Laying the Foundation

Not much has happened in the last week. The boys went piggin’ again but I opted to stay back this time, had a great weekend primarily catching up on sleep. Nice, relaxing time. The girls I met in town when I first came here, from Ireland, came out to go piggin’ with the boys. They leave real soon and wanted to do it before they left. It was good to see them again. The boys have all gone into town again this weekend but I’ve stayed back again. It’s nice having some quiet time without them around as well as needing to do some paperwork, and organise school and uni stuff back here.

The two boys are still a battle most days getting them to do school but once they get going they’re fine. It’s so different being at home while doing school than going somewhere else. They go yabbying a lot during their breaks. That’s one thing I keep thinking, it’s not every kid that has a creek for their playground. Am still finding teaching them exhausting but it’s getting better all the time as I’m understanding more and more the way things work and what’s expected.

Haven’t had too much rain this last week I don’t think, it’s hard to remember though because after a while the days all start running into each other and you forget when things happen. There was one downfall where the rain came in more horizontal and managed to put a nice size puddle in my bedroom as well as the other one.

The frogs I think have learned to keep out of the toilet most of the time or they get flushed, which is a good thing. The bad thing with that is that I am having to chase them out of the shower more now. Some may have heard my complaining about the mosquito’s at Barmera after Christmas as they just swamped the area every night and I got covered with bites and had a reaction to it. I’m now very thankful to that as it means I don’t complain about the mosquitos out here as they are nowhere near as bad as that week. Joining the wildlife indoors which resides with us is now also some lovely butterfly’s. Nice change from the other creatures.

Got a few more letters this week which was nice. Which reminds me, if you would like one either send me one with your address on the back or email me your address as I didn’t bring any with me.

Time seems to be passing faster now which is good and I’m sure in no time at all it will be Easter. One thing I’m noticing is how different it is going from there to here in how many different things I would do with Christian brothers and sisters. I am extremely thankful that I am not the only Christian out here and that we have the freedom to study God’s word on our own but at the same time some real fellowship with other Christians would be great! Thankyou to all who helped me with gathering Christian resources to bring out. I don’t know what I would be doing without them. Currently developing a daily routine which is good. Days always turn out better when started with time with God and his word.

And same thing as before, if there's anything in particular you'd like to hear about or see a picture of just leave a comment and I'll try to include it in the next blog.

God Bless

Settling In

So, it’s been a week. I’ll tell you what though, it feels like a lot longer.

Last Saturday was my first day of work. Just had Toby (the younger one) for the day which was good. Sunday I had Dan on his own for the day.. then Monday through Friday had them both. This much I’ll say, they’re a lot better on their own, especially as they’re brothers. Other than that, they’re not too bad. It’s just getting used to everything. Plus, they’re starting to get used to me too, learning that I won’t budge as much as they might try to get me too.

Still haven’t figured out the best way to deal with the fella’s but they always give you a laugh which is good. Some of they’re drunken comments has kept the others going for days. Despite that, they’re not bad guys though.

Went piggin’ on Sunday. Well... sort of. Was invited to go piggin’, so I went. Normally this means chasing them around in vehicles and a bit of running. The dogs do most of the work, just have to make sure you keep up with them once they get on a scent. This time though they parked and got out to walk to find the pigs. It was still alright until you got to the muddy ground of the swamps and it just.. kept.. on.. going. I was in thongs or bare feet depending on the ground the whole time as well. I gave up following them after about a kilometre at least half of which was through creeks and mud because I was afraid if I kept on going I might not make it back. Made it back alright but was having trouble breathing a bit by the time I got back. That was the first time I got to use my puffer (which I’d left behind) since I’ve been ‘officially’ diagnosed with asthma Monday before I left.. yay! Oh yeah, the got some pigs and brought a couple back to train up the pups. Shout out to H, anklet survived that I don’t think it’s ever going to accidentally come off.

There was new foal in on Monday morning which had everybody smiling but regretfully it didn’t survive the storm that night. Poor Bell’s been back up looking for her foal since too.

We’ve had a couple of storms in the last week. So far this year they’ve had enough rain here to fill the normal yearly quota. The creeks are up even further than when I came here, so we’re going to be stuck here for a while because they’re only going down slowly. This isn’t normal, they normally go down a lot faster. One of the comments was “we’ll be lucky if we’re out by March at this rate”.. sounds hopeful hey. Despite this the storms didn’t bring as much rain as we thought they might which was a good thing. And the lightning display from one of them, well actually there were two, one on either side of us, was absolutely gorgeous! I mean bright, lighting up the whole sky, cloud to cloud, and cloud to earth, multi path lightning, lasting at least an hour! This was made even better by the fact that because of where we are, I didn’t need to worry about bush fires starting!

My place needs a real proper clean out again already because of all the bugs, and other creatures, think it’s going to have to be at least a twice weekly thing. There was one of those flying cockroaches which I really hate but it went so that was okay. I’m getting used to having frogs reside in my bathroom and there normally being one in the toilet. Most of the time they just jump into the water as soon as you go near it though so there’s not much else you can do. Thankfully I’ve only had one come into the shower while I’ve been there so far. Keep finding wasp nests around to knock down too but that’s easy enough done. The second bedroom floods out, well gets a nice puddle in the middle of the floor, as it has now, whenever there’s a heavy rain as it all runs in under the door. I’m going to wait for the wet season to settle a bit before I bother cleaning out that room properly.

I have finished reading the only ‘pleasure reading’ book I brought with me. Thankyou Michelle, I loved it. So now I’m moving onto Dutch. We’ll see how much I can remember by the end of the year, my only problem will be pronunciation.. which is already quite hopeless.

Not sleeping great but amazingly am still sleeping on a bed after a week. I really am starting to appreciate air conditioning only it’s not because of the temperature, as the heat really doesn’t bother me. It’s the humidity that’s getting to me but air conditioning dries out the air as well.. thank you! Only thing is they make a lot of noise, and I get cold.. still I think lack of sleep due to these things is a worthy price for non-high-humidity.

The boys invited me to come into town with them last night but I decided to pass. I think it was more the really wanting to chill now that my first day off is here, and not spend the little money I have until I get paid rather than the having to swim across a creek with a reasonable current /flow rate at dark with no lights while carrying things in order to actually get there.

Can’t think of much else to say except that I got my first ‘letter’ on Thursday; it made my day! Thank you. If you have any questions about anything, or would like to see a photo of something in particular, just leave a comment and I’ll be sure to respond to it next time.

God Bless.

Getting There!

Tuesday:



Finished Packing. Now you know how I pack.. well, I had way too much for flying over so had to try to cut down what I had to even less.. managed to downsize by 6kg but that was as far as it was going.. the rest of the excess weight I would just have to pay for. Left Coonalpyn for Adelaide.


Wednesday:


Woke up 4:30am to get to airport and catch plane to Brisbane. Arrived in Brisbane, looking forward to my day around 8am local time. It was a good day except for my bags.. two of them broke to some extent. The first split along the top which I managed to gaffa tape up.. until it split on the other side, finally fixed that up good enough with a couple of luggage straps from a cheap shop. The other bag the wheel broke.. now this was my heavy bag which I then had to carry with me everywhere around Brisbane. Watched Tangled, was good. Caught public transport to my friends place. Not a huge fan of public transport in a place I don’t know.. managed to get the right bus but missed my stop. Had an extra hour of waiting in order to catch the same bus back to the right stop and then the right bus to my friends place. Got there, caught up, chatted, was all good.


Thursday:


Woke up 4:30am to catch public transport to airport for 9am flight. Noticed bruising starting to come through from pulling my muscles carrying bag around yesterday. Got there with no further hassles as I had Wednesday. Plane had a total of 36 passenger seats for an idea of size. We were flying at a slightly lower altitude than normal and turbulence wasn’t bad at all. It was good having the opportunity to see the lay of the land where I would be living for the remainder of this year. I got off at Windorah, which was stop 4 or 5, just past 1pm. Here I was met by their niece who then took me back to Windorah. Spent the afternoon hanging around the pub (her parents run it) and chatting with her and two irish girls who are working there at the moment. Went for a swim in the creek for a bit too. Finally met the people I’m working for that evening around 7 or 8 when they came in for dinner, and to pick me up. That night there was an awesome storm that blew in. Thunder and lightning all the way around lasting for hours. Short lived heavy rain and small hurricane strength winds. Went storm chasing with them for a little while too. I’ll tell you what, it was a great welcome for me to the place. Anyway, due to the circumstances ended up staying in town for the night at the motel. Oh yeah, the boys are gorgeous.


Friday:


So, after a slow start, finally headed out to Keeroongooloo. It took about 1 ½ hours, 2 cars, and wet pants. Can’t drive across the creek at one point still so had to leave the car and walk across about 500m of creek (up to my hips in some places) and then jump in another car left on the other side. Got a quick tour.. our place, your hut, kitchen, school room.. there’s other building around as well but I don’t know what they all are yet. Oh yeah, I have my own place, my hut as they call it.. got a verandah, bedroom, spare room, bathroom, and ‘lounge’ room. It’s not much but considering I had no idea what I was getting I think it’s great!

My 'Hut'

So, what else.. There 5 fella’s here at the moment working, at least one more coming that I know of, and the cook.. a 70 year old lady whom I hear is lovely. The heat is stifling but I don’t mind that too much, and there’s air-conditioning.. thank goodness! I caught a mouse as it jumped out of an air conditioner when I first got here.. it bit me but then I got revenge.. not that revenge is a good thing. I found a frog in the toilet bowl.. after I’d used it.. I was extremely grateful it didn’t jump. Mentioning frogs, there’s plenty of them here, along with mice, lizards, and spiders.. but mainly it’s the frogs which are visible and annoying.

Excitement plus, hey! God Bless.