Autumn Colours and Happy Kids!

Today was warm! Warm enough for the goats and sheep to fight for who got the best spot in the shade!

The colours around us at the moment are just stunning. The Willows are going yellow, the Wattles behind are bluey grey and the gums behind them are the true eucalyptus green. Throw in the darker splash of the Blackwoods to their right and it adds up to an amazing work of nature's art in front of our eyes every day.

The Toze kids are having  a ball! Little Nick here is now renamed 'Farmer Nick' and every opportunity he is under the trees, patting the sheep and goats and talking to the cows. They seem to listen to him too!

Hetty just LOVES Lilli. It's a rare moment when poor Lil isn't being carted around in her arms! Amazingly she doesn't seem to mind much at all!

As it was a warm night we lit a (small!) bonfire in the paddock and roasted marshmallows in the coals.

Great memories for kids!

And us oldies too!

Visitors!

This week we have visitors down from Canberra down for a few days. Geoff's cousin and his lovely family! Down in Tassie as one of the daughters has represented her State at the Netball Championships this year held in Launceston. A very busy full on week up there and then down here to the South for a quick visit and a bit of sight seeing. Port  Arthur and the Cadbury Factory high on the Agenda!

We shifted a bit of furniture around in anticipation of seven of us being here instead of two! It seems to work very well and l think we might keep it this way! Especially now the wood heater is in the living area we probably wont be using the other heater in the fireplace so much anymore.

 A small round table in the corner instead of the big one.

 This has become the dining room which we quite like!

Hard to believe but there are in fact TWO very tired kids asleep in this chair!!

Nick with two new found friends! Archie and Henry staying with us while Mum and Dad go to  Sydney for a few days.

Moving Day again!

Tonight just on dusk we shifted the animals back into the Hay Paddock. Blast this end of Daylight Savings!!! Now when l get home l am lucky to get half an hour of light before its too dark to see! By mid winter l shall be leaving work in the pitch black. How am l going to cope not walking with the goats every day??? l see myself heading out with a torch ...maybe!!!...............Anyway, Sheep Nut did his job magnificently and its always humorous to watch 12 sheep and three cows FLYING  down the hill to the gate bucking twisting and frisking in eager anticipation of a morsel of food!

By the time they got to the driveway they were having a ball and l had to sidestep out of the way in fear of being run over by a very fat frisky calf!!! Shifting into  a new padock seems to be an exciting event for them!

Just checking it out before she headed in!

Then there was just enough time for a quick contemplative moment before the sun disappeared behind the trees. Treek the real sheep dog sits there wondering what all the fuss is about!

Poor Geoff!

Today Geoff finally did the job he had been putting off and dreading for months!! The room we are going to turn into the library has rather dippy floors! Even though the surrounds were sitting on solid stone foundations the middle of the floor wooped and dooped as you walked in. It needed jacking up to stabilise it. Today was the day!!! We pulled the rocks out to create a hole big enough to climb into!!! Yikes!! Geoff is quite claustrophobic and wasn't looking forward to it. l DID gamely offer to go in as well or instead of but (luckily!!!) he said no!

 It was clean and dry but sort of cave like..... and lots of cobwebs! Ughh!

Interesting to see way the house was constructed 100 years ago!

 So in he went!!!!

All the way in!

Very claustrophobic (apparently!!!!) and not much room to move around with jacks,hammers, bricks and chunks of wood! l did sort of 'useful' stuff like passed things through the hole, shone the torch and cut the wood to the right lengths!

Out he came finally.......... very very dusty!

This photo makes me think me of a coal Miner just climbing out of the ground!!

It still needs a bit of work but at the moment its a lot better then it was! Well done Geoff!

Proud of my big Sister!

Today my sister Carrie shaved her head (or HAD her head shaved ) in support of the leukaemia foundations  The Worlds Greatest Shave 2012.One of the Mums at the army camp where Carrie lives has a little girl Elizabeth who was diagnosed with leukaemia late last year. Sandra and Carrie agreed to shave their heads if they could raise $3000. Well they raised over $12,000 which is an incredible effort and today the hair came off! Here she is before and after and l think its amazing and brave and l am very proud of her and also for helping Sandra and Elizabeth and working so hard to organise all the events and fund raisers to get to where they got to today.
Before!

After!

And we lit the Wood Heater! Its a warmish night here in Tassie but it needs three small burns to cure the paint. It stinks a bit as the paint sets but a couple more little fires then we will be hanging out for a cold night!

Last Day of Fab Hols!

As Autumn arrives so do the beautiful misty mornings. Everywhere was a photographers delight this morning with the mist weaving through the trees. The Cracked Willows are turning yellow and everywhere is getting that golden glow!

Geoff spent most of the day away helping Dad and gathering supplies (gutters etc!)  l shovelled untold amount of barrow loads of sheep and cow poo and years of compressed dirt from under the Macracarpa Pines to our new flower beds. l reckon you could sweep under the trees now with a broom and not get a skerrick of dirt!

The huge flower bed is now finally full ,so we just need to let it bed down a bit over Winter then fill it with flowers and plants galore!

Our new heater!!! How gorgeous is that??

Its going to heat up the house.....a lot.....so the installer said!!!! We can't wait! We couldn't light it tonight as we had to wait for the silicone to cure. Luckily it isn't a cold one!

This was Dusty. He belonged to Paul who put the heater in. He was a lovely 7 month old Kelpie Collie cross. He spent the day outside on the lawn watching the chooks and being very well behaved!

l also spent a bit of time pruning back two huge old rambling bushes that obscure our view from the bedroom window. A little bit more of the house can now peek out! This Winter when the tree is dormant we will prune back (almost to death!!) the huge Pom Pom Tree at the front. Hopefully it will grow back and we DON'T kill it but we really do want to open up the front of the house a little bit more.

After that there was really only time for a quick wander up the back and then dinner!

Back to work tomorrow but Geoff still has three days off. Its been a great holiday albeit a very hard working one!

Still going!

Bit of a slower start this morning due to the rather late night Geoff and l had the night before!!

Up and at it though and today we separated and headed off doing different things! Geoff went up to the goat shed and extended the overhang out the back that gets all the weather and l started digging post holes!

Where we hang the washing is where the geese live. That's all well and good but geese poop......a lot......... There's no joy in going outside with an armful of washing and having to side step around duck and goose poo all the time! We decided to make a simple barrier to prevent them from getting into that area completly.

Of course, jobs always take longer then what you think so by the time l had dug the holes, Geoff had finished the overhang and we had some lunch, the day was fast disappearing! Before we knew it it was 2pm and l thought it would have been about 12.30!Finished it all by 5pm although it still needs a gate at the end. The geese and ducks were incredibly inquisitive and hung around and watched us all day. When it was finished they checked it all out and nibbled at everything! It's not the most beautiful structure but it will be much nicer to go out there in bare feet if l want to!!

l could also take off the gate that goes into the orchard which will be so much easier as we can now head out with the laundry basket without having to open a gate whilst laden down with wet washing! Woohoo! l gave the girls and boys one last chance to sneak up to the gate to have a final look before they get banished from there forever!

Geoff then shot off and did an hours brush cutting while l cleaned up, put it all away and fed the animals. We then headed off to the Hay Paddock to make a start before it gets too wet on clearing back some of the Cracked Willow that's overhanging the boundary fence.Cracked Willow is a beautiful tree but an absolute weed and very destructive. It is all leaning on the fences to point of breaking , so if we can make a start clearing the fence line it will be good thing.

It was so funny, when Geoff started the chainsaw poor little Lizzie and Tinks took off in fright like little bats out of hell and stood in the middle of the paddock wondering what on earth was going on!

Toggles however didn't bat an eye! Not even a whisker! l actually got quite concerned as she had no qualms at all about ambling over to where Geoff was cutting and l was terrified she was going to get squashed by a falling tree!!!

It was either that or she kept hopping in the Ute! Even when Geoff got in and revved the engine...nah............!!

The  Hay Paddock is the only area l get a slight twinge of concern about Lilli being prime eagle fodder! She sits right slap bang in the middle on the ever alert for a wallaby maybe popping its head out somewhere so she can chase it. l finally ended up putting her in the Ute as l got sick of having to look up in the sky every two minutes to make sure she wasn't being sized up from above for a quick snack!!

We loaded up the Ute just on dusk with all the cuttings of the limbs and took them up to the sheep and cows. What a treat! They LOVE Willow!

Got home just to see the most beautiful sunset over the house. Both weary and hungry, oh and no heater!!! Tomorrow now apparently! My last day off before l have to go back to work!! Waaaaaa!