A sleep in till 6am...............

This morning was a little bit of luxury.
Morris let us sleep in until 6am.
He was rewarded with a meaty bone to demolish along with another toy which was a ball on a rope which he has taken to ripping apart.

Yesterday he also was given a squeaky soft plastic pig which grunts when chewed.
This kept Morris and us entertained for hours.

I still am at a loss why someone would dump poor little Morris.
I guess someone else's loss is our gain.
He is a lovely natured dog full of unconditional love and affection.
Morris is a typical puppy.
The on switch goes on and he is like the energiser bunny, then he has to come inside for a big puppy nap.

This afternoon I could hear him barking relentlessly.
My immediate thought was.........................SNAKE.
Luckily it was not a snake, but a plastic bag being blown around the yard by the fierce wind we are experiencing at the moment.

Just goes to prove that Morris has good instincts.
He kept his distance from it and simply rounded it up and kept barking until he got our attention.

He has also taken to trying to round the cat up.
The cat won't have a bar of it.
Mr Beastie has a hiss and a growl to let Morris know to keep his manners in check.
I am sure they will become best friends in the future.
At the moment Mr Beastie has enough high spots like the piano, dinning table, entertainment unit and kitchen stools to keep him out of Morris's reach.
For the time being, we just watch on, interfere when necessary and wait to make sure no one ends up with an injury.

Ohhhhh the fun and games of it all.

The Mexican Standoff that has been happening all week....................

As we announced, this week we had a new member of the family arrive unexpectedly.
Morris is a lovely puppy, currently at about 10kgs but with the way he is eating he will be about double that when we take him back to the vet to get de-sexed.

Now Mr Beastie (our Ginger Ninja de-sexed stray male 3 and half year old cat) is only slightly smaller than Morris at this stage.

Mr Beastie so wants to play with Morris but has to assert his AUTHORITAYYYYYYYYYY over Morris.

So this week has been the Mexican standoff.

Morris so wants to play with Beastie........

Mr Beastie watches from above......... He rules the roost.

Watch out........ He's behind you............................

Do you really want to go there Morris????

The Mexican Standoff in the hallway................................

Come on Beastie...... I wanna play.... I can get my head..... just not the rest of me.

Hopefully by this time next week they will have stopped growling and hissing at each other as well as waking up at 4am to get us to play.............. Well the early wake up may take a little longer to sort.

With the Super Moon in all her glory........ feels like new beginnings.

The last few days have been filled with some strange energy. It seems with the Super Moon casting almost day light over the property at night, the birds are a little confused.
The Willie Wagtails have been singing all night with the Butcher Birds joining in around 4am.

Our household has been turned upside down with a new arrival to the farm.
Please meet Morris, the 6 month old Blue Heeler Cross. ( Well it is a guess on the age and can only guess he is a Blue Heeler Cross by looking at him)

Morris has not had the best start to his young life. He was found by a lovely lady on the side of the road near the Gatton rubbish tip wrapped in a towel. This lady could not keep him as she has 2 dogs. 
So...... after finding out he is not desexed or microchipped, we adopted Morris. 
We took Morris into Crows Nest Vets for a check up, microchipping, worming, vacinations and all the things you should do as a pet owner. 
So he now has all the vet work completed and is booked in to be desexed in a months time. 

Mr Beastie (the ginger ninja cat) is obviously not happy. He is not afraid of Morris as Beastie spent the first almost 2 years of his life with 2 dogs. There will be a rumble in the jungle at some stage but I am hoping that it will be a little later rather than sooner.

Boyd has been kept busy with cleaning up the wee and poop. Lucky we have loose lay vinyl planks is all I can say. I am sure Morris will get the house training of weeing and pooping outside before to long. He is only a puppy and these things take time.

So on today's agenda is a couple of not so pleasant things. Boyd has to deal with the Hire place that we hire the Kanga from as they are trying to charge us for damage that we did not do to the machine. This should be an interesting one.
The second not so pleasant hing is that despite agreeing to refund part of the labor costs of laying the floor, the flooring guy has not paid. He had 2 weeks to get it sorted but true to form, he has not come through again. So 3pm this afternoon the mediation process starts.

I will update the outcomes from today when things are finalised.

On a positive note, we have been actively recycling everything that we can. We bought a brick maker so we can make paper and cardboard bricks for the wood stove. They are drying at the moment under the house.

Today is going to be a big day. So best to get on with it.

Coming into storm season....................

Storms have been threatening for the last few days but alas NO RAIN.
Over the weekend we hired some machinery to do a bit of a clean up around the property.
A trench also had to be dug to connect the electricity to the new shed.

So, the trench is dug, all the iron, barbed wire and general rubbish has been cleaned up and the new water tank has been plumbed in off the shed to catch all the rain that is supposed to be falling.

The joys of living in the country................... we found out, we are supposed to have a key to the local waste management station which is located at Emu Creek.
Each time we have been to the dump the gate has always been open. Hence the reason I guess, why we did not read the sign that says......... "YOU MUST HAVE A KEY TO ACCESS THIS FACILITY AND LOCK UP AFTER YOU"
This did not help Boyd in any way shape or form on Saturday. He loaded the ute to the top and tied it all down and took off to drive the 17km to the tip...........................LOCKED.........
This meant a further drive to the Crows Nest Dump on what turned out to be a really hot day here on the Darling Downs. So this week, the hunt is on to get the key for the dump.

In other exciting news, we finally have VOIP so we have communication from the property other than the internet. The stoooopid thing is....... we forgot to plug the phones in and charge them so we were unable to make calls until the phones were charged.

We had to go and pick up the connection package from the Haden post office as it was not delivered to the house. We met the owners of the Post Office and Haden General Store.
Scott and Sharon are lovely people. If you find yourself in the Haden area and need a good coffee, stop in and say hi to Sharon and Scott and get yourself a good cup of coffee.

Today we are waiting for the electrician to turn up to finish off connecting the shed. This will then bring an end to all the major works that have needed to be completed around the property. The next thing we will have to do is put a bathroom in the shed for friends that wish to camp on the property.

We have achieved so much since we moved in on the 9th of September.
Each day we love our new home even more than the day before.
Boyd and I agree, this is the best move we have ever made.

 

The Hare as big as a dog

This morning was an overcast sunrise with a large amount of ominous dark clouds keeping the cool air trapped across the landscape.

We are in Spring and it is still registering 10 degrees on the thermometer inside the house.

Looking over the back of the property from the bathroom this morning, my eyes widened when I caught sight of a Hare the size of a small dog grazing near the back gate of the house yard.

This is not the first time I have watched this Hare scampering around the property.

So I now believe it is not just the echidna that is digging holes in the yard....... the second culprit is this massive Hare.

Boyd's suggested solution is to buy a cross bow and eradicate the pesky creature........ (stated in his best Elmer Fudd impersonation)

I say...... live and let live. Yes it is a Hare...... yes it is considered to be a pest..... but for it to get to the size it is and still be running around the paddocks...........

Life in the Country....... ahhhhh the serenity

Living in the country has certainly changed the structure and routine of my days.

The sun rises at about 5.15am and it is such a beautiful time of day.

This morning I was looking out over the property and saw a hare making its way across the paddock. The hare was as huge, about the size of a dog.

We have quite a large variety of wildlife around the property.

Kookaburras sit in the gum trees at the front of the property constantly laughing and being chased by the other birds.

We have families of butcher birds and magpies as well as galahs, sulphur crested cockatoos, parrots, finches and willie wagtails.

 

We have also recently discovered that we have echidnas that roam through our house yard digging rather large holes.

Unfortunately they only come out under the cover of darkness and waddle across the yard. Which makes them very difficult to photograph.

Our neighbour has cows and until recently, the cows were wandering across the creek crossing into our back paddocks. Boyd called me crazy, but I would talk to the cows.

Seeing all the new recently born babies and their mums chewing their way through the pasture. We became particularly fond of a young bull we called Ferdinand. Ferdinand seems to go where ever he wants to. He is quite happy to push through fences to get to the green grass on the other side.

We are considering getting a couple of cows as pets, not to eat, to keep the grass down over the 16 acres. After some research, it looks like 2 Dexter steers might be the cows to get. They are compact, friendly cows that will be a lovely addition to the farm. They also come in different colours.

 

Boyd has decided that one of the cows has to be called Poin.

Although I seriously doubt that the cows will be that smart......................

 

Today is an overcast and rainy day which is great for our water tanks and the garden. Yesterday I scattered fruit tree feed around the fruit trees.

It has been a wait and see process on what fruit trees we have in the yard.

It looks like we have a lemon tree, peach tree, 2 mulberry trees, apple tree, pear tree and maybe a lime.

There are a couple of others but it is unclear of what it maybe as it has not developed any fruit.

So it will be interesting to see if we get any fruit from them this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next thing is to get the vegetable garden ready for planting.

This weekend we will be cleaning up the property to make sure we are prepared for storm season. There is a it of barbed wire and iron laying around the place. So we have hired a Dingo to pick it all up and dispose of it. We will also be able to fill the second garden bed with soil from the back paddock by using the dingo to scoop and carry.

It will be a big weekend ahead.

 

 

We have the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets

Until we moved to Thornville I don't think I had ever really appreciated the beauty of the sunrises and sunsets.

Here is one of the most recent sunsets.

Crows Nest Day 2016

October 22nd was the annual Crows Nest Day where the town celebrates all that is Crows Nest.

We headed into town at about 9.30am to look at the stalls in the town square, talk to the locals in Crows Nest and get more of a feel for the place.

We spoke to the lovely people at the local Council, ate a freshly cooked dagwood dog, visited the SES people and rural fire brigade, purchased a Rural Fire Brigade calendar for 2017, stopped by the RSL stall to support them, met Gracie the poddy calf, watched the grand parade which included Clydesdale horses, Boyd bought me some Jasmine Tea and then we wandered on home.

We learnt a little more about this neck of the woods and with each interaction in the community it just cements to us that our decision to move to Thornville was the right one for us.

 

 

 

 

 

All in all a good day was had by all. The next big event will be Crows Nest Show day in May 2017.

We have already marked it on the Rural Fire Brigade Calendar that we purchased.