Back on line

There's a problem with the Blog, you may have noticed the counter isn't working and this morning there's been a problem putting up pictures.

I’d often heard people say “it’s not the destination that matters, it’s the journey” but never thought that much about it before. It makes sense – well, at least it explains why I’m always so lost.

I often sit and wonder what I’m going to do next. There are so many jobs, so many projects and so many ideas. Where do I start? I can’t ask the Cook – all I get from her is “you can do the dishes whilst I think about it”

There are always the priorities that occur naturally because of the weather or unplanned pregnancies (not mine). I’ve tried various prioritisation tools I’ve carried form my previous lives, but nothing seems to work. I know farming works around the seasons; problem is we only have one at the moment – Drought. I’ve noticed the soil is starting to change. It’s turning from clay/ alluvial to sand, particularly in the heavy stock traffic areas. At the moment it’s only in small areas like around troughs and gates, but I noticed at the neighbours the other day that their whole paddocks are changing in the same way. Of course they have many more stock than we do using their paddocks.

I really enjoy reading other peoples Blogs. I’ve discovered so many interesting Blogsites, there’s hundreds I’d love to read from start to end but just don’t have the time. And you can get so much inspiration or so many different ideas, the time I do spend reading them is always worth it. I know updating our Blog every day has change the way I look at our life here on the farm. I think it helps put everything in proportion.

I’ve noticed since moving onto the farm that lots of things have changed. The kids are growing up. The boy’s and I have started interacting differently. Harry is a lot more confident in himself and Ben is more outspoken at times and introspective at others. The dynamics between us is changing as well. Over the break I took them Bow hunting – I was surprised at how enthusiastically they participated, no complaints, no wining. I had always thought that it was going to be too ‘hard’ for them – I was happily surprised, and deep down proud of the way they performed. They are really growing up to be nice kids -

I like reading other Blogs, written by people who are doing similar things to us and see that they struggle, have their highs and lows and manage to just get on with it. I think its great therapy to sit in front of the computer and think about what it is we’ve done or achieved over the past day or so. It’s funny how when you do sit back and look at things again, they don’t seem half as bad as they first appeared. It really helps put everything into perspective.

Of course nothing can beat that dark, wry humour we Australian’s are famous for. I know I’ve found the funny side to a few things I’ve had to do that weren’t funny at all. The Cook, she has a wicked sense of humour – especially if it’s at my expense.

I don’t have a watch, I used to, I used to rely on it – it was a part of me. But I don’t see the need for it anymore – I know the Cooks always going to be late – that’s a given! I get up in the morning, I feed the pigs first up and at sunset, I have lunch when I’m hungry, I go to bed in the dark – so what’s the point.

Well – there’s more eggs in the incubator, so that means there are more roosters on the way. I bought a dozen fertile eggs into work this week for a lady and she wants me to take any roosters – that’ll be a few! I really do need to fix the chook yard – luckily changing the dogs routine has been keeping the foxes away, but I still need to get the wire to finish it off properly. Next weekend a new fence has to go in around the garden – please let it rain before then, and we have weeds to address. Of course that doesn’t include the piglets that need castrating , the sheep paddock fences or the oats paddock fences that needs fixing.