Radha offers to drive

7.30 am, and the girls need to get to their early Extension English class. No school bus available, and I'm wanting to get on with my Master's unit marking, and it's raining, and my ribs are sore, and I haven't finished my tea and and and ...
Don't stress, says the dog. I'm onto it. Leave it to me.

I put this photo on my facebook page and got some funny responses :-)

• Sharen Caines Nisbet, Lisa Shelbourne, Marion Hesseling and 25 others like this.
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  Felicia Dale Aw.... poor you! (((hugs!)))

  Tuesday at 09:43 · Unlike · 1
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  Robyn Rowland nawww all the dog just needs to do the head moving back and forwards to be a groove thing

  Tuesday at 10:04 · Unlike · 1
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  Chris Cbg Oh Radha! . . how we love you!

  Tuesday at 10:55 · Unlike · 1
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  Steve Smith Im disapointed Mieke, she's not wearing her seat belt, I hope she put it on before departure?.........lol, I bet she's a safer driver than some I see on the road.

  Tuesday at 11:18 · Edited · Unlike · 1
• 

  Jacqui de Roo It looks like you're in good hands! Lol

  Tuesday at 16:25 via mobile · Unlike · 1
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  Matthew John 

  Tuesday at 19:06 · Unlike · 1
• 

  Ayananda Johanna

  Tuesday at 19:13 · Unlike · 1
• 

  Marion Hesseling haha, nice

  Yesterday at 04:48 · Unlike · 1

Pony update

Well, young Ruby has been playing and working with Elara a few times, and we've achieved quite a lot in the process:

Elara has learned:
- to have a rug placed on and pulled off
- to accept having clothes thrown on, over and under her
- to accept having clothes dragged between her legs
- to accept people jumping up and down suddenly all around her
- to wear a saddle with girth and surcingle
- to enter and exit a small shed with flapping walls without being scared
- how to use a feed bag
- to carry a rider around the garden
- to climb up and down a concrete step

Ruby has learned:
- how to place and tie a rope halter on the horse
- how to remove a rug (it's a bit heavy for her to put it on at the moment as it is sopping wet)
- how to do 'join up' (a natural horsemanship technique for leadership)
- how to lead with confidence and firm assertiveness

Grazing in the rain :-)

On the horse for the first time!

The next steps are to get Elara's teeth done by the equine dentist and then off to the trainer for some specialised training. We want Elara to become a super reliable, 'bomb proof' child's mount, so in the end Ruby could (if she wanted) attend pony club with her or enter her in some gymkhanas, or ride around the village. It will take time and patience but I think Ruby and Elara have the potential to make a great team. It's a 'win-win' situation I believe.

Briony

Beautiful Briony ... on John's birthday (at the Eltham "Not Quite Folk" evening)

A buckskin brumby cross is not quite a racehorse

We need a photo of Elara. Yes we do. 'Cos she's such a lovely mare :-)

Elara is Rascal's half-sister. I'm arranging to send her to a trainer to further her education. Then, I'm aiming for a local lassie, ten-year-old Ruby, to be riding her regularly and enjoying her good nature and lovely paces.

As John said, tongue-in-cheek, it's a bit like owning a racehorse: after all, racehorse owners have a trainer, a jockey and a racehorse ... So far, we simply have a potential trainer, a village lassie and a pony...

Nearly racehorse owners!!  But not quite.

:-D

More horse photos and shenanigans

By popular request :-) some more photos of the steeds.

On Sunday John and I went for a ride to Booyong nature reserve / village green (not much village left in Booyong, though, sadly). There, we met up with Hans (riding Emu) and Niki (riding Duchess). I had wanted to do some gallivanting about on the horses together but alas: upon remounting Rascal I found I had not tightened the girth properly; the saddle slipped round; Rascal plunged forward and I crashed to the ground.

Gravity sucks :-(

It was very painful. But John looked after me and later on Rascal carried me carefully home, just walking, on a loose rein ... what a good boy he is. Eh, these things happen.

John moseys down the road, bareback on Saturn

Rascal sees his Mama, the brumby Duchess for the first time in three years. He's amazed! (So is she) :-D

The glorious and gorgeous Saturn enjoying a bit of liberty.

Hans with his good steed Emu (who previously belonged to John). They get on very well together!

It was a great place to ride and I can't wait for my ribs to heal so I can go back there with John and the horses...

Some recent flood photos

It's that time of year again (apparently). With the cyclone (see earlier post) came the rain, and with the rain came the rising of the river. Wilson's River peaked at just under 10 metres, cutting us off from nearby towns and villages. The wind hurled several trees to the ground, narrowly (and in some cases not) missing sheds and houses. We lost power for three days, which also meant no pumped water ... But hey, it poured from the sky so that was not really an issue ...

Between Sunday and Tuesday the river rose sharply

A fig tree fell on our neighbour Rick's shed (photo by Grace Westera)

And another one just skimmed his house (photo Grace Westera). Rick was OK though.

Boatharbour Road could well be ... just Boatharbour?

50: no, no ...

All in all it took about five days for relative normality to return. No real harm done here other than perished food in the freezer ("Happy Days!" sang the dogs ... Om nom nom!!!) and two of our horses became ill with some sort of mud fever, perhaps stress related. But they're a lot better now.

John and I were fine and used our camping stove to cook, candles and solar to provide light ... we relaxed and read books, and since there was no internet we even did a jigsaw puzzle  ... :-)

This morning's walk

Just some random photos taken this morning while walking the dogs...

Taken from the old pig paddock, looking East to the distant horizon over the hills

Romany Ruby Smudge is now a two-year old. And limber :-). Standing near the western side of the farm which borders the village.

Mama Nova glowing in the early morning sun. She's a sweet and kind mare.

The deciduous fig, a lovely landmark ...

No-dig veggie patch

Each year after the young chicks are reared and gone I use the patch where the chook tractor stood to make a new veggie patch. This year I've decided to make a more permanent patch in the form of a "no-dig vegetable garden". Seeing as our old water tank had collapsed, we sawed it into pieces (creating big O rings). One half we gave to Hans and Niki for their garden, the other half I sawed in half again to make the start of ours.

As you can see the chooks got straight in to lend a willing "hand" in turning over the mulch at the bottom. No dig indeed. Who needs a spade?

Chook farming

Seeing as this year our motley crew of hens managed to hatch 34 chicks between them, I decided to advertise and sell the chicks using the online community classifieds forum, Gumtree. And what a success it was! All the chooks are now sold and I made a profit of $315 ... (OK, I won't give up my day job).

Plymouth rocks, Wyandotte, Bantam and Australorp crosses in this colourful lot

I think I got the pricing right: it's very hard to determine gender, but people don't want roosters (most people can't bear to kill them), so I charged the following:
- $5 for a rooster,
- $10 for an unsexed chook (gender being a gamble),
- $15 for "probably a hen" with the guarantee that they could return it if it started to crow and receive a $10 refund. I offered to despatch the chook if so and the owner could take it home for the pot.

This seemed to reassure people. I've taken the ad down now but am still receiving queries of "when are you breeding more?" so that's a good sign for next year.

All in all a satisfying enterprise.

Note: a huge thanks to Teun, Annamiranda, Leaha and Briony for helping look after them during the various extreme weather events we've experienced these past months.

Dennis' birthday and a cyclone

On the weekend John and I went to visit our dear friends Dennis and Amanda in Beachmere (which was just recovering from bushfires) to celebrate Dennis' birthday. But instead of extended family and a barbecue lunch, Dennis and Amanda got a visit from ex tropical cyclone Oswald, as king tide and flood waters causing a sea surge came over the sea wall and flooded the town. Good Beachmere residents came and helped each other but the damage would have been extensive.

So Dennis' birthday lunch was just us awesome foursome with quite wet feet ... and even John and I had to leave early so as not to be caught by more flooding. But we had a lovely time with Dennis and Amanda, and we agree that Beachmere is a *really* exciting place to visit!

Rain and wind lash the coast and the tide comes in. It was hard to stand up here.

A quiet place to meditate and watch the ocean?

The sea water floods the town. Nothing to be done, Mother Nature's in charge here ...

I made a short video as the water came in over the sea wall, probably to the detriment of my good camera...

 

Dennis helped neighbours and friends and meanwhile, the resilient and resourceful Amanda drummed up a  lovely lunch after all ...

Calm during the storm ...

Thank you Dennis and Amanda for a lovely weekend!


After a rather difficult trip with torrential rain and much wind, we made it home safely, just before more cyclonic winds hit our farm. More updates on that to follow.

Good old fashioned fun: happy kids

Going back a few weeks now, but here's a lovely short clip of Esmée using the rope swing to join Yarrow in the river. The kids built this swing themselves when we were camping at the Clarence River down at Alice Flats. They spent most of the days in and out of the water ... Well, who wouldn't?

I love the wink and the thumbs up ... and that confident little wiggle, yes ... :-) :-) :-)

Rascal goes to the Clunes store and café

Today John and I went for a ride, and took Rascal for the first time right through the main street of Clunes to the shop and café. Busy traffic: cars, trucks, kids on bikes, flapping plastic bags, barking dogs: he just took it all in his unflustered stride. I'm so proud of him and so very happy with the excellent training that Carla Stanford gave him.

At the café they offered Rascal a coffee, which he politely declined...  but he did get a couple of juicy big carrots which he shared with his good friend Gandhi (who was a very good boy too). They also posed for some photos. Karen the shop owner took some photos too and when I get a copy I'll put them up as well.

The boys give each other a nuzzle

Bring on the carrots!!

Sister

My loved sister Anoush (Ana-mir, Anna, Auntie Anana ... a rose by any other...) is visiting from Melbourne on a rare and welcome long visit. Today we took a wee break from family stuff and Anoush went for a ride on the good cob, Emu, who is now owned by Hans. She has overcome a good many health problems to get back in the saddle and as you can see, has done so admirably! Our dear old dog Chicco ambled along (though she kind of went adrift every now and then ... but hey, at 13 she is fairly ancient).

Emu's got his ears forward and was obviously enjoying the ride with Anoush. 

The adventures of Nick and Esmée

My niece and nephew, Esmée and Nick (my brother's two eldest from the Netherlands), have spent the last three weeks here enjoying the Australian summer. Here are some of the many many photos (click to enlarge).

Arrival at Brisbane airport after a tiring 24 hour flight, but they're still smiling!

Both Esmée and Nick spent time learning to ride / improving their riding skills. Es rode our young Arab/Brumby cross, Rascal, and Nick rode the trusty bay horse, Emu.

Nick and Esmée both had a driving lesson in the Subaru ... Good fun on Peter J's 60 acre river flats!

Esmée celebrated her 15th birthday with elegance and fun ...

Home-made flower necklace courtesy of Ongel (Oma)'s pink frangipani

All the cousins did a fair bit of hanging out: John's daughters Briony and Bella, Bella's fiancée Tim, John's nephew Rian and his fiancée Nadine, Tess and Yarrow ... here they are all hanging out at Claudia's place.

Of course we went to play at Killen falls. Nothing quite like standing under a waterfall and letting the water cascade down your back on a hot summer's day ...

New Yea: a bonfire and dancing at the Grange. Here are Esmée and Yarrow ringing in the new year ...

Nick spending some quiet time gaming on the computer, supported by Inkling who was obviously mesmerised by the cyber entertainment ...

A highlight: Camping at the Clarence River (Alice Flats). Sleeping in tents, cooking on the campfire, swimming and canoeing in the river, body surfing down the rapids, afternoon massages ...

Crocodile Nick approaches Yarrow who had been reading in the Canadian canoe

Cousins reading and chatting

Just hanging around the campfire

Nick receives a massage from Auntie Anana

Nick giving Yarrow a massage

Home again, and time to relax in the bath and soak all the camping dust off!

Esmée reading in "a bath with a view" ...

We spent a day at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary where there are not only marsupials and monotremes, but monkeys in the trees ...

Nick going down the longest flying fox, 18 metres above the ground

Tess negotiating the high stirrups. I found them really hard to do!

Esmée with a friendly kangaroo

Auntie Anana and Esmée chilling out in the shade with the roos

Who says wombats can't do yoga?

Esmée in the terrifying grips of a large python ...