Merry Christmas 2008

Was up at 5.30am to "deal" with the dogs. So was Caitlin... not to deal with the dogs but to snoop around the Christmas tree! Mim didn't wake until almost 9am, despite her Auntie Lelly being on the phone at 8am wanting Mim to wake up and open her presents.

The girls did well with presents. Aunty Lelly had sent Mim a variety of kitchen items, so Mim can "help" in the kitchen. She now has her own wooden spoons (to smack Daddy with), a rolling pin (to smack Daddy with), biscuit shapes and moulds, mini muffin tray, a princess tiara, a farm set, a pink wig and hair band (like Stephanie on LazyTown, hairband made especially by Caitlin), a pretty dress, a coin purse, a hairdresser set, DVDs and a computer game.



Caitlin got DVDs, a handbag (which I plan to borrow occassionally), a coin purse (from Dr/Mrs Led), a shirt (in black) and a few more things... and a keyboard.



Michael gave me a book on Lygon St, its history and some recipes ... with this card. Love the way Mim has horns!



After presents had been opened, we got dressed and then Stewie arrived. Did I mention previously that Mim had invited people from the pub around... without our knowledge. Michael only twigged after Mim had told him that he had to have beer in the fridge for Stewie, and then Stewie asked what time he should turn up!! It was lovely to see him though, he's a funny chap.



After Stewie had left, we had a lovely lunch of cold meat and salads (and hot crackling, yum) Before we could get to dessert, I had to have my nana nap. Jenny's pudding would have to wait another day.

The remaining chooks presented us with four eggs, they must have taken it in turn to lay.


About 4.30pm, Tim and Alice (and dog Chloe), Dani and son John came over for drinkies and nibblies. At about 6pm, Dr J, Charu, Dhruv and 'Noni' arrived to join the party. It was a very pleasant time, chatting and drinking and snacking and drinking and making jokes and drinking..... It was great to see Dr J's family and Dani's family again - it'd been a long time between meets. The guests had left by about 9ish, Mim had calmed down slightly after following John and Dhruv around and we all crashed into bed.

Boxing Day

The next day dawned the same as Christmas morning - except I was the only one up at 5.30am to deal with dogs.

We took Margaret over to her sister's in Casterton and meet some of the extended family. Mim loves to go to Gertie's and always plays on the swing or the rocking horse.


Caitlin and Mim had a wonderful time with Morgan and Keeley, Margaret's sister's great granddaughters. Morgan is Caitlin's age and a talented basketballer (unlike Caitlin) and Keeley gives wonderful massages. The four of them had fun playing on Morgan and Keeley's Wii.



It was difficult to get the girls to go home, they would have Wii'ed all night if they could have.

Dangerous Grass Seeds

Christmas Eve. The Christmas shopping had been completed and I had planned to spend a fair amount of time vacuuming, mopping floors and cleaning outside. I'd run the lawnmower over the dust the day before so it was looking nice and, well, dusty. Good thing there was dust, if it hadn't covered me in a thick layer, I might have gotten sunburnt.

I allowed myself a slow start in the morning .... and that was a big mistake. After having lunch and patting Jess, I noticed a large lump on her neck. A very large lump that had not been there in the morning! So, rang the vet and arranged to take her straight in. Half an hour's trip later, we dropped Jess off at the vet's and they promised to find some time to look at her. Went to the butchers to grab a leg of pork and then got out of Hamilton. Made it half way home before the vet rang to say Jess was ready to be collected.

She'd had a grass seed go into her mouth and through into the epidermis on her neck. So they'd put her under, cut it out, inserted a drain and sutured her back up. And she was not happy!! $109 later and we were on the road again. Michael dropped me and Jess home and took Caitlin to the pool whilst he had his hair cut. I was stuck in the laundry with her, not allowed to move two feet away or she'd have a spack attack and try to scratch the stitches out. It was not a productive two hours!!

So I was still vacuuming and mopping at 10.30pm on Christmas Eve. But Michael kept me company whilst he cooked two chooks (bought from the butcher, not gleaned from our chook house) and a leg of pork (Michelle, the crackling was DIVINE!!!!).

Michael fashioned a bucket for Jess's head which prevents her from dislocating the drain and scratching open the wound - it's a very good bucket!!

Down to Four

Previously I'd blogged about how the puppies had 'played' with one of the chooks. Well, they hadn't learnt their lesson, they decided to mega-pluck a chook a few days ago. I found the yard strewn with feathers, but couldn't find a body. Nevertheless, Sarah and Jess were beaten with Michael's sandal. The chook came home that night with a bald spot near her tail.

The next morning, we discovered maggots crawling around her skin in the bald spot. Margaret scrubbed the flesh out with warm soapy water, hopefully killing the maggots.... but they were still there the next day. So I held Chicken Licken over the laundry tub while Michael syringed hydrogen peroxide over the wounds and scraped off dead flesh and maggots with his scalpel. And then I threw up. Not ashamed to admit that I did not like the smell of rotting flesh!!! Chicken Licken stayed in the laundry for two days - boy it stank!! By the second day, she was smelling less and had eaten some corn kernels, so we thought she might make it. But day three, she didn't eat at all and spent most of her time sleeping and shitting. So, that night I put her back with the chooks in the chook house. She seemed pleased to be back with them.

Yesterday morning, I opened up the chook house to find four chooks clammering to get out, and Chicken Licken extremely stiff and very definitely dead! And the valiant little thing had tried laying an egg before departing but cracked the shell.

So an elaborate funeral was held for her (she got dumped into a cardboard box and disposed of). We were going to belt the dogs around the head with the dead carcass but........ more of that on the next posting.

PS. that freakishly large egg the chicken licken laid a few weeks ago..... it was a triple yolker!!

Good manners please, Mr Poitier

Mim and I watched 'To Sir With Love'. During one of the last scenes, Sidney's character is presented with a gift from his students, is overcome with emotion and then leaves the stadium declaring that he must put it somewhere safe. Mim turned to me, puzzled. "Why didn't he say Thank You?" Good point there, Mim.

Dancing with the Blahs

After dinner some weekends, the girls like to put on music and dance. Mostly this consists of Caitlin picking up Mim and swinging her around.

Last Saturday night, Michael decided to show her how it was done. Mim LOVED it.



Don't worry, no Mims were harmed in the making of this film!

Cheeky!

A few days ago, I was trying to have my "nanna nap" when Jemima wandered in, munching on one of Michael's Violet Crumbles.
"This is my farver's chocolate, but it's okay, I told him I had it..... and he said we would talk about it after he got out of the toilet."

Little scamp had helped herself, started eating it, and then decided to tell Michael she had it, when it was too late to put it back (and he was busy with other things and couldn't stop her).

Her cheekiness knows no bounds at times!!

Amusing Conversation in the past week

Michael: I ironed Mumma's Harry Potter pjs and put lots of starch in the crotch area!
Margaret: Oh, that should tickle my fancy.
Michael: I didn't think it was fancy, just old fashioned.
Michael: And I shouldn't pay lip service to it.
Me: Can't you stop talking, I'm a visual person!!!

~~~~~~

Jemima (laughing maniacally in McDonalds): Ooohhh, I think I've had too much toffee (coffee)!!

~~~~~~

Jemima and I sitting on the couch watching a movie
Jemima: I'm hungry mummy
Jemima (moving my lips): Ok darling, you can have some lunch now
Jemima: Good, and I want lemonade as well
Jemima (moving my lips): That's okay, you can have that too

~~~~~

Michael, teasing Jemima by trying to take two lollipops off her : I'm going to eat both of these, yum.
Mim: If that's the way you act, you're not going to get any!!

The Santa Photo

They are growing up so fast! It's fascinating to look back at previous years' Santa Photos. Caitlin is now a beautiful self-assured young woman (or it looks that way in the photo), and Mim is no longer a toddler, she is well and truly a little girl (well, not so little, look at the length of her legs)!

Poor Santa, in these politically correct times, he is making sure that his hands are nowhere near the girls so he cannot be accused of any form of child molestation. And I'm sure he's got his blue card, Police Check, Certificate IV in Child Pyschology and Behavioural Management, Diploma of Modelling from an accredited agency and goodness knows what other stupidity that Santas today must possess!

Coleraine Parade goes ahead

Despite forecasts of showers for last night, we had a wonderful sunny evening (albeit a bit cool). The Coleraine Christmas Street Parade and Carnival went ahead.

And it was brilliant!!!

I had to work, but managed to start a finish a bit early so I was back in Coleraine for the parade at 7pm. Mim was on the Kinder float. She was dressed up as an angel (well, sort of). We'd thought about glueing a Xmas tree to her backside and saying she was the top of the tree angel, but never got around to it.

The Street Parade was better than I'd expected, with pipers, antique cars, rock and rollers, golf carts, pony club, Kindergarten, horse and carriages, ambulance and fire trucks and Santa pulled by a steam engine. The firies and ambos were throwing lollies out of the windows for the kids.







After the parade was over (up and down the main street); Margaret, Caitlin and Mim went for a horse and carriage ride (these were free). The driver made a laughing comment to the kids about this was how grandma would have gone to school - Margaret just laughed and said he was right (he seemed a bit surprised).


After the carriage ride, we went across to the Lions van and had a sausage and onion in bread and the girls sat on Santa's lap and got given an AusPost showbag (some lollies, chips, Xmas cards, pens and a water friendly hose attachment from Wannon water). The girls had been on the paying rides before I'd gotten there. Mim was just tall enough to go on the ride with the horses - like the swinging chair ride but with horses instead of chairs. They also went on the jumping castle. Michael took photos, which he'll have to download off his phone.

Then we went and watched the QuickShear Competition happening on the back of a truck outside the pub. It was amazing to watch the blokes (and one woman) shear a sheep in under a minute. The fastest was 33 seconds.



Whilst the girls went to get their faces painted, I took Margaret down to the coffee shop (at about 8.30pm) for a quiet sit and coffee/hot chocolate. It was nice to get out of the breeze, I'd left my jacket in the car and it was rather chilly, probably about 11 degrees.



Then back to the QuickShear where Jemima found Morgandy, the daughter of a fellow bellydancer and they shared the lollies from Mim's showbag. Caitlin dragged Margaret off to look at more things, so Mim and I went and lined up for another carriage ride. It was late and dark by this stage, getting on to 10pm. After Furlow (part draught, part Percheron) had carried us two laps of the main street, we decided to call it quits. Margaret had run out of puff and was waiting in Michael's car. Mim started sobbing, she wanted to go on the fast rides again - she did not want to leave at all.

Michael said to her "Mim, you've been on the fast rides, had two carriage rides, been on the float in the parade, had your face painted, played with your friend... I think you've had a fair go, don't you?" "No, I haven't!!" was the sobbed response, "I want more of the horsey rides!!"

Still, we got her home and put her straight to bed, didn't even bother washing the rainbow off her face (sheets need a bit of a wash now, and she wouldn't even wash the rainbow off til this afternoon).

I'm looking forward to next year's parade, it's such a family friendly, fun affair. Something you just couldn't replicate in a big city.

You want WHAT for your birthday?????

Conversation with Mim today:

Mim: Mummy, you know the bakery near Auntie Gertie's house?
Me: Yes
Mim: Can I please have one like that for my birthday?
Me: You want one of their cakes for your birthday?
Mim: No, I want a bakery
Me: What, you want a bakery to run, to sell cakes and bread?
Mim: Yes, please, for my birthday.
Me: Well, I'll talk to your father and see what we can do

WTF!!! Caitlin had drawn up plans and employee schedules for a "baby clothing emporium" by the time she was 10, now Mim wants to run a small business at age 5 - we have capitalist children! At least she's given us some time (5 months) to raise money, scout for a location, hire employees.... would have been worse if she'd wanted it for Christmas :)

Plum trees

I had hoped that these were apricot trees, but Margaret informs me that these fruit are actually a variety of plum.

We have plums coming out of our bums!! Time to try some plum jam...

Eggscellent!

The chooks have started laying, well two of them have but not consistently. We started off with very thin shelled eggs that broke as soon as you looked at them. I added some grit to their food and then we started with proper eggs.

One of the hens lays first thing in the morning, usually a tiny egg, the other lays about midday and is a reasonable size egg. But because the hens keep flying out of the yard, I'm not sure where the middayer is laying. I've tried locking them up over this period, but she's not going to give me the satisfaction of pushing out a bumnut whilst being confined, or maybe she's just reverted to pullethood.

The egg on the right is the one I got this morning, see the size compared to the others!! It's huge!! I pity the poor cloaca it came out of. Maybe it had something to do with tipping a can of corn kernels into the chook yard yesterday?



PS. ten minutes after blogging this, I checked the chook house again - we have three more little eggs!!

Chook Attack

Two weeks ago, the puppies were severely chastised for attacking a chook. They'd crawled into the chook yard and laid on top of a chook to down it, and proceeded to nip feathers off it.

Caitlin had come running into the house saying that the dogs had killed a chook. I went outside to find both puppies cowering under the chookhouse with a chook in the yard upside down. I noticed the chest was still moving, so I righted it and it managed to take a stagger or two, so I put it inside the chook house. Poor thing was in shock.

Sarah got dragged out first and beaten, it was a bit more difficult to get Jess out, she knew she was in big trouble. Still, I thought they may have learnt their lesson - whenever I yelled "Chook!" afterwards, they'd stop what they were doing (chasing chooks) and cower.

Then today, I went outside to find the two of them on top of a chook, plucking out it's feathers. I managed to grab Jess (after rescuing the chook and putting it in the chook house) and gave her a hiding whilst holding a handful of feathers in her face. This time, Sarah took off and got under the house - she knew what was coming to her. Took half an hour before Sarah came back out, and then she got a hiding from me and from Michael.



Hopefully they've learnt their lesson this time. I'm still trying to arrange for Mousie to come up and clip the chook's wings.

A Wash Out

Last Friday evening was supposed to be the annual Coleraine Street Parade and Carnival, this was postponed a week due to 24 hrs of good solid rain.

The downside of the rain, I managed to fall over on my ass in the mud (well-cushioned) whilst trying to put the chooks away and the dogs tracked mud through the house (well, it was a choice of constantly mopping up dog pee and poo, or mopping up mud - I chose the latter, it's better for the skin).

The upside, our tanks are filling!! Word from the farmers at the pub was that we had 75mm in the 24hr hour period. Their are puddles (mini dams) beside the roads that are still there a week later.

The temperature reached a max of 14 degrees and the Bureau of Meteorology issued a stock warning for farmers. Apparently they had similar wintry conditions 20years ago and over 250 sheep (lambs and young shorn sheep) died from exposure. I hear it was a sultry 34 degrees in Brisbane on the same day!

I took Sarah and Mim for a walk down to the creek on Saturday evening. The creek, which had been bone dry three days prior, was full. We'd walked down in gumboots, so we waded through to the other side (I carried Sarah, she doesn't like getting wet) and then waded back again.

Since then, we've had lots of grey skies but minimal useful rain. But never fear, it's predicted to rain again this Friday night - just to ruin the street parade (and quick shear) again.

Kindy is over for the year

It was Mim's last day of 3yo Kindy on Wednesday. She enjoyed playing with her friends and having the morning tea... "I ate a chocolate crackle, and then a chocolate cupcake and then another crackle and then another cupcake........ and I didn't get a stummy ache!"



Tonight was the Kindy Concert. I wasn't able to attend but Michael and Margaret were and took photos and videos for me. They got to sing Jingle Bells, If You're Happy and You Know It, Open Shut Them and a few other favourites for the parents. Santa visited and gave each child a book.

No Longer 'Has Beans'.

They are surviving!!

After a frost (in late October) killed off my bean seedlings and I thought the tomato/capsicum were gonners too, I planted some more bean seedlings and left it up to fate.


The beans are doing well. The tomato and capsicum plants have not quite died, but haven't exactly thrived either! Guess I'd better throw some chook or lamb poo on them.

I don't have the answer to that.....

We were watching She's The Man (Amanda Bynes) on Tuesday morning. One of the scenes has a pack of tampons falling out of the girl-pretending-to-be-a-boy character's bag and him/her demonstrating that he/she uses them to stop blood noses by shoving one up the nose.

Mim turns to me and asks 'does that thing up the nose get all the snot out?'

How do you answer that one???????? Without having to mention what tampons are actually for!

What a busy weekend!

Saturday:

Caitlin, Mim and I dressed up in Belly Dancing gear and went in the St Mary's Street Parade through Hamilton. Caitlin tried to disguise herself by wearing a wig, but her friends and teachers still recognised her. Her job was to carry the CD player. None of the other students turned up, there was only me and the three professional dancers - and Mim. She looked great in her outfit. And Deb's brother Geoff with his pet python, Arena or Athena or whatever she was called. Nobody bothered looking at the belly dancers, only at the snake. Just as we finished parading the rain started.

Mim got to hold the snake afterwards, which she thought was just great!! I told her not to try doing that to any snake she should see on the property! We went for 'coffee' at Darriwill Farm cafe and everybody kept staring in the window as Geoff had the snake (in a bag) on his lap, trying to warm her up.

Then it was home to rest up before Dani's 50th birthday party at 8pm.

Boy, it was cold! It was held at Dani's daughter's house, in the garden and we all huddled around a fire in a 44 gallon drum. The weather had fined up and it was a pleasant party. After cake was cut and Alice had given a speech for her mother, Dani's boyfriend proposed to her. Very romantic! The kids were given glow sticks and got to play 50 glowstick pick up in the dark.

We got home at 11.30pm and the girls crashed.

Sunday:

The Coleraine Hotel Social Club Christmas party was held at midday. The food was wonderful, the jumping castle a big hit and all the kids were excited to see Santa arrive in a firetruck.






After a busy afternoon down at the pub, we returned home so I could do a bit more gardening. Why? Because that was the last day we could burn off without a permit. So a pile of dead branches, lattice with an unwanted climber and gorse bushes were bonfired!! (With assistance from Michael and his can of diesel)

I was totally exhausted by Monday, but had to do a thorough clean of the house before Margaret arrived on Tuesday night.

A dog's day

A hard working dog, from kisses for Lulu



(and trying to ride on her back), to rounding up chooks despite their wish to freerange,

to sleeping ...


Sarah earns her rest.

Unlike Jess, whom we are about to rename Trainwreck, because she chew chew chews her way to destruction and mayhem. Her idea of rounding up chooks is to chase them and try to lie on them!

Kindy photos

Picked up Mim's Kindy photos this morning, she doesn't look too bad.



Never did get the one of Mim at daycare!

Jenny's jam

Jenny Tully has been making her yummy jams and chutneys again. Michael was lucky enough to call in one day as she was bottling them, so she gave him a couple.

He must have been teasing her again, because she labelled one especially for him:

At times like these ....

Mim awoke today and immediately got dressed in her nicely ironed "school uniform". Because it is a cool morning, she's donned a "school jumper".



The "school jumper" was a present from Nana and Poppy from their overseas trip.



She's decided to fold up all the ironing whilst watching the morning news, as she said it will be easier for me to iron!!!


It's times like these that I forget how less than 24hrs ago I was going to sell her to the gypsies just to get an uninterrupted night's sleep!!