Wednesday - Play Day

We're off to the Caves for a tour then back to the Botanical Gardens and the Zoo.  Gonna be a Great day. 

Teresa still surprises me !!!  She saw a commercial about a restaurant and it showed them serving Shepard's Pie.  I think this was last Friday.  Anyway she figures she can make it and I'm a bit skeptical.  History gives me that right.  Anyway I went off to start the afternoon chores and about a half hour later came back.  She had already peeled, boiled and mashed the potatoes and had two casserole dishes in the oven. 

First I was surprised to see her that far into it.  The Besley's were having guests and I'm like praying for the best.  Well, surprise, surprise, surpise ( thanks Gomer ) it was wonderful.  Everyone loved it.  Harvey even had the leftovers once for breakfast and once for lunch. 

Still making progress on the living room walls.  One more session of stripping then wash with Metholated Spirits, sand, fill bad cracks, resand, then start painting.  Anyway I'm real happy to be almost done with the stripping. The Besley's don't seem to mind the discombulation.  Lucky for me and them.  They are leaving tomorrow afternoon for a few days so I hope to get the messy parts finished by the time they get home Sunday. 

Teresa is hanging out the wash for the day then we're off. 

G'day mates

Slaughtered Hogs and Sheared Sheep

Jim had a busy week chasing an errant pig this week.  First it was report on the streets inYeppoon and Jim was dispatched to begin the chase.  No such luck.  The next night was better, caught the bugger and put him in the cage at the yard(pound).  But the bugger got away again.  Two nights later Jim was called again.  This time with permanent success.  That was in between all of the other calls for road kill and cows on the road.  So I suppose you're wondering what Jim does in his spare time.  Saturday he mustered some of his own cows and changed their pastures.  Sunday with a little time before dinner he decided to slaughter Scotty's pigs.  Scotty lives down the road and raises sheep and pigs for sale. 

Anyway we headed over to Scotty's where he had a big fire going and was getting ready to put three big copper pots in.  I learned that to scrape the skin and hair off the water temperature had to be real close to 62 degrees centigrade that's 143.6 Fahrenheit.  If it's cooler than that it takes forever to get the skin and hair off.  That happened on the first pig.  The three copper pots were emptied into the waiting bath tub and Jim shot and bled the first pig.  The water was not quite hot enough.  I don't know how long it took to scrape it, but 4 of us worked on it for it seemed forever. 

Then Jim butchered it.  Hocks, head, innards...  the whole deal.  Meanwhile Scotty's son Luke and his friend Jacob kept the fire hot and water heating for the next pig.

Repeat, except the water was just right and the process was a lot smoother.  We trucked them both back to Jim's cold locker.  I heard Jim was planning on cutting them up this afternoon. 

Bonnie and I finished the small bedroom during the week.  Now she's got to get some carpet installed and
put the bedroom back together.

I've finished stripping in the kitchen and have moved down the wall to the dining area and moving on to the living room.  Not real happy with it.  There have been some remodels (windows added/removed) and mud applied over paint which lifts after the top layers of paint are removed.  I'm thinking to go ahead and prime what I have stripped so far to see how well it covers. 

Yesterday we scrubbed the roof.  Yes, scrubbed with green scratchers and painted it silver.  A contractor is coming in a few weeks to install a solar electricity generator.  Bonnie and I both fell once.  I ended up looking like the Tin Man in the wizard of OZ with silver paint up my arms and legs.  The Aussies are very conscientious with regard to using solar and capturing rain water.

So, back to Jim.  This morning we went back to Scotty's and Jim sheared about 30 sheep.  Jim used to do it for a living ( long ago ) but he is still very good at it.  Teaching Scotty, too.  Scotty has about a 100 left (just a guess). 

We're getting some much loved rain today and Harvey is getting ready to leave for his Master's horse training class in Brisbane tomorrow. 

We did make it to the beach on Wednesday.  Unfortunately the weather had changed and the wind was blowing from the south.  Seemed to make the water colder.  We braved it.  At least Teresa did and waded awhile.  I got my feet wet.  If it's not like bath water I don't get in... ever!!! But we had a great day and the best fish and chips at Beachside 66 in Yeppoon.  Come on over and try some.  HAH.

Busy place.

Busy

Finished the rec room wall and it looks real good.  Now I'm onto the kitchen and small bedroom.  The bedroom is easy.  Just pull up carpet, patch a small hole, primer and paint.  Except it has like batten boards on each sheet seam and fibre board in ceiling with batten boards.  Still, should be done by Thursday.

The kitchen is another thing...  The paint is splitting in lots of places.  I can't tell if it's because the wrong paint type was put on over another or there are just too many layers of paint.  Anyway I've begun to strip it and it going to run right into the living room so it's going to be a bit tough. 

I think my last blog covered using Bonnie's car last week and running around.  Well we're going to do the same thing tomorrow.  I think we're going to Yeppoon and spend the day at the beach.  We took a drive over there yesterday and it was beautiful.

Anyway, other than last Wednesday and tomorrow, I've been pretty busy painting.  Yes it's authentic Australian life on a ranch.  Feed the horses and cows and 5:30 morning and night and PAINT.  About 10 hours worth every day.  Teresa is starting to get a little antsy so I'm going to have to figure out how to temper my OCD.

In any case we're fine, enjoying Bonnie, Jim and Harvey, and each other.  Which was our goal when we left.  So I have to say it's working OK, if I can slow some things down. 

Barmoya, QLD

Actually we're in Barmoya, on the ranch called Bungarribee. 

So far I haven't mentioned Jim.  He's the head of the household where we're staying.  He runs the cattle operations on 2,000 acres.  He is  also the animal control contractor for the Rockhampton area.  That's for large and small animals.  His first call on Monday was to euthanize 7 deer and dispose of them.  I went along, the dead deer filled up the horse float (that's trailer to you Americans).  Tuesday he had to relocate 2 abandoned horses and today he had to corral a big ram on the streets of Rockie.

I'm ready to start priming the 30 foot wall in the great room.  The sanding is done, YEAH !!!  So what does Teresa do ?  Well she straightens and cleans the house and most of the dishes when Bonnie will get out of the way.  Yesterday we made spaghetti and french bread.  Pretty good. 

Today Bonnie let us take her car into town.  We got a pre-paid cell phone and called our Moms.  Teresa mis-figured the time difference.  We ended up talking to them at midnight their time.  They were still happy to hear from us after a month of being incommunicado.  Of course we were happy to talk to them, too.  We also did some sight seeing around Rockhampton, getting the lay of the city.   We also picked up a few fruits and fixings for Teresa's family recipe for sweet and sour pork chops. 

We're busy, having fun, enjoying life.  We saw the perfect motto on the back of a truck:

   "Adventure Before Dementia"

Perfect.

Bungarribee, QLD

Friday Rob and Julie trekked us into Gladstone to catch the bus north.  We had a very nice lunch at
"The Chatting Place".  We had a great 8 days at Radleigh, that's the name of their ranch.  The good news; I lost 5 pounds.  The bad news; Teresa put it on.  I had a tough time keeping up with Rob, and Julie and Ellie's cooking were just too good. 

Many thanks to Rob and Julie for welcoming us into their home.

As I intimated, Friday we caught the bus north and are now at Jim and Bonnie Besley's place in Bungarribee.  Bonnie and her friend Jan picked us up at the bus station at 8:00 friday night, and the next thing we know we're off to a family gathering for Annalise's first birthday.  There were about 25 family and friends there.  I thought it might be a bit awkward, but they made us feel quite at home.  The next night we were back to Tami and Anthony's place to finish up the leftovers from the previous night's party and watch the NZ vs AU rugby match.  Australia won. 

Bonnie has got a fair amount of painting for me to do, but along with painting comes patching.  Yuck, mud dust everywhere. 

Their son, Harvey breaks and trains horses.  Some for racing, jumping, dressage.  One is here from Germany.  It doesn't neigh in duetch !!!

So far we have not been able to use our broken Ipad, the hosts have internet but not wi-fi, so we're using their computers and don't have any way to get our pics into the blog. 

Seen lots of kangaroos, wallabies, emus.  Pretty cool stuff.

Ubobo, QLD

We had a long but informative bus ride from Brisbane to Gladstone, the bus driver was eager to share his local knowledge with us and we loved it.  Julie picked us up there about 6:30 Thursday evening, and then about a 1 hour ride out to "Radleigh," their ranch.

The ranch is big, I mean big.  I have been working with Rob mending fences and moving animals.

Rob has some very talented herding dogs, taught by him of course. 

No pictures yet.  Looks like we're moving on Friday.  Teresa has picked us a new host north of Rockhampton.

Teresa would like to be a little more busy but she's glad were together.  So am I !!!

Every day we learn 100 new things and I am lucky to be awake till 9:00.

Busy Day

Just left Teresa in bed after foot and leg rub, pooped out.  Still working on that stamina thing.
Our room in the hostel is on the 3rd floor and in the basement is a pub.  Last night was karaoke.  So loud and thumping we could not sleep so we got up for tea and coffee at 3:00.  The music finally quit about 4:30.  We caught an extra couple of hours of sleep, then hit the road.

We took a City Sights tour around the city.  I think the tour can be done in about 2 hours, but you get to hop on and off at any of the 19 stops.  We got off at Mt Coot-tha and the botanical gardens.  Both were excellent.  The views of the city from the mountain were superb and the plants at the botanical we're amazing.  We got lost twice in the gardens and missed our bus.  So we walked around some more and caught the next one.  Really beautiful !!!  The tour cost A35, which was a little steep for my cheap blood, but in the end, well worth it.  I would certainly recommend it to anyone to get a perspective of the beautiful city.

The ticket also included a trip on the City Cat ferry, which we did this evening.  The night lights of Brisbane were stupendous.

Last night after finishing my post I let Teresa read it (I won't let her read over my shoulder) and when she finished reading somehow dropped the IPad and of course the cover flipped open and it landed on the tile and shattered the glass.  So we are now being very gentle with it.  It costs almost as much to replace the glass as to buy a new one.  We'll see how long it lasts...

Headed for Gladstone in the morning.  About an 11 hour bus ride north.  Not that many kilometers, but you know Greyhound, they have lots of stops to make.  Julie will meet us there and take us to their ranch.

Can't get my pictures of the day loaded, so I guess I'll close with "no worries" and go to bed, too.

We Made It

You don't realize how long 16 hours is until you sit in one place that long.  Let me tell you how long it is; Teresa slept about 8 hours AND watched three full length movies,  I slept some, can't say how much as I didn't stay awake to monitor but I watched all of the episodes of "Two and a half men" for season 9, that's 13 episodes.

We flew over on Qantas and enjoyed it immensely.  In pretty short order after takeoff they served a real nice dinner.  After clearing away they passed out a snack bag before turning off the lights.  About 2 hours before landing they served a real nice breakfast.  Really we were pleased and full !!!

We got to the hostel about 730 this morning and as there was an availability they let us have our room then.  We napped a couple of hours and hit the streets for 4 hours then another short nap.

We wandered around some more this afternoon then had a lamb burger at McDonald's.  They put an egg and a slice of beet on it.  Sounds pretty weird but Teresa liked it so it must be good, right ?  Oh, she took the beet off, but I ate it that way.

Our roommates are from France, they expect to be in Australia about a year also.

Teresa is falling asleep waiting for me to finish this post so I better wrap it up.