter Rain

We had 50 mm of lovely gentle rain for the past 24 hours which brings us up to 97.5 mm for the past 2 weeks so the crop should be set up for a good finish - we just have to pray that the locust plague stays away as they can decimitate a crop overnight.

The water is flowing through the dam to the creek beyond. Not a real flood, just a great flow. Lots of water along the road.

Front of House Painted

A couple of photos of front of house - still have to finish a couple of things and clean up the mess.
Dad

Twas a little cold this morning

Pat went out to the recently sanded and coated back landing this morning and just about slipped off. She called out to Brian to come and check out how slippery and dangerous it was when wet with dew and then as she proceed to really 'take off' realized that she was in fact ice-skating! No, it wasn't really cold, has been much lower, as it was only .5 of a degree on the verandah - has been down to -5 this year.
Painters are hard at work still out the front, but should finish today. Looking great.
 

Painting Weekend (well not quite)

Pete blogging on behalf of slack parents. ;)

I drove out to the farm this weekend with the four boys. Dad is in the process of re-painting the whole house and I thought I could help out a bit. We arrived on Friday night, stuck the boys in bed and watched the Broncos lose the footy (no Darren Lockyer!).

The next morning, we got into the sanding down of some of the old paint. Thought we would just do the flaky bits, but it turned out that most of it was no good. Thus we spent the rest of the weekend mostly just sanding! At least it was nice cool weather for working in. Summer would have been nasty! Anyway, we only got a part of the house sanded. This is going to be a big job - probably completed in a few stages. :)

Mum did sterling work looking after the boys all weekend as well as a lot of cooking and cleaning. I'm sure it gave her unpleasant flashbacks to when she had eight kids. :) I know sanding is sure easier than entertaining four little boys.

Mary was also there to lend a hand once again. She has been a big help to Mum and Dad. Of course we could never repay all the things they have done for us over our lifetime.

Swab the Decks

Mary & Dad painting the beautifully refurbished front & back decks.