Day by Day I'm Grateful

This week I have taken a step back to breathe, to focus each day on something I am Grateful for, to try and take on some advice and prioritise.

Sunday I was grateful for some family time, to tick off some of the jobs on the to do list, spend time together, play with our ducks and get them started with training on their new Duck Feeder and just be together as a family.

Monday I was Grateful for time to play with my Muddy kids, to stop and roll around on the grass and chase the ducklings and push them on the swing, to have fun with my kids and enjoy them and their little personalities.

Tuesday saw me be grateful for lots of things, a wonderful school who organise a Year 6 Buddy for my Muddy Organiser, who she absolutely adores and who has made the transition to school that little bit easier. I was grateful for my wonderful Muddy Sister-in-law who didn't hesitate to say Yes and look after Muddy Bubby so I could volunteer to help make Kinder - Year 6 Buddy lunch. I was grateful for a fantastic OT who listened and didn't hesitate to offer help where she could.

Wednesday I was grateful for healthy kids, for Muddy Kids who push my buttons, but are here and healthy and who I love with all my heart. I was also grateful for good friends, as always, who helped organise the next days expeditions.

Thursday I was grateful for the sales they have at the shops in town. As they don't have any storage space for last seasons stock they mark everything down really low to help it sell so they don't have to store it - it's a big win for us! I was also grateful for the enthusiasm my Muddy Organiser showed on going to the 4 schools carnival and being soooo excited about marching in the march.

Friday I am extremely excited and grateful that I am finally getting our NBN Satellite Internet installed today, I am hoping that this is as good as it's supposed to be, because if it is it will make my life a whole lot easier and I won't spend hours waiting for my downloads and uploads like I do at the moment.

 

Linking up with Maxabella at Village Voices for 52 Weeks of Grateful. Make sure you make the time to check it out.

 

 

Cup Fever

It's not often a little piece of Australian History, really an Australian Icon, passes so close by, so I had to go and check it out! Yesterday morning the Melbourne Cup was coming to a breakfast at the local pub. The local community served up bacon and egg rolls with a cuppa for breaky and you could see the real Melbourne Cup up close and personal, as well as hold it if you wanted to.

Of course, not one to miss out on an opportunity I put the Muddy Organiser on the bus and carted the other 3 kids to the pub for breakfast to see something they probably won't get to see up close again. It weighs just over 4 kgs, is made up of 44 pieces hand welded together, it is made of 24 carat gold with a wood base. Each year they make a new cup so the winner gets to keep the year they one, they have almost finished making the one for the 2013 winner. This year I can proudly say I held the cup that will get presented to the winner at about 3:20pm on the 6th of November 2012.

The cup travels with an entourage, including a security guard who instructs you specifically on how to hold it. You are allowed to hold the stem, but only with the gloved hand, and your other hand must sit under the base to support the weight. The security guard got very nervous as Muddy Bubby kept reaching for the cup and trying to put his sticky hands on it. Very sternly he said 'the kids make me nervous, please do not let them touch it'.

They have a couple of PR people and we were lucky enough to have a jockey who has ridden in the cup 10 times and won 3 Melbourne Cups, he gave a lovely talk about his history and the races he rode in. We were also given a talk on the history of the cup, now I missed most of the talk thanks to the Muddy Kids, but one on one the entourage were lovely to chat to and were more than happy to share their stories and knowledge of the cup.

Definitely not my normal Monday morning, and not something I'll forget any time soon.

 

 

This Little Lamby Went To Market

People talk about farming not being a job but being a 'way of life' and it really is. There is very little down time, weekends while we try to spend time together as a family, it is often spent doing farm jobs together. Don't get me wrong we definitely do lots of other stuff too, and get out and about off the farm, but 'there is always something'. At the moment we are in the process of sending all our Wether Lambs to the Sale Yards for selling. Before we send them we have to draft off the fattest lambs which will gain us the most money (in theory).

As the sales are on a Monday often on a Sunday afternoon you can find us in the sheep yards weighing lambs. We draft off an amount of them to weigh, then we run those ones through the race into the scales where they are individually weighed and the heavy ones are kept separate to send to market and the lighter ones are sent back to the paddock for further fattening.

The Muddy Kids all love weighing lambs, they get their spot and either sit and watch or get up close in the action if they can. Muddy Bubby has just started to be allowed out of the pram for weighing and didn't hesitate to get in amongst it all. Really it's not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon together.

Gratefuls from my thinking time

Source

This week has been an absolute whirlwind, I have spent so much time in the car travelling here there and everywhere that today I am so Grateful to be home - ALL DAY!

As I have travelled in the car I have had lots of thinking time and so I have lots of little things to be grateful for this week:

I am grateful for my car, it's comfort it's easy riding on the road, it's multiple cup holders and bluetooth in the radio.

I am grateful for my wonderful family for stepping in for Muddy Hubby and I while we were away.

I am so grateful for having fabulous friends and them stepping in to lend a hand when needed or simply being there to listen.

I have been grateful this week for my resilient Muddy Kids who have coped and been relatively well behaved while I have been missing in action.

Grateful also for the wonderful Preschool Director who listened to my concerns about my Muddy Pixie and didn't hesitate to say 'I'll keep and eye on and it let you know what I think by the end of next week'.

We had my Muddy Organiser's school concert on Wednesday and I have never been so grateful for the choice we made in schools, for the wonderful job the teachers are doing and continue to do and for watching my little girl up on stage speaking into the microphone and dancing, two things I didn't think she would have the confidence to do, it just warmed my heart.

Today though I am most grateful for being at home, for the mundane, the washing, the vacuuming, the ducks, the sunshine and the normality.

Linking up with Maxabella at Village Voices for 52 Weeks of Grateful. Make sure you head over and check it out!

Hay Work

It’s that time of year again, time for new life, with lambing starting. As it hasn’t rained and feed is becoming a little thin on the ground we have been feeding out hay and grain to our Ewes that are currently lambing or are feeding baby lambs. This helps to keep them strong and in good condition for looking after their baby lambs and providing them with enough milk.

We load up the truck with big round bales and cart them out to the mobs of Ewes that are lambing. The Muddy Girls love getting up on the truck and trying to help push them off. Then they help unwrap the netting from around them, round and round in circles they go til it’s unwrapped and the sheep are able to get at the hay. The hay we’re feeding out at the moment is Sorghum hay, which was made out of a summer crop. We can also feed them Oaten Hay that we produce from early winter Oat crops.

We also have a feeder bin that we put on the back of one of the utes and this feeds out a strip of grain to the Ewes for them to eat, which will also help keep them in good condition. Muddy Bubby loves watching the Ewes come up and chase the ute as we start to feed them.

The Muddy Girls have also discovered a new trick with the Big Round Bales while we’ve been busy feeding the Ewes – They make a great stage!

 

The Running of The Ducks

We've had our Indian Runner Ducklings for a couple of weeks now and we've started to let them wander around the house yard during the day, then we put them back in their box at night with a warm light so they don't get cold.

 

They are getting bigger and cuter by the day and they must think Muddy Bubby is alright, as they tend to follow him around, they let him share their water dish and come looking to him when they're hungry.

 

There is still one that's a little bit of a runt, her name is 'Sprinkles' and all the Muddy Kids want to hold her and pick her up and put her in the box at night. I'm hoping she gets a growth spurt soon, otherwise she'll be left in the box alone at night as the others are growing too big!

 

We also said goodbye to our pigs this week, they've gone away to become Christmas Ham and Pork Roast so we don't have to worry about losing our Ducks to the pigs the way we ended up losing 3 chickens. My next addition will be restocking the chooks, so we can get some eggs coming back in!



 

 

 

Constructing a Truck Cake for Muddy Bubby

I mentioned on Friday I was going to make a proper birthday cake for Muddy Bubby to appease my mother guilt. I had ummed and ahhed about just what to make. The wonderful Jo at Country Life Experiment and her talented Country Boy had made their two year old a fantastic truck cake for his birthday. So using this as my starting point I made a truck based around our truck (see photo below).

 

It was really pretty simple to construct, because I made two trailers I needed 4 loaf cakes. I made a butter cake and froze them, so they were easier to cut to shape. Then I crumb iced it, before putting on the final coat of icing and the decorations, including two trailers with jellybeans.

 

Overall I was pretty happy with it, and I think Muddy Bubby and Muddy Hubby were too! The hardest part was definitely the gel icing for writing and drawing. No matter how hard I try I just can't get it to come out without blobs in it!