Happy Birthday!

To  Viewfield Total Eclipse today!  From a cute wee tiny foal.......

To a weanling with feet a big as soup plates!

A goofy teen...........

To the big solid gentle monster he is today!

Happy Birthday Big Fella!

Always Time for a Fire....

These were taken AFTER we had moved the piano last weekend.! 4pm..... Big day......had had enough.......let's make some smoke! Good idea!
So off we went, armed with wine ,beer , goats..............

and wee small dog in a bag. (Old Treeka just sits in the garden and watches us now!)

We headed across to Maxie's yard and let him out to be with his big mate We then spent some time raking up old twigs and branches in his paddock from a dead Blackwood Tree that Geoff had cut a while back. ....and burnt them!

Beautiful evening........beautiful light..........

Lilli finally climbed out of her bag once the fire was well and truly up and running! Farm dog really just isn't her thing!

Clips patiently waited for us to take him back in for his dinner.............

The goats played.............

And we sat down and relaxed!

Then to top off our evening....a perfect bath........

In our beautiful bathroom! A lovely day indeed.

The Piano!

Well ,we bought a piano!! As you do! As you DO when you see one advertised for $50! Geoff has often talked about wanting one and learning to play. We even seriously toyed with the idea of getting one a few months ago. We let it go though in the end as we thought $700 was a bit too much money to pay for something that might be just a passing fad or once we HAD it, Geoff discovered that he wasn't really interested after all!
Soooooooooooooo when the $50 option popped up we grabbed it!! It was only in Huonville so was a 15 minute drive to collect it....... That's when it gets complicated! The man who owned it had a steep drive. A VERY steep dirt track drive! It had transpired when Geoff went to view  it initially, that the very nice owner would deliver it for us (for $30 , so yes l guess the piano cost us $80!) on the back of his ute. Our two wheel drive one would have had great difficulty getting up there ,let alone coming back down with a piano on the back! !  So Mark met us at the bottom of his drive, took us up to the house and within minutes we had loaded this lovely old piano onto the back of his ute!

He was terribly organised and had a block and tackle rigged up so the old girl floated up into the air (without bringing down the roof of his shed!!!)

And gently landed on the back of the ute underneath,

If only it was going to be THAT easy the other end!!

So back down the drive we went. Geoff stayed in the ute and l followed behind with our car.

Once we got back to our place we slid the piano onto our ute so Mark could go home (as his job was done) and leave the fun bit to us!! WE don't have a block and tackle so WE were going to take a lot longer to get it off!!

For some bizarre reason my camera flicked to black and white for these next few photos but l must say l am glad it did as l absolutely love them!!! This looks like something out of the 1930's!!

A quick play!

And the fun began! (and colour returned!!)

Being experts at getting heavy stuff off utes (using manual labour) we quickly installed a hay bale ramp (with extras on the sides just in case it toppled over!) The wood heater was small fry compared to this! This thing weighed a LOT!!

Luckily its wheels were rusted and not very good so it was relatively easy getting it off the back. With pulleys and a bit of shunting and grunting  to keep it on the tracks we got it down without drama!

Phew!!

Then it was just a matter of push, pull, push, pull inches at a time!! Luckily we had these boards which made it a lot easier to slide it over the ground.

A quick pit stop, wine, beer and a play in the dying afternoon Sun on the lawn. l knew that piano stool would be useful one day!

Then we had the step to contend with. We were DREADING the step. l think we would have needed three more men to push the thing physically uphill!! l had no IDEA how we were going to manage!

As THE STEP got nearer and nearer, we had a rethink on trying to get it through our exceptionally narrow back door (with NO step!) l had already measured it and said the piano was wider but Geoff (who measures better than me!!!!) checked again in sheer hope and desperation, and discovered it would fit! .................JUST!!

And oh boy JUST was literally JUST!!!!!!! We couldn't have fitted a hair either side it was that close! Thank goodness! Plain sailing all the way from there on AND the wheels loosened up with a bit of good old WD40 and we fairly scooted across the kitchen tiles....................

Into the Dining Room....where it still is.........we totally had had enough of massively heavy piano moving...................it's sort of in the way........sort of in the middle of the room..

It WILL go in here....................soon...................l hope! But for now we have a piano in the middle of our Dining Room...............!

Great stuff! Now we just have to learn how to play it!

 

 

Down by the River

One of my favourite places here is down by the Rivulet. It's wild, overgrown and we don't get down there nearly enough but slowly over the years we are clearing and organising it a little bit more. l have decided to build a bit of a Sculpture Trail! For fun! Just a designated track with some fun quirky things nestled in here and there! A Tree Door was an easy first thing made by some old salvaged palings.

And a sign!...........Ok..........so it is meant to mean one mile but yes...it looks like one metre! l will change it.......!!

Not sure how long the sign post will last as it is in Clips' paddock! l think he might find it a rather good scratching post!

And the start of what is going to be a very arduous to build....... long path!!! The rocks are around. Just sometimes a long way away from where l want the path! Ahhh well.....Rome wasn't built in a  day!!!!

With all the green moss it reminds me of an old ancient ruin!

l love it!

And the bike is going up into a tree over the Rivulet............l  just have to get a ladder down there!

More to come..............stay tuned...this is going to be fun!!

Duck V Duck

Every now and then these little critters end up in the garden. I  don't mind too much. They swallow a few slugs, prune a few tips off and thoroughly enjoying rootling around in the flower beds and on the lawn.

THIS time however they somehow made it up onto the veranda and met..................The Tin Duck!!!

The girls didn't seem to mind him too much  (maybe they thought he was rather fine!) and soon hopped off back into the beds to greener pastures............but the Drake wasn't quite too sure............!!!

There WAS  a bit of a standoff.............

Some close eye ball to eye ball type stuff...................

Real close...............

And a few walk bys.................

Until he truly felt all was safe and he was still indeed King Of The Roost!!

Well defended Roger The Penguin!!