Back to School with Heatwaves and Power Outages !

Well I returned to the same station as last year. 

The original plan was for us to finish in June and spend the last six months of the year traveling 

.... but as usual life has other plans for us !

You may have noticed I said, " I returned ..." and no it was not a mistake.

I returned, leaving George in Sydney to recover from hip surgery after a fall at home. It was no light hearted decision as it would not normally be in my character to do something like this on my own, especially as George and I have rarely been separated in 33 years of marriage, and especially for 9 weeks. But knowing how difficult it is for families to find Home Tutors and having only two weeks before we were due to return, return I did.

Below are photos of the schoolroom this year ! Quite a different look to last years. The girls have enjoyed decorating their own space.

The weather has been particularly hot this year with the temperatures consistently in the very high 30's to 40's for all of February. We've even had a couple of days above 50, with my temperature gauge glazing over at 55 degrees celsius one day. Hottest I have ever seen, though we did drive home through Queensland on a day where friends were reporting 50 degrees last December.

On one of these days we also had a 24 hour power outage while we waited for Ergon energy to find the problem somewhere along the lines. Late in the afternoon on the second day we heard and saw the Ergon helicopter flying in circular patterns still looking for the problem and believed we were in for a second night with no power. Luckily that did not occur.

With no power for phone or internet service, the girls could not attend on air lessons, and with no airconditioning what else was there left to do but take our lessons outside ! It was a matter of devising  interesting lessons for the four girls on the spot. I really do like these odd days where we are able to learn at our own enjoyable pace in a group together.

                                 

By Lynne

Christmas Holidays at Home !

Each year we return home the first week in December to spend time with our family.

We are fortunate enough to arrive home in time to attend numerous end of year school assemblies, pre-school concerts, dance concerts, sports finals, end of year open days and other Christmas functions with our family.

 As you could imagine with two grown up daughters, a son (-in law), and six grandchildren it is very busy !!

One tradition we have begun over the last few years is a night in the CBD in Sydney traipsing all over town to see the Christmas lights and light shows. We head past the David Jones windows, listen to the bottle music man, view the Martin Place Christmas tree, the QVB diamonte tree, Pitt St Mall lights and street musicians and finish with the St Mary's Cathedral light show.

We also love to head into the Domain Carol's rehearsal night, a habit we began when our youngest daughter sang at the Carol's each year with the Australian Girl's Choir.

Below: the QVB building in George St.

Below are more photos taken in the CBD of Sydney. As you can see it is well worth the trip. 

We always drive in and park at the Domain carpark for $10 from 5pm, which is a short walk from Hyde Park and St  Mary's Cathedral

Soon after Christmas each year for the last 20 years we've been heading down to the  Corrimal Beach Tourist Park for our family holidays. We are lucky to enjoy activities run by a Beach Mission team each year.

 Our last couple of weeks at home are spent preparing for the coming years work and catching up with friends. 

As you can see we have a very busy time when we head home !

By Lynne

An Ambulance Ride for George !

Well hello all, I hope you've all had a good start to the Year ! 

We have been very quiet again, I'm sorry, but for a very good reason. 🙁 

We returned from our holidays with family in January and a day later George had a fall from a ladder while putting our Christmas decorations back into storage in the roof. 

A few days later he had hip surgery for a femoral neck fracture and remained in hospital for 3 weeks for rehab. He has now had 6 weeks with no weight bearing until it was clear that the surgery went well. He has just this Thursday been given the go ahead for weight bearing and physio. We are hoping that in another 4 to 6 weeks he will have the all clear to leave Sydney. 

In the meantime, I returned to the station in Central Qld four weeks ago for work. It has been a huge step for me to return on my own. George and I have never been separated for more than a week or two, and that no more than a few times in 33 years. I also rely on him so much for support. 

While the school weeks are busy the weekends are quiet and slow, and having returned by plane I have no transport. Hence updates to the blog will be less as there is less to do.
(Ps roads were cut by flooding the same week we were due to return so maybe it was meant to be.)

We are hoping to be back on the road in April !

In the meantime, you may like to catch up on our weekly/daily news on our FB page that we began to trial at the end of last year. Due to the fact we work on outback properties, internet, data speed, bandwith and phone service are not reliable so we have had a lot of difficulty with the upload of photos to the blog. I love my blog and will continue with it, but for more regular smaller updates during the week our FB page will be used.

By Lynne

A Flight in the Muster Chopper !

A Flight in the The Muster Chopper !

I was fortunate enough to be taken up in the helicopter by the boss as a late birthday present to watch a muster. The chopper is a small 2 seater and is used to muster the cattle. Our boss, the pilot, organises the ringers who are on bikes on the ground from the air.

Now, this special event was a while coming because each time the boss tried to take me something stopped it from happening. The first time it was an unusual event... it rained overnight. The second time I told the boss I was too busy in the schoolroom. His very smart answer to this was to take me up the day after we arrived home from holidays and before school started back.

We left early in the morning at 6:15 as the sun rose, and had a wonderful view across the property as he explained where the boundaries were. 

The four ringers worked the cattle on the ground riding dirt bikes. They mustered the cattle from one paddock into the 'chase' where they could be easily moved through to another paddock further along. A chase is an ingenious way to move cattle across large distances. They are long passages that make it easy to drive cattle from one paddock or property to another. The paddock was in the boss's words, ' a couple of thousand acres.' It took an hour for a chopper and four ringers on bikes to move 400 cattle, a mix of calves, weaners and bulls.

While in the air he flew up over the new dam that they are having built to help make the property more drought resistant. When completed it will cover several acres which are a natural catchment and provide gravity fed water via a pump and solar power to the cattle. When rain eventually comes and the dam fills it will sustain their cattle for up to 7 years.

As we approached home on the way back we had a great view of the homestead - the main house, kitchen, ringers quarters, sheds, house dams and our own house.

It was a memorable morning !

By Lynne

A Look Back at the Year We've Had !

A look back at the year we've had !

Country Events

While living in a rural/outback community there are always lots of community events to attend. 

We have found that as we are not as far from town (only 110kms and some of that bitumen) as we were at Durham Downs Station(300kms) that we are traveling into town to events and church more often than we did at our previous stations.

This not only means we are busier but also tend to spend a little more money than in our previous remote teaching positions.

Some of the events we have attended. 

Mistake Creek Cross Country Fun Run and Cent Auction

The day began with fun runs for adults and children which the girls participated in. The course covered ground within the school and out in the adjacent dry paddocks. All four girls did very well and placed in the top positions.

The day also included some stalls, bbq, bar, and a cent auction. 

At the cent auction you purchased tickets to bid on items to win. You placed your tickets in the box of the item you wanted to bid for and waited for the draw at the end of the day. There were over a hundred items !
Afterwards we headed into town for the Saturday night, where George puts on a campfire show at the caravan park every few weeks.

Athletics, Cross Country and Swim Carnivals

During the year we have attended, with the girls, several carnivals, both their own School of Distance Education ones and local Small Schools Carnivals. The last ones are a combination of local small state and catholic schools. Local students from stations that learn via distance education/school of the air are invited to compete as a team. These carnivals enable all the local students the chance to compete against more children. These small schools may have numbers of students between 17 and 30 students overall.

Easter

At Easter we headed into Clermont, once more, for the Good Friday and Easter Sunday services. The Good Friday service was a combined ecumenical service shared between the Anglican, Catholic and Uniting churches who each had a part of the service held in their church, while the cross was carried through the main streets of town between them. We found this very different, and very....... for the wider community and tourist watching on.

Anzac Day !

The Anzac Day weekend arrived and once more we headed into town. We camped at Theresa Creek Dam, about 12 kms out of town. This is a community funded area that 
charges $15 for camping with showers and toilets available. The dam is a great spot for boating, skiiing, swimming and fishing.

On Sunday we attended church and Monday, the Anzac Day Service. It began with a parade  through town and ended with a service at the memorial gardens beside the lake .....

 Once more we found the personal small community Anzac Day Service very moving.

Gemfest at Anakie  

Each year, in August, throughout the Central Highlands gemfields they hold Gemfest, a weekend of  music and gem and jewelry displays. We decided to spend a day at Anakie on the way home from mini-school in Emerald and then camp at Theresa Creek out of Clermont on the way home.

Gold and Coal Festival, and 100 year Memorial for the Clermont floods

Held in Clermont in September, this festival celebrates the history of the area, settlement and the importance of gold and coal to its development. The beautiful parklands around the lake in town are home to two days/nights of music, displays and stalls. We found the large 
outdoor digital photo display, which included the history of the floods in 1916, to be very interesting and sat through it twice to take it all in. As part of the 100 year memorial service over 60 Japanese floating lanterns were released onto the lake on the Friday night. One for each person that died in the floods that year. A sign.ificant number for a small town.

Rodeos and Campdrafts

We also try to attend local rodeos and campdrafts especially if we know families who are competing or the ringers from our station are competing.