Happy Birthday Caitlin!

My little girl has turned 13. Where has that time gone?????

Caitlin had the unfortunate timing of spending her birthday at school camp. In the Grampians. Where it was a teensy bit cold! And where mobile phones were not allowed.

Luckily, one of the teachers offered to babysit the phones of Caitlin and another girl celebrating her birthday as well, so we parents could call our little girls on their big day.

Caitlin said she did abseiling, rock climbing, canoeing, flying foxing and giant swinging on her birthday. She said she had a good time at camp.

We celebrated her birthday when she got home on Friday night - with dinner at the pub and a yummy chocolate cake at home. The cake was just a packet chocolate cake, but I'd injected it with a raspberry dessert sauce and chocolate fudge sauce.





Most of Caitlin's presents had been received by her prior to her birthday (boots, coat, week's trip to Brisbane with oodles of spending money....) - so we only gave her some earrings and a hair straightener on Friday. Wrapped in paper painted by Mim at Kindy for that purpose.

Can't believe she is now officially a teenager (and officially taller than me)!

New kitchen appliances

At long last, our kitchen appliances have been replaced.

We now have a wonderful oven, cooktop, fridge and dishwasher.

Only things left to get are a rangehood, and a flatscreen tv. Eventually.

Cooking and baking have become so much more easier and enjoyable. I'll be able to bake cakes again - I've told Michael that I want a proper Mixmaster for Christmas.

Introducing Emma

We have a new addition to the family - Emma.

The last weekend of the holiday was wet and cold. The neighbour was away and his sheep were lambing in the paddocks next to us. By Saturday afternoon, I'd counted at least 4 dead lambs!

Late Saturday afternoon, I noticed a young lamb on its own, sitting near our fence. It was near another lamb lying in the grass, presumably dead. Despite the bleating, no ewe was forthcoming. I decided that if the lamb hadn't been claimed by a ewe at sundown, I'd rescue it. It wasn't claimed, so I jumped the fence and gathered it up. The other lamb wasn't quite dead, but it was past the point of saving. Not sure what happened to the mother.



So now I'm a sheep thief, but I have no regrets. It was either let the lamb die overnight or take it. And the neighbour is known for not caring about his sheep, he prefers his cattle.



Caitlin decided to call the lamb Emma.



I feed her a colostrum mix overnight and took her back to the paddock the next day to see if any ewe would foster her. I even got one of the dead lambs and rubbed it on Emma to see if that would help. It didn't, that particular mother only wanted her dead lamb (she stuck around for two days sniffing it and waiting for it to get up - another farmer told me later that I should have sprayed some hairspray up her nose, that might have helped with fostering).



So Emma has stayed with us. She has become one of the family, the dogs love playing with her (not sure how she feels about that), she thinks Gomez is another lamb. It was a bit surreal to get up in the morning and hear the gallumping of hooves on the kitchen floor, as she jumped around waiting for her bottle. She sleeps outside now, but keeps an ear out for anybody opening the door. After her bottle, she tries to climb on my lap for a cuddle - she'll lie there and snooze, grinding her teeth and snoring.



The other sheep want nothing to do with her yet. And she's not interested in them either. She thinks she's one of the dogs.

The Doghouse is finished

On the last weekend of the holidays, Michael and I started and finished the doghouse. Only the frame was bought, the rest of the materials came from around the property - just like the chookhouse.

And when I say Michael and I, I mean that I provided the design, and Michael made it reality. I helped by holding screws and handing over nails and generally not getting in the way.

(from this....)

The dogs seem to like it, or at least tolerate it. It's somewhere for them to sleep at night so they don't pee all over the laundry floor (I think Jess has a small bladder). When it's too wet or cold, they can still sleep in the laundry, but come summer, it'll be lovely for them. And if Michael or Jemima piss me off, they can fit in there as well!

(... to this)

PS. Notice the stump in the background - that's what happens when Michael decides to 'prune' a pear tree

Salt of the Earth

Over the holiday, Mim had one of her kindy friends over for a playdate. JB and Mim had loads of fun; playing Barbies, collecting firewood, making chocolate cupcakes (and eating them), making scrambled eggs for lunch, running through the house shrieking...... JB is a very loud child and very forthright - she had no problems coming up to me and saying "Your dog pissed on the floor!"



Caught up with JB at Kindy last week and told her she'd have to come over for another playdate. She then told me about her night "I had to help my daddy pull lambs out of their mummies! There was a lamb sticking out of its mum's bum!"

Yep, she and Mim are going to be great friends - can't wait to hear what Mim learns from her.

Eggscellent!

So far, we've only had one of our six chooks laying. When we arrived home from Melbourne, I noticed that only two eggs had been collected - and assumed that the chooks were still on strike.

I was wrong.

I almost fell over backwards (into the mud) when I opened up the chook house the next morning to see this:



Eleven eggs inside the chook house, plus the two already collected.... I think the majority of chooks have started.

Only collected four this morning though - the rain must have put two of them off!

Holiday in Melbourne

We left early on Sunday morning for Melbourne. We'd planned to leave at 6.30, but didn't get away until 7.40 - no matter, the sun still hadn't risen.

It was a pleasant trip into Melbourne, avoiding Ballarat. We probably passed only a handful of cars until we got to Beaufort and then hit the Western Freeway. We pulled into the Queen Victoria Markets just after 11.30. And hit the borek stand shortly after. After consuming 8 spicy lamb boreks between us in a matter of minutes, we then hit the aisles. Lots of lovely stalls, useful and useless stuff. I have decided though, that I will come down to the markets one day on my own, without children, to wander and view at leisure. I couldn't help myself though. We passed two Asian couples wearing face masks, I just had to have a coughing fit each time. Michael told me I was being naughty! He's just annoyed he didn't think of it first.

After a few hours wandering and a few purchases made, we made our way to the hotel, Alto on Bourke. It's a lovely hotel near Spencer St Station and I would stay there again. We had a 2 bedroom 'executive' apartment, which consisted of bathroom, kitchenette, lounge downstairs, with a narrow staircase leading to the two bedrooms and bathroom upstairs. Mim loved it. She decided that she would like to spend all her time inside the hotel room.

But we quickly dropped our bags and headed off to the National Gallery. I wanted to see the Australian art exhibition, last time we'd attempted to visit a few years ago, the exhibit was closed for maintenance. This time around it was closed AGAIN, for a few days. Michael was understandably pissed off - there had been nothing posted on the website to say this. So we left the NGV and Mim got to catch her first tram back to the hotel.

We dined at Dion's on the Sunday night. I had told Mim that she would love their arni lemonato, and she did. She had a serve that was 3/4 of the regular adult size - and finished it all. Michael and I shared a meat platter and Caitlin had the chicken souvlaki. It was a very pleasant dining experience and Mim decided that she would like to return there for arni lemonato every meal.

Monday morning(Michael's birthday) dawned sunny again. We had breakfast in the hotel's restaurant - good service, good food. Next time, I think we'll try dinner there as well. After breakfast we went up to the museum. Caitlin wanted to see the Day In Pompeii exhibit - however the line up for tickets for the museum was over an hour long. So we had a look at the Carlton Gardens and then caught the tram back to the NGV area to see the 50 years of Barbie exhibit. It was .....pink. Caitlin enjoyed it, Mim was very bored and tired by the end of it, and I had an overwhelming urge to barbie bitchslap some teenage girls. Not the 12/13 yos, no, these girls were late teens and barging in front of little kids to crowd around the exhibit so nobody else could see. Everyone else was moving around the exhibit in lines so that every 'child' got to see all the exhibits, but these three girls were just rude. And I've become old and grumpy.

Caitlin and Mim at the Carlton Gardens

After a delicious lunch in the Golden Tower cafe on Swanston St, we went to the DFO next to Spencer St station. We finally found Caitlin a pair of boots that met all her criteria. And found two coats for Mim, a black one (to blend in with the Melbourne crowd) and a red one (to suit her personality and her horns).

Dinner on Monday night was at Via Veneto on Lygon St. Walking down Lygon St, we got to experience what Michael referred to as "Lebo duff duff music" coming from a Mercedes waiting at traffic lights. It was loud enough to be heard three blocks away.

Via Veneto's was a disappointing experience. Despite advising that we had reservations, we were shown to an unset table, just vacated by some diners. Being a Monday night, the restaurant was quiet, there were only five other tables occupied. We were all squished into the front section of the restaurant. I can understand that in part, keeping the customers in one section for efficiency - but what really peeved me was that we were sat at an unset table when just beside it was a set one! Cutlery wasn't brought to the table until well after we'd placed our orders! And then the main meals arrived before the breads!

The food was good, despite being (what I consider) expensive. I mean, fish and chips from the kiddie menu (a palm size portion of fish) was $15.50 and a bowl of pasta about $23. But the whole affair seemed rushed, like we were being pushed to order, eat and then piss off as quickly as possible. That might be understandable on a weekend night when they need to turn over customers - but a Monday night!!! And then when Michael went to pay, he was told that the eftpos machine was down, that it went down at 5pm. He insisted that they try it, and it worked. But you would think that they would be advising patrons of this B EFORE they ordered a meal!! Maybe they were just trying to force people to pay in cash to hide takings? So, I don't think I'll ever go back there again. There are just too many restaurants on Lygon St, you can't afford to give customers a bad experience. But I can say that the dessert was fabulous! Caitlin and I had the chocolate mousse. It came heaped into a chocolate basket that was almost impossible to break (and impossible to finish)!

It was a disappointing birthday dinner for Michael, but to give him his due, he didn't complain. We rode home in a taxi (Mim loves taxis and trams) and rolled into bed.

We were up at 5 the next morning, packed and checked out by 6. And it started raining. We got every red light through the city and had to dodge idiots to Tullamarine Airport. Michael dropped us off at the front and went to find a park. Caitlin was checked through and we were at the departure gate before Michael even parked. You could see that Caitlin was soooo excited to be flying on her own. As soon as she disappeared down the walkway, we headed out of the terminal and out of Melbourne.

We drove home via the Great Ocean Road, stopping in Lorne for breakfast (eggs benedict) at the Arab cafe. It is a beautiful drive, gorgeous scenery ranging from the cliffs dropping into the southern ocean to forests to pastures full of cows and sheep. We stopped at a number of points to take photos of (what used to be) the 12 Apostles.



The Loch Ard Gorge was beautiful. It was where the Loch Ard was wrecked in 1878 and only two of the 54 on board survived. Mim had a wonderful time running around on the sand and climbing on the rocks.

Loch Ard Gorge

the Grotto

The weather held out for us, overcast until we got to the Bay of Islands. And then it pissed down. And continued to rain hard until we got into Warrnambool.

From Warrnambool, it was straight up to Hamilton, pick up my car and then home. Michael called into the shops to get something for dinner, so I made it home 15 mins before him. The dogs were ecstatic to see me again. I'd had time to feed them, turn on the lights and lock them in the laundry before Michael arrived and called me out to the garage.

It was in the garage that he introduced me to Jared, Rhianna and their 8wk old baby Lachlan. They had had car troubles along the highway, so Michael invited them to come home and use our lit garage to dodgy up a repair job on a broken exhaust. Rhianna took Lachie inside to feed and change him, as he hadn't feed in over three hours. After an hour of tinkering, good use of fencing wire and a cup of coffee, they were able to resume their journey home to Millicent (South Aust).

Mim slept through all of this, she'd fallen asleep in the car about 6.30, had barely woken when I'd carried her out (though her eyes had opened and she'd looked puzzled about a little baby in her house), I'd put her to bed fully clothed and she slept through til morning.

It's so nice to be home, away from constant traffic, street lights, rude impersonal people, customer nonservice..... back home where people you don't know smile and say hi as you walk past, where the only noise is the wind screaming down the hill and the rain drumming on the tin roof.

Yep, love the shopping in Melbourne, but am happiest out here in the country.