So it hasn't taken me quite so long to update this time haha

When I said last post that life takes twists and turns, it turned out to be true!  I didn't end up working at Lock due to health reasons and we decided to go to the coast and chill out for a few weeks. 

A stormy day at Tumby Bay

 We spent a week at Coffin Bay doing some paddling and I spent Melbourne Cup day during a quilt workshop in Pt Lincoln.

 After that, we went to Elliston and then on to Streaky Bay for a week.  

The weather was pretty ordinary with lots of wind and quite cool.  Although we did get a day there that was warm enough to try surfing.  There was a sea lion playing in the surf, he swam under Bun's legs and surfed on a wave with me!  He was actually about 20 metres away from me. I was so distracted by him that I got 'dumped' by the wave and came up spluttering but yelling to Bun about it!

This was taken at Elliston, we spent a few days there and it was probably the best weather we had!

We were at Pt Augusta when the supermoon was happening but I really need a bigger lens haha

After spending 5 days at Pt Broughton and then a few more at Coobowie so that we could really look around the Yorke Peninsula, it was time to head home, stopping off in Clare for the weekend and riding the Riesling Trial.  I've wanted to do that for years and finally it worked out.

We spent some of December in Adelaide, catching up with the kids and helping Callie and Steven with their garden.

We also got to have Kasiah and Kayah for a weekend and loved it!  We had been talking to them via FaceTime while we were away and Kasiah kept saying "You home now?? I come to your house??"  so it was lovely to finally say YES!

We've been lucky this year to have all three kids and partners and grandchildren here for Christmas!!  We fully appreciate it too as it doesn't happen often these days.

We went to the lake early on Christmas Eve with kayaks and paddle boards plus a little passenger!  He hasn't really got his sea legs yet but kept us entertained.

Josh's partner, Ashley, and her two girls Scarlett and Maddie joined us as well for Christmas so it was a full house here.

I had warned them all that I wanted a photo while everyone was home so Boxing Day was it.  I set up the tripod and the timer and ran backwards and forwards with three little girls helping....so it's a bit hit and miss but everyone was laughing so who cares!!

Ok I think that's enough of a catch up for now.

Cheers

Anne

Well it has been a long time coming......

Life has a way of taking twists and turns and sometimes things (like a blog) get put on the backburner for a while.  Mind you, I had no intention of it being quite this long between updates.

Back in February, we were at Boundary Bend in Victoria for the almond harvest.  Bun worked as a supervisor and I was operating a sweeping machine.  After a couple of weeks, I ended up finishing as I really   wasn't doing too well health wise.  I ended up at the doctors and tested positive for Ross River Virus, probably picked up while in WA at the end of 2015.  So I spent the next few weeks doing stuff-all while Bun worked!

We spent headed home for Easter and went to Adelaide on numerous occasions to see all the kids.

A couple of kookaburras were hanging around for a few days.

Mid-May saw us celebrating Josh's 30th birthday.  I have no idea how I ended up with kids that old hahaha

Kara and Kasiah did a fantastic job of decorating his cake!

We left for Killawarra in Qld, straight after Josh's birthday.  As always, we got a lovely welcome from all the family.  We stayed for 6 weeks all up, and got to enjoy Heidi's 4th birthday the day before we left.

We came home again at the end of June to spend more time with the family.  Sadly Josh and Kara have seperated, with Kara moving to Renmark with the girls and Josh staying in Adelaide.  Support from family and friends is invaluable when life changes.  We cherish time spent with all of them.

Kayah has just turned 1!!! That year flew past!

We spent the long weekend in October in Adelaide with the family and then a weekend at home with Kayah's birthday party and Josh and the girls at Winkie.

Ben is off again for work, this time it's a deployment.  He can't talk about work but reassured me that "It's nowhere dangerous Mum"!  That's enough for me :)  He should be home again late Nov/early Dec.

We are now in Lock on the Eyre Peninsula waiting for the grain harvest to begin.  I have a job doing the weighbridge/data entry and apparently going to be trained in classification too.  Bun reckons he was just too honest at his medical.  He had said that he got sore feet after standing all day (don't we all??) but it seems the doctor put down that he got sore feet after standing for an hour!!!!  What the??  So he didn't score a job!
Anyway he is now going to be the 'housebitch' as Sylvana calls it :)
No cooking, cleaning, washing, etc for me and he has the motorbike, stand-up paddle board, kayak and fishing gear to play with.   He was a bit miffed for a couple of days, wondering 'why don't they want me?' and then changing to thinking 'Yay, they don't want me!'

The other big news is that Callie and Steven are expecting a baby in April....we can't wait, everyone knows I love babies haha

We also celebrated Kate's 60th in September with nearly all the family, some were interstate or overseas.   Unfortunately I don't have any photos from the party.  I've had to get a new phone and it is not playing nicely with the laptop, I haven't been able to get any photos to download from the old phone so that will be a job for when we get home.

We expect to be home just in time for Christmas, if everything goes according to plan.  January will see us catching up with my side of the family on the long weekend for my nephew's wedding.  It will mean a trip to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, I'm looking forward to that as we haven't been there before.

I'm sure I've forgotten something but that's what happens when you leave things too long :)

It's been a while since I updated the blog.......about 3 months!!

Callie and Steven finally got to put the SOLD sign on their block of land in Valley View before Christmas and then last week the footings went in and hopefully the concrete goes down this week!!

We travelled home from Broome via the coast, spending 3 nights at Exmouth so that we could do so more snorkelling.  The weather was glorious and we warmed up on the beach between sessions.

We also stayed at Dongara for a couple of nights so that Bun could surf again. After looking at stand up paddle boards in Geraldton, Bun decided that he would try Ben's board and then make a decision about whether to get one himself.  Obviously he liked it haha because we now have one each....early Christmas presents :)

We had intended to catch up with Dot and Ray at Dalwallinu on our way through, but it was harvest time so the guys were working and Dot was in Perth for a couple of days.  It would have meant waiting for about 3 days and by that stage, we were very keen to get closer to home.

The photo below was taken on the jetty at Esperence on the way home.  The really bad fires started that morning and shut many roads in the area.  As we left the next morning, intending to head to Norseman and then back across the Nullabor, we had to backtrack west, north, east and then south to get to Norseman.  A  trip that would normally be 200kms took us 850kms!  So we managed to get to Cocklebiddy before stopping for the night.  We had thought about setting up the camper but opted for a motel room at the service station.  Thank goodness as it rained most of the night!!

So we got to spend a lot of time during December and January in Adelaide with the kids.  Ben got home from the UK in early December and is currently in Las Vegas for work....he's been working night shifts so that their work time corresponds with Australian time.  However he has had some time off on weekends and has seen the Grand Canyon, a David Copperfield performance and a Cirque de Soleil show so it's not been all work!  He's due back this coming weekend.

Josh and Kara are busy with their gorgeous family, it's been lovely to see how Kasiah and Kayah are growing and changing, we are loving the Nanny and Poppy time with them!  Kara was keen to make an outfit for the girls before Christmas so I was able to provide the sewing machine and some guidance and she did a great job!

I had a lovely day back at Winkie and indulged myself with making ruffles haha, so much fun to sew for little girls.

Ben came up with his board and  there were many trips to the lake over the week, Stevie got to have a short Winkie holiday so she enjoyed it too.

Bun tried out a vespa, thanks to Kym....don't think we'll be buying one though haha

I finally tried making nougat and it was delicious!!

We got to spend Christmas Eve with all the family at Josh and Kara's.  I took the tripod in hopes that we could get a good photo of everyone....I just kept setting the timer and this was the best.  We worked out that this was the first Christmas that we had together for 4 years so it was the best present!

After spending Christmas morning with Josh and Kara and the girls, we went to Winkie to Patty's for the rest of the day.  

There was some backyard cricket played and Bun decided that this was the spot for fielding.

Callie hitched a ride with Bun down in front of the Ski Club at Martin's Bend.

Stevie had a short ride with Bun before falling overboard and deciding to swim back haha

These are some of the photos Bun took at Deep Water Point.  I had trouble getting them off the camera but all good now.

He was pretty happy with the photo above as he reckoned he nearly got a "Stairway to the Moon"!!

The last photo is from the front of our van, looking towards the river at Boundary Bend in Victoria.  We arrived here on Sunday afternoon.  We did an on-farm training day at the almond property yesterday, it was bloody hot and we were standing around outside a lot of the time.  Bun is going to be supervising a group of people driving the V-sweepers, so that will keep him busy.  I will be driving a blower-sweeper.  It will take a little while to get used to I think, as it's all hand controls and no pedals :)

So now we sit and wait for the start date.  However, it means that we got to go paddling in the river this morning, had a swim at lunchtime and Bun went for a bike ride along the river this afternoon.  Tough times until the weekend I think ;) 

We'll probably go to Swan Hill on Friday or Saturday to do a food shop so that we're set for a while.  The caravan park here has a service station that does food too so we reckon we'll be right if we run out of food before we get a day off haha

We think it might be about 4 weeks of work but it will depend on the weather.

I think that's about it for now, hopefully it won't be quite as long before I update again.

Cheers

Anne