PRE- ORDER Fleur's newest novel 'Into the Night'
Have you ever read For better, for worse and for lunch by Christina Hindhaugh? It is the most hysterical book, based on a city dweller who marries a farmer and her experiences as she adjusts to farm life. Christina has a character in there named Aunt Grace, or more aptly, Amazing Grace! Aunt Grace mentions…
I’ve got about five lavender plants in a row at the front door of my house. You have to walk past them to get inside. I love walking past them, brushing my hand over their foliage and having the smell on my hands for hours afterwards. Lavender and their scent are one of my favourite…
Radio announcers often talk about how wonderful it is to have beautiful warm weather for weekends, not realising that farmers often need rain. However, the warm sunny weekend, that was sent to us recently, was a welcome relief from the cold, grey days that we’ve been experiencing! As you can see by the clear picture…
If you’re anywhere around the South Coast of WA, I’d love it if you could put the 6th of August in your diaries! The SEPWA group is a farmer initiated organisation, started to represent the wheat growers on the South Coast. Since it’s conception in 1993, it had grown tremendously, their activities including lobbying, field…
School holidays is a great time for us to do the things that we just don’t seem to have time to do during the term… and some special things. The kids have been wanting to make damper for ages after hearing us talk about the way the old stockies used to, while they were out…
Well, we got our wish! Holiday time arrived and two days in, we went fishing! I was standing up on top of the sand dunes to take this photo of Anthony and Rochelle getting set up to catch ‘the big one’. I think, by the looks, Anthony is giving instructions! We had a lovely big…
Anthony went fishing at Thomas River the other night. Being a school night the kids and I stayed home, but with holidays coming up we’re hoping to spend a few nights fishing with Dad! It was worth the Boss’s while going to throw a line in the water as he came home with this six…
Dad was up pre-dawn to fly north for a couple of days, which meant he had to drag Mum out of bed. (There are no lights on the bush airstrip, so mum sits down the end of the strip with the car lights on, so Dad could see the end of the runway and be airborne in…
This guy is taking level readings to find the best spot for the new dam to take advantage of the natural fall in the land and maximise water collection. This thing that Graham is peering through, is like a pair of really strong binoculars. What you can’t see is Anthony, way out in the paddock,…
Well, the barley’s up! Its had a lovely couple of drinks from the rain we’ve had over the past week, the insects have been sprayed out, we can’t see any weeds … so this crop has had a good start. Now, it’s got a fair bit more growing to do over the next five months.…
Our ewes lamb from April through until early August. It gives us a range of ages and therefore we’re able to send lambs off at different times of the year. It spreads the risk and cash-flow! Lambing during winter can have its downfalls ifs a particularly strong cold front come through and there are lots…
See that red spot? Its my daughter off walking Rocket. I dropped her at the front of this paddock to walk up through the middle. It gives both her and Rocket time to explore, check out the insects that are about, or talk to the animals. The cows are checking out what they’re both up…
This is a huge piece of machinery isn’t it?! It’s a D9 bulldozer and it’s about to dig a great big dam for us. Last year was a terrible year, east of Esperance, season wise. We hadn’t had run off rain for nearly 18 months (that’s rain that will put water into the dams) and…
Some days its hard to describe the landscape’s beauty. This photo doesn’t look anything special, but the atmosphere during this day, was. The day was warm with little breeze blowing. The grey clouds were beginning to roll over, bringing with them the hope of rain. A neighbour was burning somewhere – bush smoke (at this…
We have a lot of Ibis around our two farms. They love getting in around the dams and putting that long, sharp beak to work, hunting out bugs! They come in together in huge flocks (I assume they’re called flocks and not mobs or ‘a murder’ (as in crows). They are so graceful and hang…
Check out this cheeky little fella! I fed some hay out for the bulls who live in this paddock, but they were busy sunning themselves way down the other end and obviously didn’t hear the tractor with the wind that was blowing. The sheep took full advantage of not having to muscle their way in…
There’s always something to do on a farm and we’ve been picking rocks recently. This paddock is going to be seeded to oats, when we get our opening rains. As you can see, it’s pretty dry here at the moment but we’re hoping for rain so we can get this crop and make our hay.…
These Black Cockies arrive suddenly and leave just as quickly! One day the pine trees are quiet, the cattle are grazing without a care in the world… and then suddenly… “SQUARK, squark, squark’! They’ve arrived. I’m sure these attention seekers have got no idea how loud their call is and how frightening it is for…
Victoria Brown is a bush poet and a fantastic one at that! She’s a farmer’s wife who’s skill has extended beyond the front gate of the farm. Her talents have included Speaker of the Year for the CWA, to being a regular guest of the ABC radio and releasing her own CD of poems last…
What a magic view to wake up to! The fogs are indicating a really wet August as we’ve had mists every morning for the last two weeks, or maybe longer … time gets away from me! We can only hope this will be the case, since there hasn’t been any opening rains yet and August…
I seem to be climbing a lot of hills these school holidays! At least this one isn’t as high or as steep as Mount Raggard! This is Mount Howick, the hill I live under… or at the bottom of! The kids and I headed off early one morning, climbed to the top and had a…