In Canberra!

So now that we're in Canberra, I've sourced some technical support from Martin and now with another browser on the laptop I can put photos up!!

Now there will be a random selection of photos for you to look at while I get back up to date :)

This one was taken while still at Killawarra, I'm loving the sunset setting on the camera.

Phone service was pretty hit and miss at Killawarra so Bun thought this was the easiest way to hopefully complete a phone call to Kate :)

We spent a couple of hours down at the yards one evening watching them sort cattle to keep as breeders.

As I said, loving that sunset setting!

This is the guy who crept up behind my chair while I was reading one afternoon and then quietly slipped away under the shipping container behind the van.

Bun driving the header into Moonie the day we got to the property.

Bun and James, an Irish guy that worked with us for a little while.

Taken at Tottenham, supposedly the centre of NSW.

The truck clicked over it's first 10,000kms but not before...

a bloody rock got the windscreen!! What a bugger! I said afterwards that it's a good job that the UHF doesn't transmit unless you hold the button down because I cursed the other truck pretty well :)

Anyway that's a few to look at.  We went to Bateman's Bay with Ben on Monday and the guys surfed and I tried to get photos of them. On Tuesday we had a day around the area with Ben, Bun test-rode a motorbike from a really great shop but is still undecided about what to get and then we went Christmas shopping with Ben and got him a GoPro camera that he can use surfing, bike riding, wakeboarding, snowboarding, etc. He is a happy boy!

Bun and I are planning to borrow Ben's bike and helmet and go for a ride this morning.  Callie and Steven arrive tomorrow afternoon.  We had tea with Martin and Belinda last night but will be catching up with the rest of the family on Sunday.

That's us up-to-date!

Back in Victoria!

We went back to Moonie on Thursday last week to help move machinery back to Victoria.  Having left Moonie on Friday morning, we only got just south of Boggabilla that night as the machinery has to be inspected before crossing the border into NSW. Apparently there are weeds in QLD that are definitely not welcome interstate! 
Saturday saw us in Moree first and after a 'slightly' wrong turn, Jack in a header with comb trailer behind and Bun in the tractor towing the chaser bin went down the main street of Moree! Think Saturday morning in town, everyone stopping to point and look!  Bun said that a car coming towards him had the driver with his arm out the window, he suddenly pulled his arm back in when he saw the width of the chaser bin tyres heading for him!!!  Also being NSW, cars reverse into the curbs so drivers were reversing in front of the huge machines!  We had a huge laugh afterwards because they didn't do any damage but Bun admitted it was a close thing :)

We spent the night by the road in Coonamble before going to Condobolin, having a day off there on Monday. It was nice to have a break from driving, especially for Bun as the chaser bin rocks the tractor and he ends up feeling like he's been on a boat all day.  Tuesday took us to Hay with delays along the way when a front tyre on the tractor went flat and needed patching and a tube put in.  Later in the day a front tyre on the header went as well. Wednesday morning was a late start as the header tyre took some fixing and we didn't leave Hay until lunchtime.

The RTA were everywhere around Hay and a header was stopped for inspection, taking about an hour.  Bun was told via phone to get going and hopefully miss out on the RTA but shortly after I heard on the UHF that 'a Farmer Brown in a chaser bin was stopped by RTA'  I had a little laugh because I was pretty sure I knew who that was!
After all the delays we got through Balranald and crossed the river at Tooleybuc and dropped the header and chaser bin off at a property and went back to Spud and Bev's place at Lake Charm.

Having spent the night here, we are filling up water tanks and Bun is currently washing the van and the truck while I type :)

We have a loose plan of wandering along the river on the NSW side over the next couple of days so that we get into Canberra on Sunday.  I happened to see that there is a Quilt event on in Braidwood over the weekend so I'll have to see if I can scheme my way there.  It's about 80kms east of Canberra so I think that's kind of 'do-able' :)

I'm still having trouble loading photos so when we're in Canberra, I'll get Ben to give me some help and then hopefully the blog will be 'photo-heavy' in the future.

Having done this stint working in with other people's schedules, it will be nice to have the next couple of months just suiting ourselves.

Cheers
Anne

We left Killawarra today, the property that we've been staying on for the last 4 weeks.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time there and the farming family are just lovely people.
Mike and Mim, the older couple, have the most gorgeous garden and Bun put his electric snips to good use in such a fantastic setting.  I emailed some photos of the house and garden to Kate and now she wants to go house-sit there!
Andrew and Jaime, along with their 3 daughters, make up the younger generation and we spent quite a bit of time with them. They actually said to stay as long as we liked! Bun got to do a few jobs around the place with Andrew and I really enjoyed the babysitting! We would happily go back to see them all again :)

Today we went through Cecil Plains and stopped for lunch. We had a quick look at the free camp site beside the Condamine River but decided to head to Milmerran. We turned off before Milmerran to look at a campsite by the Yarramalong Weir. We are set up there tonight and will head into town tomorrow to grocery shop, boring but necessary.

We plan to stay in the general area for the next few days as the contractors have too many vehicles for the number of drivers needed to move to the next property.  This way we'll head back towards Moonie if they need an extra driver. We're not really sure yet whether we'll be needed or even where they'll be headed.  However we will head off on our own after that.

We plan to be in Canberra by 30th November as Callie and Steven are flying over to catch up with Ben before he heads overseas next month.  We will get to see them all then and also hopefully catch up with Martin and family too.

Callie had great news tonight that she has a job to start in January back in Berri.  She will be working for a signwriting business, learning everything about the business and really adding to her skills.  She will move back in at Winkie so the house will be looked after :)  Steven has started at the mines so he is getting used to being away for 2 weeks and back for 1 week.  Callie will probably move back as soon as she can break the lease in Mildura. She is really excited about the job and I think she will enjoy being able to use the boat occasionally too.

Only bad news is that Callie took Boof to the vet today and it sounds like he has developed arthritis in his back legs.  Callie has diet food for him and some natural treatment stuff for the arthritis so we'll see how he goes with that for a while.

I've spent a bit of time stitching and feel like I've achieved a bit.  I've almost completed a quilt for Kerry's grandson so hopefully I'll get that posted off this week.

Bun has been relaxing and reading in between chores/jobs and told Josh that 'I've been doing not very much and I've found that I'm quite good at it too!'