It’s time for itchy eyes, ears and throats. Time for burning diesel and driving tractors. Time for all hands on deck. We grow pasture hay, for our animals. In a year like this; as wet as it’s been, the pastures have gone ballistic! We’ve had clover/ryegrass pastures half way between our ankle and knee! Can’t…
Every so often an opportunity arrives, that you just can’t pass up, no matter the circumstances. Harvest and Hay making are extremely important in farming world. Hay means there is food for the stock during the dry times and harvest is the money making part of the year. This year, canola harvest and hay making…
Some of you may know that Rachael Treasure, Nicole Alexander and I were lucky enough to be on Landline last weekend. It was Pip Courtney’s report and we all thank her very much for her time in coming to visit it most of us. If you missed it, here it is! http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2013/s3822649.htm
I love winter. It’s my season. I love the way the wind bites at my cheeks and the sound of rain on a tin roof/window/shearing shed/ground. It’s like music to me. And rain it did last night! The deluge woke me at 12:15am and I was still listening to it drum steadily on the roof at…
It’s a bit chilly in our neck of the woods! Over the weekend, our temps dropped well below 15 degrees – in fact there was one time I looked at the weather station and I saw 13c. Winter is well on it’s way. Autumn is lambing and these girls below, have had their lambs, they’re…
A couple of mornings ago, staggering from broken sleep, bleary eyed, I emerged into the world of consciousness by a beautiful sunrise. For those of you who follow this blog, you’ll probably know I’m a bit keen on sunrises and sunsets and I’m often rushing off at the most inappropriate times (like when I…
Full moon time is always noisy at our place. The soft light allows the dogs to see a lot more than they usually would. Meita, still being so young and not doing a lot of work (therefore having much more energy than the older dogs) is the main culprit. Bark, bark, bark, all night! At…
It’s customary to start seeding canola around Anzac day. Well, we started ours the day before. And while most people were at a Dawn Service, this morning, I was out checking the heifers, waiting for a truck load of lambs to arrive, so they could be unloaded. Like many families in this country, I have…
I have found another love. Nope, I’m not running away from hubby or kids. Nor am I leaving the farm or the beautiful scenery. I’ve found INSTAGRAM! Yep, I realise I’m probably behind the eight-ball. In fact I’m sure I am, because I have a feeling I signed up to Instragram when it first came…
I often taken our Jack Russell with me when I’m out doing jobs on the farm. Especially if I’m feeding out hay. He’s loves watching the cows and calves and occasionally he is brave enough to sit up on the back seat and bark at them. (A bigger sooky la-la, you’ve never seen. This dog…
HAPPY EASTER, from the McDonald’s Farm! In my family, Easter is not only about chocolate easter eggs, hot cross buns and commercialism. It’s about Eternal Life and what happened so that we could have that gift. But the other thing which signals Easter is family. To have the whole family home, together, is now an…
Once in a while, sad things happen on farms. And once in a while weird things happen. This is a ‘both’ situation. Late last week we had a massive thunder storm which dropped about 40mm of rain over the farm. (It makes for over a 100mm since the start of March, so things…
As you might know, if you visit my Facebook page, we’ve been running a Photograph competition. There were so many photos and some I really loved. But I wasn’t allowed to vote, dammit! I don’t have anyone’s name, only their email addy, so I’ll use the first bit of it, to announce who the three…
In January, I was lucky enough to go on a three day holiday with my family. Just us, no one else. Now it’s the first time we’ve ever managed to that. Most times when we go away we’re heading to family and as much as we all like hanging out together with my family or…
Well, I’m finally back on this poor neglected blog! There has been a few reasons I haven’t been around lately – settling kids into high school and year 7, calving, helping out around the place where needed. And of course there’s been the last of the edits on Silver Clouds. So tell me, what…
I set a challenge on my Facebook page that if we could get 100 likes, I would post a paragraph of my next book Crimson Dawn. Well, talk about being overwhelmed with ‘likes’! At last count, we were nearly at 160! So, to make it worth your while, I’ve decided to post the whole first page.…
I’m sitting here this afternoon, knowing I should post a blog, as I haven’t for about a week, but wondering what the hell to write. As I look out my office window, there are a few chooks scratching on the front lawn and Law, the old red Kelpie, is snoozing in the sun. The cattle…
Well, I can finally say that SIlver clouds has gone to the printers. Phew, is all I have to say! It seems like it’s been a long process this time, but realistically it’s no longer than usual. My editors did things a bit different this time, which has been a learning curve, but I like…
When Red Dust was first published, back in 2009, eBooks weren’t a big thing. At that point, the publishing world was sitting on the edge of a cliff. Overseas had started to make noises about eBooks, which in turn needed a device to be able to read them on. The Kindle and many other types…
Gillo and Russell Woolf from our ABC radio in Perth had a brilliant segment on yesterday about diaries. They wanted to know if any of the listeners had ever kept one. I wish I could have posted it hear for you to listen, because it was so good. But there wasn’t a podcast made of it.…
Last night was our seventeenth wedding anniversary. Hard to believe that so much has happened within that time. Especially when the wedding seems like only yesterday. Two kids, two or three farm bought and sold and bought again. And as with most families, there are few people missing from our family now, who were there…
