I think I’ve told you all many time, how much I love where I grew up in South Australia. Now I understand, people who live in ‘greener areas’ might get a bit freaked out when they see the country up here, but it is really special. Yeah, there are lots of stones, prickly bushes and…
The farm is well and truly looking like it’s summer, even though we’re only in mid-October! Some paddocks have a gold/white tinge across the tops of the plants, indicating it’s done its time. Saturday was a warm 35 degrees, so the crops won’t take long to turn, ripen and harvest will be started before we…
Fires can be frightening. They’re unpredictable, one moment moving slowly, the next whipping across a paddock, fuelled by strong winds and dry grass or stubbles. However, this is the time of year that we chose to burn. Chilly mornings and nights, gives us a chance to do what we call a ‘slow burn or…
I’m really pleased to have Bush Babe from Oz blogging with me today. She’s a Rainbow. She’s an awesome gal, photographer, worker and mum. We met through the Australia (or rather world)-shrinking device of Twitter; I was drawn to her beautiful photography and she was drawn by my… Well actually I’m not sure. I don’t…
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a start to the thunderstorm season like the one we’ve had this year! If you go back to a previous couple of blogs, you’ll read that we have had about 40mm over the last week or so. Well you can make that about 50mm now! The sheep always camp…
I’ve written before about the depth of my South Australian roots. They are especially entrenched on the station that has been in my family since the 1800s. It’s hard to describe how much the landscape is burned into my soul: the old ruins, the creeks that criss-cross the land, the ‘casha’ or Acacia trees that…
I’m continually amazed at what I see in the sea, on the beaches or in National Parks, around Esperance. I guess coming from the mid-north of South Australia, I was pretty used to seeing Kangaroos, Emus and the odd King Brown snake, but we never saw anything different or exciting! Yesterday, at one of the…
Well, it’s not “Raining on the Rock” (John Williamson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IcgPdppG_k ) but we’ve been walking on the rock! On a cooler day, we thought it was safe enough to go for a bit of an explore. The hill is basically made from granite, with crevices of soil that allow native pines, and all sorts of…
I’m guessing that many of you think that living on a farm is peaceful. Quiet. Well let me tell you otherwise! It was a gorgeous morning. We’d had a heavy shower the night before, which had netted us 8mm, so we were smiling! The trees and grass were weighted down with rain and everything was…
It’s been such a busy time for us recently, with seeding, sheep work and all sorts of other things on the go! It will be like this until after Christmas now with hay making, shearing and later, harvest. We’ve been lucky enough to have good rains and everything seems to be on track for a good…
Every Sunday morning, on ABC radio, Macca has a segment called, ‘Why I live where I live.’ Well I think I’ve talked about this last few blogs, so I’m just going to show you some photos of last evening. There was a partial eclipse then – Saturday the 27th June – which we watched over…
I hear rainbows have magic powers! Well, here’s hoping it can fix my garden! This was our view as I took the kids to the school bus last week. A rainbow ends on my farm… that’s got to be good. After all, they’re supposed to have a pot of gold at the end, aren’t they? I…
The boss mans’ fishing adventures have been non-existent lately! Between my high-flying (and rather unusual) absences, the rainy weather (not that we’re complaining!) and getting to the busy time of year, it’s been rather difficult to make it to the beach. However, last weekend we all made it down there. A fire, full moon and toasted…
While I was shifting sheep yesterday afternoon, I had to marvel at how quickly the country has responded to the rain. The feed has shot out of the ground, which is lovely because the stock really needed an injection of green feed and all the vitamins that it holds. It was still raining as the…
Rain just seems to bring the whole countryside alive – animals and humans alike – and the 27mm we had over the weekend has done just that. The menfolk are smiling and you can hear the roar of tractors, sowing the crops or spraying the paddocks, when you walk outside. At night the landscape is dotted with…
Check out this sunrise! I was up early a few weeks ago – it was before the rain we had over this past weekend and things were dry and stark. The morning air, around this time of the year, should be damp and cool, but not this morning! This was a sunrise from the middle of…
Today there is a catastrophic fire danger for the South coast of WA. It’s gonna be a stinker of a day and we’re just about to have another meeting to see if the Bushfire Brigade are going to issue a Movement of Vehicles in paddocks ban. There’s a smoke haze from a fire to the…
One of the things I love about Australian’s is we love dressing up! Whether it’s for the cricket, the tennis, Australia Day, we throw throw ourselves into the celebrations! I think the sky dressed up for Australia Day too!
Now if I had seen this sign first, I may not have gone exploring through the ruins! Well, perhaps not! Anyone would realise that this is the sort of place that snake would love to hang out, but I did think it was nice of the National Heritage Trust to warn us and perhaps take any…
