GeckoMusings

Pretty sunrises!

2009-12-05T09:10:00.000+11:00

There's a reason I don't already have a tag made up for sunrises...I'm really, really not a morning person. I took this photo about a month ago though, we had some friends staying over who are morning people, and they felt the need to drag me and the camera out of bed to take photos of this. And I'm glad they did. Living in the mountains we don't usually get to see the pretty sunrises since we can't see the horizon, but we are blessed with a few stunning ones per year.

Every time I get up early for some silly reason, I always swear that I'll do it all the time...but then the bed is oh so comfy.....

Hello world! =)

2009-11-05T11:13:00.000+11:00

Hello there people...Gecko is still alive! I know from the huge gap in posts (*gasp* 4 months since my last!!) you probably would've thought otherwise but no, here she is ... happy and almost healthy. :)

Well I have been a naughty blogger haven't I! It's good to see thought that I do have 4 followers, hanging on faithfully (you poor things!), and I thank them very dearly! Hmm, now...what's been happening in the past four or so months? Even longer I suppose, since I was pretty terrible to the blog beforehand.

Well the first thing that comes to mind is that in August, my place of work burnt down. And contrarory to the countless jokes I've had thrown my way, no...I was not out the back smoking when it went up, and yes, whilst I was out partying hard, no...I did not sneak the two hour round trip to light it up so I didn't have to go to work the next morning. ;D

Ahh there's been plenty of rumours flying around, I guess it's only natural when such a shocking event happens that people's minds and imaginations go into over-drive and they start thinking it was Aliens or some dark, dark force cometh down upon our great earth...or, maybe just someone trying to cash in on insurance, but the sad truth it, not a single person in the world benefited much from it burning down.

Yes, this is what my work now looks like. Slightly hazardous work conditions don't you think?

So Gecko was out of a job. Luckily I was already doubting how long I would have that job for so I started saving my income...so I had enough to get me through the next month, until I got a new job. It's not much, but I now have a one-day per week job at a 'local' horse farm. I saw 'local' because it's an hour drive one-way. I always thought I'd love working with horses, I studied them for a year, then did another intense 8 week foaling course...but the reality is I hate it. No offence to any Thoroughbred breeders/riders/owners out there, but I don't agree with a lot of the practices used. I know why they're being done, and can understand it all, but it goes against a lot of the things I believe in when working with animals.

But that's doing me fine for now, the money is fantastic and although it's only 8 hours a week, it's enough to get me through the week. But what I'm really holding out for is the opening of a new place, that's replacing my old work. The owner is a very good friend of ours, and my family has been doing business with her and her husband for many years. They were expecting to open in December, but that's been pushed back to February because they don't want to open in the middle of the busiest time of the year! I've got a garunteed job there so I'm really looking forward to having a solid job that I'm sure I'll love, and of course having a reliable steady income would help!! They say you don't know what you've got until it's gone, and boy oh boy is it true or what!!! I used to whinge about working with the public, and people would always say I'm really good with them...now I realise just how much I really enjoyed it! I'll still be working with horses, but I'll stick to my faithful Australian Stock Horses thankyou very much. ;D

Well that's probably enough flooding for today, until tomorrow (I promise!! :P)!!

Photos from the other week

2009-07-20T08:38:00.000+10:00

I took these photos last time I posted pics, but I didn't get time to post them...so here they are, better late than never!!

^ Bundy and Maggie having a lie down

Woah....filly!

Camera? Omnomnomn....

Poor Rowie (and err, Bundy's bum), she wants some attention!

"Rooowiiee!"

"Hello!"

"Pfft, I'm sick of this, let's go!!"

"Rowieee!!"

Mexican stand off? (Caitlin in the left corner, Rowie in the right)

Yeehaaa! (Angel and Rowie)

HURRRRRRRR??? Kodi!!

Ellie and the new bub

2009-07-18T21:01:00.003+10:00

This morning when I was leaving for work I saw a black 'cow' laying down with a little calf lying next to it. I thought, 'oh goodie! Another new arrival!' As I whipped out the camera and got closer, this is what I found...not a mother but a teenage babysitter!!!

Remember Turkey?

2009-07-16T06:42:00.013+10:00

Do you remember Turkey???

She remembers YOU!!!

"foooooood??"

"Omnomnomn...human! I haven't had this for months!!!"

Turkey has been turned out to one of the big paddocks for a few months now, we've since weaned her calf and she should be pregnant with another one. This morning when I was feeding up she must have had a flashback and came around to say hello...and to see if I had any food of course! Notice the rest of the herd followed her? And they say sheep are bad!

First baby of the year!!!

2009-07-15T10:37:00.000+10:00

"Doh!"

"Steady....."

"Wooohoo!"

"Oh...hi!"

This bub was born sometime during the night, I'm not sure if it's a boy or girl yet. We literally brought the mum in a few days ago, so it was a close one!!!

Eager Wattles!

2009-07-08T08:16:00.000+10:00

Hello! Gecko lives! Still...

The wattles are coming out in flower super-early again this year!!

Remember LAST YEAR? The winter that never was? Well, proving my predictions of one hell of a winter wrong yet again, this one has been really mild. Seriously, we've only had two decent frosts, and I slept through one of them on one of my rare days off.

It's the 8th July today, and they begun coming out a week or two ago...that makes them 2 or 3 months early again!! Now, I'd like to figure out what the pattern is, and what makes them come out so early when we are still having Frosts. So I'm looking back through my blog from last year, and all I can put it down to it a good, mild winter...with not too many frosts.

Not that I mind!!

I can't decide...

2009-06-24T05:29:00.006+10:00

...which of these two photos I like the best.

I also got this one, while I'm not totally happy about it, I think it's rather nice...calming even.

My Babies

2009-06-23T14:26:00.003+10:00

My babies. Olly is the Grey, Ellie the black.

^ Anyone want to know what a Canon 40D camera tastes like? Ask Olly...

Green Tomatoes!

2009-06-22T12:04:00.000+10:00

I woke up to the most beautiful morning we've had in weeks today, and thankfully I have the day off so I could take a TON of photos! So I'll share these over the next few days, if I have any readers left that is...

^ What a BEAUTIFUL winter's morning!

^ Our dogs have it very hard here as you can tell...Kelly fast asleep.

^ I had five tomato plants still hanging on and they had all this green fruit on them. With the massive frosts here the plants were already copping it, and I don't have the time to cover & uncover them every day. So I pulled the green tomatoes, 4.8kg of them!!! I'll probably make Tomato Relish with them, I haven't done it before so we'll see how it turns out! BP has gone to town today so he's getting some ingredients.

We've had horrible weather lately, cloudy wet and miserable. The days would taunt us with dark clouds, telling you to stay inside, JUST incase it rained. It didn't. As wet and miserable as the days were we didn't get more than a few passing drizzles. But when night fell, the clouds would come together and POUR. Last night was the heaviest amount we had, almost an inch of rain fell, along with thunder and lightning. That's probably why today seems like such a beautiful day, all the clouds have blown away!

Blockage

2009-06-09T21:38:00.000+10:00

Gecko is having some trouble with motivation lately. Not only with photography and blogging, but everything in general. So I'm taking a mental break for a while, I'm hoping after the pressure lifts hopefully I can get back into my usual blogging swing.

Until then, know I am still in the world of the living, just going on 'vacation' for a while.

Odds and Ends... 8 out of 7? hehe

2009-06-05T10:28:00.000+10:00

So I had a few photos left over, I hope you all don't mind me sharing them too!!

^ Black Cockatoos flying overhead. Word is for every one black cockatoo that flies over, is one day of rain. Lets see, I took this on the 21st, and it's been cloudy and wet ever since. There must have been a few more who followed when I wasn't looking!

^ As much as I love seeing long grass, not this grass. This is African Lovegrass, a weed in this area. It grows in hard clumps, smothers out all other grasses and is very unpalatable to cattle, they'll only eat it when every blade of other grasses are gone. It's near impossible to get rid of, you can't kill with with slashing, burning or plowing. Info on African Lovegrass.

^ A dam we fenced off in the drought, there is still plenty of water but it's starting to drop a bit.

^ Just a nice photo of the gum trees and bush-apple trees...and of course black wattles are starting to creep in.

^ Autumn is now gone, winter is here!

Calves (photos ... 7/7)

2009-06-04T10:01:00.005+10:00

Personally, I LOVE calves, and photos of them. I have a photo album which is nearing being full of them alone. My dream is to one day put out a calendar of cute cuddly calf photos. Just like puppies though, they do grow up and usually out of the cuteness. But until then, I bring you...CALF PHOTOS!!!!!! =)

^ Uh Oh, this doesn't look good. I wonder what's wrong with them?

^ Nah! We're okay!!! Just sleeping!!

^ I love this red heifer calf, she's so...red!
Black calf: "Look at me! I'm almost as big!!"

I'd like to take this opportunity to share one of my favourite blogs with you. Gizzards & Calf Fries also has cattle, therefore also has CUTE CALFY PHOTOS!!!

Wattle Trees (photos ... 6/7)

2009-06-03T09:53:00.005+10:00

I know .... I've been terrible! =( And I don't even have an excuse other than pure laziness...I've had next to no urge to get on the computer recently, and when I do I'm reading other people's blogs instead of contributing to my own.

There is a pest of a tree growing far and wide across our area, the Black Wattle. It's extremely fast growing, and even faster at spreading it's seeds. A perfectly good piece of land can be ruined in no time if these are allowed to get away. It annoys me when you go to botannical gardens in NSW, Australia and people have willingly PLANTED these. Even more-so when I go to a nursery and see that people actually pay money to buy these plants. Why? Come to our property, we literally have hundreds of thousands of them growing you are MORE than welcome to take!!!

^ This area was cleared of black wattle within the past 6 or 7 years. It used to be a common stop whilst mustering. It's ontop of a mountain ridge, and you could see most of the valley below. We would pull up the horses and try to get a rough count of how many head of cattle were down there before disturbing them. Only a glimpse of the valley below can be seen now the wattles have grown up.

^ Recently cleared, this was just a small strip of wattle between the gully and the road. Before it was cleared, a cow could have been standing on the road and you wouldn't have been any the wiser about it!

^ Same deal, this photo was taken from the same position, just panned to the left. The centre of the valley where you can see the main road leading away was already clear, but given half a chance the wattles on either side would have met in no time.

^ This is the end of the section we recently cleared. You can see on the far side a very thick bunch of wattles. That's next year's project!

So how do we get rid of it? They are relatively easy to kill, as long as you do it at the right time of year. If you can get to them between late January and before the first frost, you'll have the highest success rate. As long as you get to them before that first frost, usually a week or two before winter, because once the wattle tree is touched by those icy mornings it slows it's sap movement dramatically. So if you cut down a wattle tree in the middle of winter, when spring comes and it wakes up, it will most likely start over and send out shoots.

In saying that though, you can clear a paddock completely of black wattle, then next year you'll have a few hundred seedlings emerging to take their place. Slashing, or cutting down by hand is the most common way, or if you have the money, setting a bulldozer loose on them does the job also. But as with most weeds, you must be persistant to get anywhere with these, if you don't attack next year's seedlings before they too grow up and start spreading their seeds, you have wasted your time.

Moooo!!!! (photos ... 5/7)

2009-05-28T07:18:00.001+10:00

Can you see the cow??

Can you see her now?

Nooowwww??? Yep, that red thing! They certainly blend in!

This old girl has been on the property for ages. I would even hazard a guess that she is one of the Top 5 oldest cows on the place:

^ This has gotta be her calf hey!

^ Nope. That's his mum on the left.

^ Lets go find bubby.

^ Stampede!!! Led by grande ol' mummy!

^ Here he is!

The Last Laugh (photos ... 4/7)

2009-05-27T18:44:00.003+10:00

As you all know, I went for a tour around the property a few days ago. Aswell as wanting to check out the cattle and give the dogs a run, I was curious to know where some friends had camped a couple of weeks ago. They said hello and goodbye as they went in/out, but I forgot to ask where they set up camp.

In my journies looking for the telltale ashes, I came across a gum tree with some very beautiful bark. But I must admit, I got a little bored photographing bark, and started chasing the closest animal. What did that animal happen to be? An Ant of course! And not just any ant, a Bull Ant.

Friendly looking sucker isn't he!

These photos don't do these creatures justice, in the above photo he was starting to get a little annoyed at the big black thing chasing him, so he turned to face it. Huzzah!!!!

Ahh ha!! Found them! They had camped in my personal favourite camping spot on the property.
I had a little chuckle at the small logs such 'big strong men' had used as seats, but that smugness quickly disappeared when I turned around to see that they had used the entire stack of wood I had PAINSTAKINGLY stacked by hand last year, in preperation for MY next camping trip. GET YOUR OWN WOOD PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!! =(

My stack of wood was exactly where Angel is now laying...on the ground...no wood to be seen.

But I still think I got the last smug chuckle in. This dam is no more than 15metres from the camping area, and I know for a fact there is a Red-bellied Black Snake family that lives around here. I've 'relocated' one myself, and only saw his big brother about a month ago. I wonder if they had any visitors??? Teee he he he he.

KANGAROOS! (photos ... 3/7)

2009-05-26T06:46:00.002+10:00

"Hey Bob! What's that two legged thing over there??"

"I dunno Larry! Ask Burnie!"

"Hey Burn-IT'S A HUMAN!!!!! HOP FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!!"

"TIME TO SPLIT KIDS!''

How many roos can you see? They're in there somewhere!

My mutts (photos ... 2/7)

2009-05-25T09:49:00.000+10:00

First off a HUGE sorry about the delay in posting, I've been working my butt off over the weekend so I hadn't been on to check the blog. I swear I had these scheduled to post themselves but for some unknown reason they are still sitting there as drafts. Oh well, better late than never!!!

So here are some photos of my mutts...some of them anyway!!!

Troy

Kelly

Kodi, Kate and Angel

Angel, after a big run

Skye...the devil dog!!! (photos... 1/7)

2009-05-22T11:35:00.001+10:00

I tell you, this pup is evil. Not only does she share the night shift with Kodi for keeping everyone awake, look at these ares! They're morphing into HORNS!!!

WATCH OUT!!! SHE MAY VERY WELL FRY YOU WITH THOSE EYES!

phchuuuuuuu! ssssssssssss.......*melts*

Photos from around the place

2009-05-21T22:22:00.003+10:00

Okay I am still here, I'm currently going through about 400 photos that I took on a recent trip around the property. There is so much I want to show you, but I won't bundle them all in one massive photo-blocked post. There's about 7 different sets, so stay tuned!!

Internet Identities

2009-05-19T07:32:00.001+10:00

I would like to link to a post on another blog today, a blog that often gets my brain (and emotions) into gear, Women Have Pet Peeves. But THIS is the post I have really been thinking about today, and would love to hear my reader's comments about.

I won't steal their post, but wander over and take a look.

Okay so you're back? Good. Personally, I started off on the internet just like that, never using any part of my name, then gradually moved to using my first name. It took me a very long time to type my surname into any box on the internet. Then I finally plucked up the courage to buy something on ebay. I can't remember exactly what it was, a postage stamp probably (because I collect them). Then I bought another one, then another one. Then something slightly more expensive, a book. Then maybe a camera battery and so on. I think the most expensive thing I have bought on there was probably about AU$40. For now, that's about my limit. I have only sent a large amount of money across the internet once, but that was to a blogging 'friend' (as well as you can know someone online).

Blogs are a huge aspect of internet privacy though, and everyone has their boundaries of how much they will reveal on theirs. Most of you know me as Gecko, and only a very few people who read this know my real name because we have had dealings outside our blogs. As you would notice I refer to my Business Partner as BP, I will never reveal anyone else's identity online, especially when they don't know I write about them (teehee!).

So my questions to you today are:

1. Do your family/housemates know you blog?
2. Just how much do you reveal on your blog? Your full name? Country? State? Town?
3. Have you ever met up with someone you met online in person? Why?
4. When you surf the internet, does the possiblity of people watching and tracking you lurk in your mind?

Sparking Photography!

2009-05-18T13:31:00.000+10:00

I have a full day off work today, and I'm not really sure what to do with myself! No need to go into town, no assignments, the horses have been turned out to the mountains for the winter, and the dogs barked ALL NIGHT so they're on detention for the day. The boss offered for me to come into work for the day if I wanted...but I gently said no, I still wanted to be sane at the end of the week, thankyou.

I discussed this peril with a friend last night, wondering what on earth I would do with myself. He suggested to tie my camera to my hand for the day and fill up a memory card, then wipe it and start all over again. Well, for some reason I've been stuck in one of my photography slumps for a while, I just don't have the slightest pull to get out and take photos. So when I woke up this morning and it's cold and windy, with the occasional shower of rain, as bad as I feel admitting it I was slightly relieved. Laziness? Probably.

But something that has the potential to spark my interest in photography again was an idea my friend and I came up with last night. A PHOTOGRAPHY ROAD TRIP!!!!! Now THAT's an idea! We are hoping to get time off work, and enough money (yeah, those two statements kindof counteract each other don't they!) to get out on one next week, hopefully Friday!

Next was an issue of WHERE. The first place that came to mind was a four-hour drive which I know for a fact is stunning in Autumn, but marked that one off as a tad too far away for starters. Luckily not far from home there is some beautiful vineyards, wineries and the like, which should supply lots of subjects to photograph for the day!! Also in that area are some huge horse studs with the whole green rolling hills thing going for us.

I'm SO excited about this, I just hope we get off our bums and actually do it!!! Anyone done anything like this before? Not necessarily photography related, please share in your comments!

Who says it's only Autumn???

2009-05-17T19:55:00.000+10:00

I HATE the cold. With a passion. I hate the fact it takes me two hours to talk myself into having a shower because I have to get undressed. And I hate the fact it takes me (literally) an extra half an hour to drag myself out of bed in the morning! It's so easy to snuggle up to the warm covers and sleep through an alarm in winter.

This morning when I went to work at 8am, it was 3 degrees Celsius (about 37 deg fahrenheit). To those who live in areas where it snows that might seem like nothing, but to me that's FREEZING! Luckily because I started work a bit earlier, BP offered to feed up. That meant I only had to go through the suffering of one change of clothes, PJs to work clothes!!!

A Thought for Today

2009-05-15T10:58:00.001+10:00

There's a funny tradition going on in the valley at the moment. As most of you would know, I live over an hour away from the nearest town, so needless to say we don't have a paper-run out here! But every morning the papers are taken into the nearby towns by truck. He must come from the bigger nearby town delivering it to the smaller ones.

A few months ago, he had some trouble with his truck, and wasn't going to make his run on time! The end of the world was in sight, if he didn't get those papers delivered on time, time may very well stand still!!!

Our neighbour just happened to be nearby when his truck broke down, and the night in shining armour he is, fixed his truck and helped him on his merry little way. In true country style, he refused to take money for it, he was just helping someone in need.

Now, every morning you can hear the paper truck going down through his gears, slowing down in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason. Then the driver's window is wound down, and an arm emerges. The arm is holding something ... a paper! And with one almighty throw, right over the cab of the truck, he tosses the morning paper onto my neighbour's driveway.

Now people in the city may be wondering what's the big deal? It's just a paper? Two things... because we don't get any papers delivered out here, it's nice to have someone bring one to you every morning, because you can't exactly pop down to the corner shop and buy one for yourself! It's a small pleasure I think a lot of people take for granted.

Aswell as that, it may only be a $1.20 paper, but we've all heard this saying before...it's the thought that counts! Bringing something as small as a paper to us out here in the sticks is what makes our morning.

So whether you are reading this over your morning coffee, during your lunchbreak (or not during your lunch break! ;D) at work, or catching up on some blog reading before going to bed, keep in mind that the smallest things can make someone's day. So why not wake up with a smile on your face, and work to put one on someone else's. After all, you are alive!!!

Brrr....winter is almost here!

2009-05-14T17:12:00.000+10:00

Although officially it's Autumn...

...was had our first decent frost this morning! Here's Olly coming for breakfast:

^ Ellie is always faster than Olly...she wants her milk after all!

^ I had some mean delivery men come up to work after delivering furniture to the house this afternoon. One thought it would be funny to tell me Olly was splattered all across the front of his truck. So I spat on his burger and showed him the door. Naaahhhh I wouldn't do that!!! hmm.....! hehe!

Good times with friends

2009-05-10T08:30:00.000+10:00

Gecko has slipped a bit with the posting, hasn't she!!!

I do have an excuse though...I had a party to organise, run and clean up after!!! Now, if you asked me 6 months ago if I would plan a party, or even just a night out on the town...NO WAY!!! Too much responsibility, what if something went wrong? But a few months ago I realised I hadn't seen much of my friends from school, and even though it's been a few years since we left school I am putting on a huge defence to ward off the whole, 'lost touch over the years' scenario. So I planned a night out, even made the dinner reservation MYSELF!!! =O And you know what...I LOVED it! When a friend was planning the next night out, I found myself itching to take over the reins...because I wasn't in control!!! Okay, so I may have found my inner control freak, but for the moment, I'm liking it!

So I had a party at my house, even though mine is the furthest out of town!! But after a bit of complaining about sitting in the car for an hour and the windy road, everyone came to realise WHY it was such a good idea to have it a my house. The other people living in the household went out for the night, so the whole house to ourselves for one. Some of the many other pros for having it way out here in the sticks include not being refused entry to bars because you're too intoxicated, no traffic to walk out infront of while being so, no robbers or rapists, and no sound restrictions!

So all in all it was a good night, in the morning after the big do, before the hangovers had worn off, everyone was planning the next big party!!!

Today in the mail...

2009-05-06T16:38:00.000+10:00

...a package.

Now what on earth could this be?!?! From America....hmm, the mind boggles even more!

Wow, that was quick!! It's here already! (What am I on about? Link 1 Link 2). Sorry about the plastic, I'm too scared to take it out yet!!

I think she did a fantastic job, this is the photo she worked from:

How we came to have 6000 acres.

2009-05-06T11:18:00.002+10:00

The final suggestion for a cure from my bloggers block was to share how I came to live on such a large property. We have just sold a block out the back, so we now have about 6000 acres.

Well, about a year ago a neighbour researched some of our family history for us. Sadly shortly after he suffered a stroke and has been in a nursing home ever since. He managed to trace back as far as the first settler of our family name on this property. It's not clear if he staked the land as his own when the government was handing land out, or if he purchased it from someone else. His name was Robert.

Robert was born in 1816, I don't know where, but somewhere in England I think. I don't know when he came to Australia either, but what I do know is where he is buried. It is a rough tradition (i.e we don't always do it, but try to) to lay flowers on my grandfather's grave for fathers day. So last September we did this, and had some spare time, so I decided to search the cemetery on the off chance I might find one of them. I forgot to bring the peice of paper with me so I was working just from memory. I did find a few that I knew were definetly my ancestors, my great grandfather and such. I was taking photos of the headstones with my camera phone for reference to later at home, then I came along a headstone that read, "Robert Chapman". Robert's headstone lay piled in broken peices, we actually had to lift some up to read the full name. I couldn't remember a Robert in our family tree at the time, so I took a quick photo and moved on.

Imagine my suprise when I got home and realised the name and dates matched the first settler of our name!!!

The first settler of my name lies here. I hope to replace his headstone soon.

So however way he got it, Robert settled with 1,500acres of land. He owned the whole valley. Robert then had two children, William and George. The property had a 'main road' (however main they could be in the mid 1800s!) going straight through the middle, and when Robert died, he had the property split in two where the road divided it. He gave 8000 acres to William, and 7000 acres to George. How George felt about this I don't know! ;)

William had a son, who passed it onto his son, who passed it onto his son...my grandfather. My grandfather moved to sell 1500 acres of practically unusable bush-land, but unfortunatly died before he could see it go through. So when that finally went through, after 5 years of problems, that left the new landholder, my father, with 6500 acres of land. There was a small block of land left out the back of 500 acres (mostly mountain), which we have recently sold.

As for George, he left his side to his daughter. She got married and ran the place with her husband for many years. My dad, when he was young helped them out as they grew old. They had a daughter, but unfortunately for the story, she had no interest in the property (silly girl!), and it was sold. The new owner was a doctor from Sydney who used the property as his weekend escape. Thankfully he kept the property as it was, running cattle in three seperate paddocks. My dad mustered his cattle for him too as he got older (my dad...the remaining helper of this land), and in return was allowed to run a few head of cattle down there. I can still remember mustering down there, dad the lone rider on Maggie, and me hanging on behind the saddle like a monkey.

6 years ago the doctor sold the property for a nice AU$3.25million dollars...unfortunately, as we all know money can't buy everything, and in October 2008 he sadly lost his battle with cancer. The property was sold to a very well-off man who owns a very large company. Although he didn't officially subdivide the land, he fenced it off into about 40 small paddocks and is cell grazing.*

So that's the story of not only our property, but the whole valley too! I don't know what'll happen if I get married though...you saw what happened to the other side of the road when it was passed onto a female!!! I am determined NOT to let that happen on my watch though!!!

*cell grazing - Having a lot of small paddocks, too small to run the amount of cattle you have full time, so the cattle are moved into one, they eat all the grass in it in about 2 or 3 days, then are moved into a fresh paddock. Some farmers prefer this method because they say it gives each individual paddock a chance for a break and can help keep worm infestations low. Can work efficiently if done properly.

Lamingtons recipe

2009-05-05T07:41:00.001+10:00

Thanks to the recommendations from my post the other day, I've decided I would share an Australian recipe with you all today! Up until a few years ago I had no idea this was so Australian, I thought everyone ate Lamingtons!

Lamingtons

Ingredients

1 slab sponge cake (better if it's one day old)
4 cups icing sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup milk
2 - 3 cups desiccated coconut

To make the icing

Cool the cake for at least half an hour in the Fridge or Freezer, then cut into squares or fingers

Combine the Sugar and Cocoa in a large bowl

Heat the milk and butter in a saucepan until the butter is melted.

Add to the sugar/cocoa mixture and mix to a fluid yet not runny consistency

To put it all together

Make a production line of Sponge Fingers, Chocolate Icing mixture in a bowl, coconut in a shallow container or plate, and a cooling rack with paper underneath.

Using a fork dip the sponge fingers into the icing, roll it in the coconut covering it well, and then place on to the rack to dry.

Once they have dried, place in an airtight container and leave to "mature" for at least a few hours, preferably overnight, before eating.

Enjoy!

Girls day out

2009-05-04T13:15:00.001+10:00

Gecko is out for the day, and thanks to modern technology i am posting to you from the local cafe! Im having a light lunch of scones with jam and cream, and an ice chocolate. Yummy! I just treated myself to a haircut, and i tell you what, you what, you dont know what you have got til its gone! Im not talking about my hair, im talking about the hairdresser! My usual girl is away on maternity leave and the girl i had, whilst pleasent, was rough! She kept pushing and pulling hair, and burnt my ear wit the hairdrier. I was trying to control my pain, but reflexes got the better of me, i jerked my head away in pain. Oh, was that too hot? Then proceeded to do the same on the other side. Ouch!

Tracking with Dogs

2009-05-03T15:09:00.005+10:00

Firstly, thankyou to those who commented on my 'blocked' post...your suggestions are always welcome and those ones should get me through the next week or so!

Last night I went out on the town with my best girlfriend - she has waited a while but she has finally found herself a fella. So we had a gossiping girl's night at the pub, before stocking up at the bottle shop and going to his house...where I proceeded to interrogate him. Well, isn't that the best friend's job?? =P

^ Usually a Rum drinker, last night I felt like being a little girly, so my choice of drink was the Guava Vodka Cruisers. I got drunk as a skunk on these unexpectantly powerful little suckers, and confessed my love to a fella I went to school with and who I've recently caught up with again. Perhaps I should tape the phone shut with sticky tape next time I go drinking!

Today I had a visit from some people who do tracking with their dogs. They needed land to use for their competitions, so I offered them a part of our property to use. The ability of these dogs, and the obedience, is unbelievable! Someone walks out a track, and without having seen where the track goes, someone takes their dog to the start of the scent, and then follow it. Each dog starts with 100 points, and points are taken away for mistakes, such as if the dog takes off after a wrong scent and has to be called back. The person who made the track also dropped 'articles' along the way...they can be anything! A plastic lid off a bowl, a toy, a golf ball. The idea is to train the dog to drop, sit or stand (whatever your preference is) when they identify one of these articles. The handler has to tell the judge beforehand what their dog does to identify an article...so if the dog doesn't do that at an article, they loose 5 points.

All of that is hardly even scratching the surface! If you love dogs, but you aren't really into the prancing and showing, perhaps Tracking is something you should look into! Competing and winning is great, but the people I spoke to today love it so much, they train and practice even when there's no upcoming events.It's great fun, gives you quality time with your dog...and better yet, you get exercise but don't even notice it!

Gecko is blocked. =(

2009-04-30T18:18:00.000+10:00

Gecko is in a bit of a 'bloggers block' at the moment, so do forgive me for the patchy posting! Any suggestions on what you want to hear about, please leave a comment letting me know!!! Anything random, cattle, horses or photography ... Australia ... anything!

Open discussion for everyone below in the comments ... I want to hear from YOU! If you don't usually comment, COMMENT anyway!! If you always comment...well you get the picture! =P

What topics make you think, 'wow...I really enjoyed reading that!'?
What DON'T you want to hear about?
What do you think is missing from Gecko Musings? What could make it BETTER?
etc etc...plus any more answers to questions you can think of!

Let 'er rip! Honesty please, and I won't get offended! Meanwhile I'll sit here twiddling my thumbs trying to come up with a decent post!

Power blackouts in Sydney - get over it!

2009-04-28T18:45:00.000+10:00

I'm getting a little annoyed over something, so if you aren't in the mood for listening to a rant, mark this as 'read' and go read another blog.

Before I start, this isn't a jab at city people...it's not a jab at anyone in particular, just society in general.

As you may know, Sydney is the capital city for New South Wales, Australia. I'm a few hours from Sydney, and so when something happens there, I tend to hear all about it on the news. About a month ago (I think it was about the 30th of March, but don't quote me on that), there was a blackout in the Sydney Central Business District. Okay fair enough, blackouts are never fun. But the uproar over it was ridiculous! Heads wobbled, ready to roll across the floor, as if they had decided, 'hey! lets send the CBD into chaos for a while to see what happens!' But everyone got over it pretty quickly after the initial stir, then today there was another blackout.

"About 30,000 businesses and homes in northern parts of the city were without power for up to 45 minutes on Tuesday morning, after workers digging near a substation activated a safety shutdown."
-Source

OH MY! 45 MINUTES?!?!?! I wish power came back on that quickly here when it goes out! We are lucky if we get it back on in the next 2 hours! Seriously though, I truly understand how annoying it is to have power outages, and I certainly wouldn't appreciate being stuck in a lift, but out here power blackouts are just a part of life...you grab a book and wait it out. Or even better, you're outside so you don't even notice until you see your digital clock flashing when you get home. You don't sit around whining to the news crews about how this has interrupted your oh-so-busy day.

Doesn't everyone wish for more time to do the simple things in life? So if anyone were to ask this country girl what she thinks (not that I'm holding my breath), I'd tell them to stop the head-hunting over who's responsible, and take it as a sign to not be so reliant on electricity. We are in an ever-changing world, and with climate change on the horizon, learn to find something good out of a bad situation. Take a walk in the park, catch up on the latest goss in Women's Day magazine, or even meditate if that's your thing. Hands up who wouldn't want an extra 45minutes in their day? Anyone?

"At Circular Quay, the outage plunged the catwalk of Australian Fashion Week into darkness."
-same source

As for this...all I have to say is...teehehehee!!

Mustering with Gecko

2009-04-27T18:43:00.000+10:00

There's a cattle sale on Saturday, so yep...it's mustering time again! Come with Gecko and Rowie (and all the dogs of course) to muster a herd of cattle!

I found this heifer sitting by herself, away from the rest of the herd. She has three day sickness:

^ She's mostly lame in her right foreleg, which means she's probably in the last stages.

^ There's nothing more useful when mustering than good dogs. I brought this herd in myself because BP had to go into town. I took the side to keep the cattle together against the fence, and the dogs brought up the stragglers. It would've taken me 3 times longer to muster without them!

^ Rowie having a 'take-away' snack!

^ Move 'em up...

^ The older dogs tend to stay behind the horse, they know it's safer there. But the younger pups, Skye and Kodi like to stay close to the action.

^ *insert western standoff music here*

^ Almost home on this beautiful Autumn day.

Just between you, me and the gatepost, Gecko is a wee-bit sore tonight ... after this morning's fall, and the long ride on Rowie.

Yeehaaa!! Giddy Up Bundy!

2009-04-27T10:36:00.000+10:00

^ This was Gecko this morning, only difference being Bundy isn't a Palomino!

Silly really, he was just standing there, me sitting on his back, and Bundy decided it would be hilarious to sneak around to take a chunk out of my shin with his teeth. Since I wasn't expecting it I jumped and yelped...he obviously thought that was hilarious and took off pigrooting around the yard. Well, bareback isn't the easiest way to stay on a horse, especially one as narrow as Bundaberg!

I came off, but the funny thing is I'm sure I fell off to the right...but I have grazes all up my left hand side. Now explain that one?!?

Mixed Bag today

2009-04-26T18:19:00.000+10:00

Youtube is annoying me.
I'm trying to upload the video of me riding Rowie the other day, but it won't go through! I was cleaning up my computer and accidently deleted the program I usually use to trim my videos, but even so, it isn't THAT long. I tried yesterday morning and yesterday afternoon several times, then again this morning before work but it just refuses to go through!!! But I shall keep trying, and will post it if it goes through!!!

Nancy over at Cliffy's Mom's Blog has done a FANTASTIC job on painting my horses from a photo, see THIS for the amazing step-by-step post, including the result! I LOVE it! The more I look at it the more I love it!!!

Other than all of that, I had a great day today. The other employee who usually works with me and the bosses on weekends is sick, and she usually clashes with my boss so it can get quite tense in there when it's busy. So even though we were down a hand, we were probably more relaxed!!! Ohh, that and a certain...guy. =) He rides a bike, blonde hair and brown eyes, and scheeeeexy!! He used to come out at least once every weekend for a ride, but he hasn't been out for a few weeks now. But today he was out and about, sexy as ever. ;D Only thing is he seems pretty shy, so I push lots for conversation! But that's okay, I like the shy ones! ;D

A lovely ride on a lovely day

2009-04-24T16:09:00.000+10:00

It was a beautiful day today, so I took my horse-withdrawals from seeing other people's horses and not being able to ride for 3 days and jumped on Rowie. She was FANTASTIC!

^ I headed up an arm where BP and some neighbours have been doing some 'scrub cutting' to see how it was coming along. You can see some fallen trees in the top right hand corner.

^ Does anyone remember Amber? And her baby?

^ Her horns are still growing, they're going to be HUGE!!! They're a bit dangerous, she wouldn't hurt you on purpose but she just has to turn her head to say hello and she could speer you with those things!

^ This poor girl went in calf very young...a baby with a baby!

^ Kodi, such a happy dog!

I tested Rowie's campdrafting skills today, I wasn't sure how she would go. The first cow was a bit disasterous, Rowie wasn't sure what I wanted her to do, and so I didn't know what she would do. After a bit of playing we got a new cow, and something clicked. She followed it all by herself. I couldn't help thinking her Polo days helped, they say Polo Ponies learn to follow the ball, and it was like she told herself, "remember those days...the ball is just a bit bigger!!!" I took a video, but will post it a bit later on. Below is a photo of us cooling off in the dam afterwards. She gave it her all, and was pretty sweaty!!

^ We were in the paddock where Bundy and Maggie are, Bundy decided to come say hello after we got out of the dam.

^ "Hello" After this photo he wheeled around and galloped back into the scrub...

^ ...then returned shortly after with Maggie in tow.

^ Wee!

Home from the Sydney Royal!

2009-04-23T17:17:00.000+10:00

Gecko is HOME!

I had a ball, but gee is it good to be home again.

I slept in my swag above the show cattle at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, for those who hadn't caught on. ;D It wasn't the party atmosphere I thought it would be, the first night I was fairly tired, along with everyone else, so we just crashed as soon as we hit the pillow!!! The second night came with the news that one of the girls looking after the same cattle, had her drink spiked the night before so we were all a bit hesitant. Luckily she tasted the difference in her drink and reported it to the patrolling police. And the third night...I was feeling severly anti-social for some reason, so I subscribed to Foxtel on my phone for 24 hours and curled up in my swag to watch cartoons.

I have the day off work tomorrow and I think it's about time I cleaned up my bedroom, my floor is doubling as a wardrobe at the moment!!!

Gecko is off to the Sydney Royal!

2009-04-19T18:47:00.001+10:00

Yep, I'm heading to the Sydney Royal Easter Show tomorrow! I'm so extremely excited, it's not funny!!! LINK

My best girlfriend is staying down there, working with the showing cattle. She took my swag in for me along with hers (we will be sleeping in our swags in the lofts above the cattle apparently). Then I'm getting a lift down tomorrow morning (leaving at 6am, eek!) with my parents who are going down for the day, and I will be spending a few days hanging around the show during the day, and drinking and partying during the night!! I'm not sure exactly when I'll be coming home, my boss was meant to be going to the show, and therefore bring me home on Wednesday, but now she's not sure she will have enough energy to. The show finishes on Wednesday, but the cattle will be coming home on Thursday morning. So plan B. (well closer to plan M. actually!!!) is to catch a lift home in one of the cattle trucks. Here's hoping I get a seat in the cab, and not up the back with the bulls!!! So that will(should) get me halfway home! Then I'm hoping my nextdoor neighbour will be in town that day to bring me the rest of the way home!!!

Phew. I've exhaughsted myself just thinking about it! I've been saving every penny of my pay for the past two weeks to blow especially at the show! You think one day with the kids is expensive at the show? Then I hate to think how much it will cost for me for 3 days and 3 nights there!!!!!!!!!

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I'm so excited!!! I feel like a kiddy going to the show again! I've only been to the Royal once, so this year I can get a really good look around!!!

Photos from yesterday's ride

2009-04-18T06:45:00.007+10:00

^ A beautiful Autumn day. Not a cloud in sight!

^ Oh! There's one! Aww, nah it's just Skye.

^ My favourite part about riding around the property...finding newborns!

^ My reliable mount, Rowie!

^ Seems the dogs rely on her too! Not to kick that is!!

^ What do you think Kate's saying?

Bovine ephermeral fever (3 day sickness)

2009-04-17T14:42:00.000+10:00

Here in NSW, Australia there has been quite a few cases of 3 day sickness (Bovine ephermeral fever) lately. 3 day sickness is a virus cattle get, most commonly in this area in March/April. There has been a bit of confusion as to how the virus is spread in the past, but according to the link supplied above it is spread by biting insects. Signs of an affected beast are stiffness and depression. They will either stand or lay around for a few days staring into space. They won't eat, drink or chew their cud. There is a vaccine available, but not many people vaccinate because most years 1 or 2 animals out of our entire herd (400 head) are infected, and they recover quickly (hence the name 3 day sickness).

This year our first case was a pregnant heifer on the flat. We knew young calves can be affected when their mother has 3 day sickness, because while the cow is ill, she will stop producing milk. But we weren't sure how it would affect the unborn calf, word is that cows in late pregnancy can abort, and bulls can become sterile when infected. But she recovered, and had a healthy calf. A week or two later, Olly's mum and another heifer on the flat also got it. On the flat alone we had already had more cases than an average year. So I went for a ride on Rowie this morning and found another 2 cases of it ... and that was only in 1 paddock. Yesterday BP went into town, and came home telling of how we aren't the only ones with a lot of 3 day sickness, apparently people in town were getting a lot of it too. So it's going around!!! I just hope it goes away soon!!!

^ My cow, Sophie, has 3 day sickness. She's very stiff after I made her get up, and she's also lame in her front foreleg.

A Very Difficult Day!!!

2009-04-15T20:04:00.000+10:00

Do you ever have a day, when everything is so difficult you just feel like crying?

Today has been one of those days.

I hitched a ride into town with BP in hopes that I could go to the doctors. I also wanted to post a letter and get some print cartridges.

Due to a shortage of doctors today, I couldn't get in to see any doctors...even the one I don't like was booked out.
For lunch I had a beautiful Iced Chocolate...but lost half of it over the table when the ice-cream decided to make trouble and pushed all the milk/ice out of the glass.
I got a text from my troubled-relationship friend, I took him home from work the other afternoon because he didn't have his car, his lovely (catch onto the gritted teeth?) girlfriend found out that I ... wait for it ... DROVE HIM HOME!! *shock horror!* and now she's making him wait for her to assess their relationship. So, now our friendship is on indefinete suspension. Don't get me started.
I splashed out and finally bought myself a Next G mobile phone, I was delighted to find out that I can keep my old phone number from a different network. Of course then there were unlimited problems with the transferring process and I was sitting in the 'customer chair' for half an hour, for a 2 minute job!
On my normal mobile phone my phone coverage drops out 45minutes from home. The Next G phones are meant to be fantabulous...I thought I'd be able to lay on my bed chatting to friends into the wee hours on my mobile. No such luck, I got home and turns out I have to stand outside in the cold away from the house to get worthwhile coverage to send a text message.
I called the boss at work today to see if I can get tomorrow morning off work so I could run in to go to the doctors to get some antibiotics. Boss: "I need to go out tomorrow to get supplies, so I'll need you here. Can you come this afternoon and I can pick them up then??" Me:"Umm, no sorry I can't, I'm in town at the moment and I'm not driving, and BP isn't coming home until after dark." Boss: "Well, can you come in at 9am in the morning? I'll make it a quick trip." Well, what am I meant to say? GRR!
Now...I'm searching for my Cold & Flu tablets that I went without for 3 days because I had none...I bought some today and now I've lost them. WHY ME?!?!!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! *cries*

Okay, now I've got that out of my system, I need a plan of action to FIX this mess!!!

Doctors: I'm hoping one of two things will happen. Either the Cold & Flu tablets will clear it up, or I can get in to see a doctor tomorrow afternoon. Time will tell on that one.
Iced-Chocolate: Okay, not much I can do about that one huh!!!!
Troubled-relationship friend: I have a speech planned if she attacks me, but I've finally realised it's their relationship, and there's nothing anyone on the outside can do, no matter how much they want to help. Wait and see.
Phone number for Next G phone: The number finally went through, and I have my old number still. The girl was very nice and apologetic, so I'm happy I don't have another number to memorise!
Next G coverage: I can buy an external ariel to put on my car which is supposed to give better coverage. I may get one of those to see if it improves my coverage. In the meantime I can't wait to go for a ride on Rowie around the property to see how coverage differs everywhere else.
Work: Head down, tail up. And try not to infect the customers! Hehe!
Cold & Flu tablets: Would you believe, after typing that out about the tablets I went looking again, and found them. Where? Ohhh, under the Fish & Chips that I brought home for tea. Of course, why didn't I look there!

Gecko - M.I.A

2009-04-13T10:25:00.000+10:00

I know...I've been very bad with my blogging, along with everything else in my life at the moment. Rowie needs work, my car is desperate for a cleaning...inside and out, and my room looks like a war-zone! But I'm sick, I feel like I've been run over by a train. The other day I picked up a friend from work and took him home because he was sick, I haven't spoken to him since but it seems whatever he was getting, I caught it too!!! *groan*

I just wanted to update you all, and let you all know I haven't abandoned GeckoMusings, now I'm going back to bed to die. =(

Autumn Cleaning

2009-04-09T20:07:00.000+10:00

You find amazing things when you clean up!

Even though its Autumn ... I'm Spring-cleaning! I'm getting a new dressing table in my room, so of course I have to clean out the old ones. My room looks like a bomb has hit it. And look what I found behind the old dressing table:

^ This hairbrush had been sitting in one place for so long, it was literally STUCK to the wall!!! Yerk!

Bad movies and injustices in life

2009-04-08T19:00:00.000+10:00

I had another day out today, yay! I thought I might as well have a day to myself, with Easter coming up there's only work, work, work in sight so I made my escape while I could.

So I went into town again, sometimes I just like to have a day to myself, have lunch...by myself, go to the library (and read all the latest copies of magazines for free...love it!)...by myself, and go to the movies...by myself. Might sound lonely but I really don't mind being by myself sometimes!

I saw The Pink Panther 2, and was sorely disappointed. I will admit I only saw it because there was nothing better on, but I thought I might get a few laughs out of it. Ha, yeah right. Okay, I chuckled 2 or 3 times, but I kept thinking, "I think that was meant to make us laugh?" ... and it doesn't take much to make me laugh! I can bearly even remember it, it all sortof melting together, and left me sitting there thinking, 'hmmm, that's all?'.

Anyway that's just my opinion of course.

I just read this story, and I'm not really sure why they've taken the money off her? I love the part where it says "The order dated March 24, 2009 now allows that money to be banked into the government's Confiscated Assets Account." Maybe I should start stealing money, and open an account titled "Confiscated Assets Account". But no, I'm not the government so I wouldn't get away with it. Oh, and "the proceeds of a crime." Who's crime though? And what about the hundreds if not thousands of other books written about true stories of crime? Aren't they classed as "proceeds of a crime" if they're talking about a murder? Or gangs? What about Andrew Johns' book, 'the two of me'. He committed a crime in the form of drugs too, and is talking about it in the book. Isn't he getting proceeds from a crime too? Hmph, different set of rules I guess.

I've read Schapelle's book, I borrowed it off a friend so it wasn't my money that went to the government, but I don't see why she's not allowed to get the money for it. It's HER story, SHE sat down and told it. Grrr, annoyed.

Movie Day!

2009-04-06T18:47:00.000+10:00

I had a bit of a day out today. I felt like getting away and heading into town, and decided to take my mum out for the day. I took her out to lunch and then we went to the movies, where we saw "Confessions of a Shopaholic" ... unfortunatly this is the last week it's showing, so it was moved to the crappy cinema, flat floor so you need to crook your neck over people to see the screen! Although, wasn't really a problem, there were only 5 or 6 people in there!!!

I was in a bit of a down mood, I always feel bad about myself after soppy movies, and Shopaholic was a bit that way...and aswell as that I had my friend texting me (from THIS post, STILL in that relationship by the way) about how crappy his relationship is, and then saying he is scared that if he breaks it off with her no-one else will want him. LOL...yeah, don't get me started. So what's the solution to all this? Blast hate music? Well, sure...except I had mum in the car. So I ran into Big W before I went home and searched for a movie, ANY movie without a soppy love story in it. It's really not that easy you know! Try it! And if you find any, let me know and I'll buy it! So I finally found "Cloverfield", a beautiful end-of-the-world movie about monsters and Manhatten being destroyed (nothing against Manhattan!). So instead I came home and blasted that, not only did it make me feel better by distracting me, it was actually a really good movie!!! Completely filmed from a camcorder angle, at first I didn't know what to think, but you soon get into it!! Excellent! 4.5 stars! Which is pretty good for me!

BY THE WAY! I'm starting a new travelling toy! Check out http://pattithepanda.blogspot.com/ !

Fugly Horse of the Day blog

2009-04-05T09:34:00.011+10:00

If you haven't heard of Fugly Horse of the Day blog, I recommend you check it out.

In this post, she mentions people having to take a test to own a horse, and I think it's half decent idea. I think it would be incredibly hard to police though. All the private sales that go on, imagine how many people would want to flog the horse off asap and therefore not worry about who's buying the horse.

Food for thought for you today.

Farmer Wants a Wife - TV show

2009-04-04T09:34:00.000+11:00

(first off, even if you don't care about Farmer Wants a Wife, watch the youtube video at the end (link only), it gives a TRUE demo of life in Australia!)

Okay...I'm VERY angry right now. I'm a little behind in posting about this, it's getting near to old news now! But the night before last (Wednesday night), was the finale of the T.V show, Farmer Wants a Wife. After Googling and youtubing, I saw there's a show by the same name being aired somewhere else, but I'm talking about the Australian one.

So anyway like I said, last night was the series final. HERE is a link to the official website, or you can just follow what I type below.

THE FARMERS for 2009:

Farmer Damien:

Farmer Ralph:

Farmer Tim:

Farmer Paul:

Farmer Andrew:

And the first ever female farmer (wanting a husband of course), Farmer Jenny:

First of all, I'll freely admit Tim is my choice. He's quite cute, and shy...I like the shy ones! I think Jenny is AWSOME! Good on her!!! And Andrew isn't bad either! Now I'm just being shallow. ONWARDS!

So this is what happens on the show. The farmers apply, get accepted. Then women, mostly city girls, apply to go and meet one of the farmers. The farmers see a profile of the girls and choose 10 each, just from paper. Then they have a 3 minute speed date with all 10 girls (okay I'm saying girls, change to guys for Jenny), then at the end they choose 5 girls to go on a group date. One farmer, five girls...dangerous! HEHE! Then the farmers select three girls who then go out to the farmer's farms for a week. They flirt and date and talk etc etc, three become two ... and at the end of it all the farmer chooses one girl, and turns up on her doorstep in the city unannounced. Then they live happily ever after. Yup.

HERE is a link to a youtube video, quite long but definetly worth it. Even if you couldn't care less about Farmer wants a wife, it truely gives a good insight on life in Australia.

The video: It's of the 5th (second last) episode, and only a section of it.

First up is Andrew's two girls (spoiler, he chose Jess. YAY!!!). But turns out they just want to be friends.

Second, Damien. (spoiler, he chose Rachael...yay!)

Third, Paul (GRRRR...*lets fly five letter-B words*). He chose the brunette, and she BROKE his heart. Was all into him, lovey dovey... until 3 weeks after the cameras stopped rolling, then she dumped him. Got cold feet. COW! Insaying that, I'm sortof happy he chose her on the show, because I think the other girl was only there to be on TV. They knew each other 10 years ago and he really liked her, then all of a sudden, as soon as he's on telly, she admits her deep hidden love for him. Hmmm, yeah.

Fourth: Tim: No prizes for who he chose. The ssssllll......err, city blonde girl, or the AWSOME brunette. Now I wonder what he was thinking with! He chose the blonde...he was so flattered that a girl like that would give him a chance. Ha! Guess what. After the city stay (cameras stopped rolling) she screened his calls and never spoke to him again. She had obviously got her 15minutes of fame and was off. THEN she had the NERVE to show up on the show last night (they showed where everyone was one month later) and giggle and say 'I dunno' all the time when she was asked why she dumped him like that. ARGH!! This is what REALLY peeved me off about the show. Stupid silly girl, he seems like a GREAT guy, so many girls applied to meet him, he had hundreds to choose from and he chose her, and she BROKE his heart. *cries* But then again, he was probably being a bit shallow, maybe now he has learnt his lesson.

Next Andrew again...the blonde put her foot in it so many times over the episode, and she just gave me a bad gut feeling. Yay for Jess!!! It's really a shame they aren't a couple though, maybe in the future!

Next....Jenny! WOOHOO!!! My idol at the moment, lol! I don't know if it's just me, or is anyone else creeped out by Andrew? Okay so you didn't see much of him in the video, but he is a creep. After a couple of days he was even organising a house in the nearby town to move into....and even though Jenny told him she preferred Owen, he wouldn't leave them alone. But thankfully Jenny thought the same, and she chose Owen! Out of all the couples, Jenny I am the happiest with!!! Perhaps the only one I was happy with! Owen seems like a great guy, and he also looks like the fella we buy our bulls off!!!

So the only one not shown in that video was Ralph. Didn't miss too much, except the fact he's sexy! Other than that though, he had two girls, a blonde horse trainer and a brunette city girl...the brunette was sexy and he obviously liked that about her, but after lots of mystery, he chose the blonde. Yay!! Er, but then it all fell apart and one month later he has a new girlfriend. Oh well.

Anyway after all that if anyone's interested in knowing more, there are heaps of other videos on youtube...just none of the finale yet I don't think! Maybe by the time you read this though there might be!!

All opinions in this post are solely my own, and probably should be ignored!

Daylight savings...coming to an end!

2009-04-02T16:45:00.001+11:00

Yes that's right...on Sunday we will all be turning out clocks back an hour here in Australia. Why? Because the stupid government made us turn them forward an hour on the 5th October last year, and on Sunday we win back our hour that they took from us. Kind-of like taxes eh?

Most people I know HATE daylight savings. My opinion shifts of it...at the start I love it, because it means the days are longer and I can do more during the day. At the end I hate it, because it means the days are longer and I can do more during the day. LOL make any sense? I'd still love it at the end if we were given an energy boost halfway through! Because there are more daylight hours, I can squeeze more into a day, and it burns up all my energy!

And the ironic part is, even with Daylight Saving, there are still not enough hours in the day!!!

Okay, so I know I said "we will all be turning our clocks back", but some state governments are less cruel than others. The state of Queensland doesn't participate in Daylight Savings (lucky buggers). But that confuses people in the Gecko household more...you see where I live we don't get very good television reception for the basic channels, because we're in the mountains. So about 1 & 1/2 years ago we got a satellite installed on the roof, this way we have our TV channels beamed down from the heavens above. ONLY PROBLEM IS, it's beamed UP from Queensland (now stay with me here, it's where it gets a little bendy!) to the satellites, then back down here in New South Wales. So that means if a TV show is on at 7:30pm usually, we won't be able to watch it here until 8:30pm because Queensland are an hour behind us during Daylight Savings!

Still with me? Info about the stupidity: CLICK and CLICK

In other news, this is a video of where I was planning on being on holidays right now : WARNING: Turn off sounds for the first 10 seconds if you're sensitive to the 'F' word...but then you MUST turn it back on to hear what he's saying : HOLIDAY DESTINATION?

Random thoughts

2009-04-01T12:55:00.000+11:00

Why is the page for posting to blogger so boring? I loose all inspiration when I get to this page...all white and hospitalised-looking.

And another random thought...you know toilet paper? Of course you do...but you know how public toilets have the really thin scratchy stuff? Is it just me, or do we have to use three times as much of that as the good stuff to, well...you know?? Sooo....wouldn't it work out cheaper, or the same, to buy the good stuff? Because people would be using less of it?

It's raining very nicely today, on and off. It'll look like it's clearing up then we'll get another shower. Exactly what was needed!!!

Update!

2009-03-30T19:30:00.000+11:00

I know, I've been terrible! I have been away and very busy since my last post, and I forgot all about my newley set up phone posting! So this is what's been happening!

Thursday afternoon : After my post, I jumped in the car and went and stayed with a friend who lives in town. I decided to stay at her place because she lives a lot closer to the Campdraft on Friday, and I'm definetly not a morning person!!!

Friday : Photographed the campdraft...drove home late that night and went to bed to sleep in my brand new bed! The last one literally had two big dints in it where the springs had went!

Saturday : Expecting to wake up refreshed from a fantastic new mattress, I wasn't too happy to crawl out of bed after a few hours of patchy sleep! Obviously my body was too used to the 'holy bed' and thought something was wrong!
Went to work but felt so crappy from lack of sleep I came home at 2pm. Crashed on the lounge for an hour or so and felt much better. So I showered and got prettied up...and drove back to where the Campdraft was on Friday...this time for the rodeo!!! No camera, just friends and bulls! Oh...and cowboys!!!

Sunday : Came home Sunday morning and went to work. There's a new girl on trail at work. The first inctint is to bristle at the idea of loosing shifts, then I realised how much I hate working Saturdays! So I put it to her and the boss of giving her my Saturdays! That way I can go to rodeos and other events! In saying that, we discussed to do every second saturday, but with any luck she'll take over them all! I won't miss them! Sure, I'll be a little poorer than I was before, but right at this minute the money problem isn't serious. Not great, but not serious!

So I came home from work, and just as I managed to switch on the computer, the phone rang. It was one of the neighbours, telling me there was a wild dog getting around our herd near her place, and now she could hear a cow bellowing. I wasn't too worried, she said there was only one and there are no young calves in that paddock, so I saddled Rowie and rode up for a look. False alarm, the cattle were spread right out and relaxed. But it was a good nudge to go for a ride on Rowie. After a disagreement on which was we should go (home vs work), she went pretty well, jogged a lot but I didn't really care...she was walking in the right direction and that was all that mattered. Then a funny thing happened, after a certain amount of time, she must have thought, "well this is a waste of time" and stopped jogging, walking on on a loose rein instead! Hmph!

Then today, was my day off! I spent the morning going through some photos from Friday, about halfway through now. Then BP turned up with a load of hay, 338 bales. Unloaded them, then swept up the loose leaves and bagged them, ready to put on the garden as mulch! Perfect!!!

Bracelet, and newborn calfy!

2009-03-25T19:11:00.000+11:00

Lots of news today! Firstly...I'd like to say a HUGE thankyou to Trail Riding Cowgirl over at All Things Horses. She had a competition on her blog for everyone to guess her birthday...and I got it right, 13th March! So what did she do? Even though it was HER birthday, SHE was giving gifts! This arrived in the mail today:

A BEAUTIFUL leather bracelet! So I'd like everyone to waddle on over to All Things Horses and say a big hello to Trail Riding Cowgirl!!!

Also today...I was leaving to go into town, and one of the heifers on the flat was in the corner by herself. So I drove over to have a look, and this is what I saw:

New bubby! Mum was very protective so I didn't get very close.

When I got home from town this afternoon, I went to check on the new bubby. Mum was away grazing, so when I found him/her, I went to say hello.

Apparently he/she doesn't like cameras, because as soon as I took this photo, he/she leapt up and charged me! A 12 HOUR OLD CALF CHARGED AT ME!!!

Then he/she took off, got mum worried and so then started running away from mum.

So after these events, especially the part where he/she knocked me onto my behind, I have christened him/her...well, it has eight letters, starts with a D and ends with a D. Also has a bodypart in it. Err, well...two.

Worm Farm

2009-03-23T14:48:00.000+11:00

First we brought an old bathtub up from the flat. We had four down there for water for the cattle in the drought...we obviously don't need them all now. So up on the tractor it came...in through the front gates and onto the front lawn!

^ BP and I dragged it into the avairy.

^ Put some pieces of wood down and hoisted it up onto them.

^ And last of all, put some old cupboard doors over the top.

Now I'll get some worms on Wednesday and put them in!!!

Riding Rowie.

2009-03-22T21:07:00.000+11:00

Rowie is such a nice looking mare underneath all that fat. You can see that mare starting to come through now she's a bit fitter. I worked today, came home and washed my car (and boy did it need it! I'm not buying another black car...ever!), had some tea then saddled and rode Rowie. Started in the yard this time, she was in an excellent mood today, so responsive and soft. I took her out on the flat and although I managed to canter out there a little, it wasn't much. Biggest problem is out there she knows all she's going to do is circles. I need to take her out into the paddocks over the next few days.

I have tomorrow off work, I'm going to make a wormfarm, with BP's help! I saw on the latest Gerdening Australia episode on TV one of the fellows had a wormfarm made out of an old bathtub (we have plenty of those around!). He would feed the worms on one side until they made lots of yummy castings, then start putting the food on the other side so they'd move over there...and harvest the worm castings on the other side. The liquid can drain through the plug hole, will probably put one of those strainer thingys in there so the worms don't run away! Then I hope I can take Rowie for a longer ride in the afternoon!

E-mail posting

2009-03-21T18:14:00.001+11:00

This is a test post. I would love to be able to text posts through my phone, but it seems I can't do that because I'm not in America! So, I've set up e-mail posting. In a round-about way, I think I may be able to post from my phone still. I can connect to the internet from my phone, so if I do that, go to my e-mail address and send an e-mail through there...I can send you posts when I'm out shopping! The amount of times that I have been out and thought, "I will post that to Geckomusings when I get home", but then forget or don't get time...isn't funny! So we'll see how this goes!

Explore the new Windows Live. Looking for a place to manage all your online stuff?

...night on the town...

2009-03-21T18:04:00.000+11:00

Gecko is still alive. Just. Had a day out shoppping yesterday, then had a night out on the town. Everything was fine, I was (and still am) running on about 1.5 hours of sleep (because no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't sleep!) got up at 7am and left to head home-called in at McDonalds on the way and practically got ready for work in the carpark (did my hair and make-up etc). Haha! Came home and started work. I was fine, no hangover at all. No headache, no vomiting. Good start. But that didn't last long once I started working with greasy bacon and eggs. Yerk. Not good!

So I've just come online to post an update, then I'm having a shower, having tea then going to bed!!!

Rowie

2009-03-19T21:11:00.000+11:00

This afternoon I jumped on Rowie again after work. After lunging her a little bit, I took her out onto the flat. Just walked for a little while, then trotted. I decided I wasn't going to get off her until I cantered. But it just wasn't going to happen on the flat...she felt pushy and like she would flip out and bolt back to the yards (where Bundy and Maggie were today) if I let her go any faster. After probably 10minutes of riding I started feeling ill, just woozy and my legs got super tired. I still don't know what happened, but I thought I can do one of two things. I can cool her off, unsaddle her and admit defeat...yeah right! The other option was to ride her in the yard where the video was taken.

So I decided to do that. I wouldn't stop until we cantered comfortably! After a few err...diagreements, we finally worked together. I had to push a lot to get her to move into a canter, but by the time we finally got to it we were both pretty comfortable with each other. I did some turns, trying out the Quarter Horse way back there in her bloodlines. Even though we don't get on sometimes, I have a lot of fun on her. I think if I keep working with her over the next few weeks I will feel so much more comfortable on her and hopefully be able to do much more. I would love it if I could feel completely comfortable on her like I do on Bundy. A new saddle wouldn't go astray in doing that though! lol

It's amazing how adreneline gets you going, I had more energy when I got off than when I got on! Except for the weird dead-leg thing of course.

Riding Rowie...video.

2009-03-17T19:52:00.000+11:00

I didn't post yesterday because I spent all afternoon and all night trying to get this video to upload. It's a bit boring, just me cantering around on Rowie, but for me it is a big thing. She has a shockingly rough canter, and yesterday afternoon I got on her for the first time since early November. I video-ed from the minute I got on, so if anyone needs a good laugh I can upload me getting on...standing there expecting her to play up or do something, and she's just standing there like an old hand!

I'm embarressed to post this because I'm not happy with how I was riding. I find it really hard to ride her canter for some reason.

OMG OMG I'm so excited! I just realised...I actually have a day off tomorrow!!! WOOHOO!

Ever seen a Turkey run?

2009-03-15T17:49:00.001+11:00

Branding Day

2009-03-14T18:28:00.000+11:00

I have about 20 different posts in my head, and about 50 different photos in my hard-drive that I would like to post, so I will spread them out!

On Thursday we branded out heifer weaners:

^ Brands in the fire

^ Youch!

Toughen Up!

2009-03-12T08:36:00.000+11:00

Okay, the world is going stupid. Some model is suing Google, because of what was said about her on a blog.

"A Versace model who is suing Google because a blogger branded her a "skank" has broken down in a New York court as the contents of the blog were read aloud.

Liskula Cohen, a 37-year old Canadian who has also graced the pages of Vogue, wept with her head in her hands as her lawyer read from the 'Skanks in NYC' website, according to NY Daily News.

"I guess because I'm a model, people feel they're allowed to hurt me for no apparent reason," she was quoted as saying outside Manhattan Supreme Court.

"I was hurt."

Ms Cohen launched legal action against Google in January after the insults surfaced on the search engine's blogger.com service.

"How old is this skank? 40 something?" the blog said. "She's a psychotic, lying, whoring, still-going-to-clubs-at-her-age, skank." "

Link to above quote

Wow, if I sued someone every time I was hurt or offended, I would be RICH! What if that blog called me a skank? I bet you anything you like the judge would laugh me out of the courtroom if I tried suing. There was a case recently where a man was suing his local council because he was driving on a gravel road, lost control and was injured. He successfully sued the council for a ridiculous amount of money for not putting signs up saying 'Slippery when wet'. He even said during his interview on the TV that it was 'common knowledge that that section of road because dangerous when wet, so the council should have put signs up saying so.' If it were common knowledge, SURELY HE WOULD'VE KNOWN!?! And while speaking of common knowledge, hands up who knows not to drive fast on a wet road?

And oh boy couldn't I go on. While discussing this with a workmate yesterday, he told of a woman who was suing the council or whoever because she fell down a hole (that men were working on) and broke her leg. After a long and grulling court case, the judge said to the defence "do you have anything more to add?" Having not had much of a chance to speak until then, they stood up and showed a surveillance tape of the woman stopping, pulling the barrier out of the way and jumping in the hole herself. The judge was furious, have a guess what his ruling was? 10 points to the person who guesses the closest.

Josef Fritzl - disgusting.

2009-03-10T20:57:00.000+11:00

I've made a post about this man when his secret came out, follow the label at the end of this post to get to that...I can't bear to go back and read it all again. Seems he can't help himself, perhaps he doesn't know better? Or perhaps he's just a sick and twisted.......such and such.

Hold on to your lunch

I can't finish my postings today on such a gut-twisting note, so I'll pop back to my post from yesterday, Do you believe in fate? I have a question...what would you have done in that situation? I've been thinking about it all day, trying to think what I could have said, and what I would say if I did see him again. I know I said I believe everything happens for a reason, but I don't think things simply fall into your lap. You do need to get up off your bum and start grasping at the opportunities presented to you. So I'm at a loss. If you were ever in this situation, what would you do/have you done? I'm especially interested in hearing TRC's story of meeting her hubby!!!

Do you believe in fate?

2009-03-09T18:36:00.001+11:00

Okay, so this is long but I think it's worth reading. So grab a cuppa and bear with me! All completely true!

Gecko was a little depressed today, well not a full blown depression of course, more just a very sad day. A fight has been brewing between BP and I, after all it is sale-time and one usually erupts around this time! Well this morning it certainly erupted, and while I won't rant or go into details, I can tell you it wasn't pretty.

I got a call from work this morning saying they didn't need me today (yay!), but then came organising the muster. One thing led to another, and BP ended up storming off to do the muster, and I jumped (err, stormed) into my car and took off into town. Today was a dreary day when it came to the weather, and even though I was miles away from home I couldn't enjoy myself. I just wanted to be by myself, silly to head into town then wasn't it! I did all my little jobs I needed to do, then tried organising to catch up with my friend, but she had her phone off. One thing I can't stand is people owning mobile phones and leaving them switched off or not having them with them. WHY HAVE A PHONE?

I spent some time in the public library too, caught up on my favourite magazines but even that wasn't relaxing, someone in there had a screaming kid...who started screaming as soon as they came in because it was happy and wanted attention, then started crying and screaming because it wasn't getting any attention. I couldn't see it, but my guess is he was about 2 or 3, and all the mother was doing was was shushing him every 5 minutes or so. CONTROL YOUR KID!!!

Okay, so chances are I'm a teeny bit hormonal...but that's not the point. I'm single, been single for 2 years, and 340 days of the year I love being single. Then there's a day every now and again when I would really like someone to turn to and I get very upset (okay, did someone say hormonal? =P). So last night I went to sleep incredibly upset ('I'm getting so old, I'm going to die alone with my 100 cats' ) etc etc. And it still hadn't worn off this morning.

Now, I believe everything happens for a reason. And I'm starting to believe things happen in day to day life to tell you something, you just need to tune in to listen to them. For example, driving into town this morning I was bawling my eyes out (don't you dare say the H word...) and going around a bend, a car coming from the opposite direction cut the corner and almost crashed into me. After I got over the shock, I thought perhaps that was the universe/God ...whatever you believe in, telling me to stop being such a sook and get on with my day.

On that same note, something strange happened today in town. Still feeling sorry for myself, and wondering if I could save money and buy 100 cats in bulk, you know just to be prepared, I parked my car in the carpark of the shopping center, and opened my door to get out. Well, it was almost taken off by someone in a ute. We both stopped what we were doing, then I pulled my door closed to allow them to park. When they were safely snuggled into the parking spot, I got out and started putting my jacket on. Whaddya know, it was a guy my age! But that's not the shocking part...he said, "thankyou". Ha! Most guys my age are self-centered bums who wouldn't say thankyou or please for their life. But here was a young guy, not all that bad looking either, saying thankyou just because I closed my door. I was chuffed. Is that the right word? I didn't know what to say, so I just said "that's okay, I was just going to put my jacket on anyway." *slaps forehead* Gah! Gecko! But I kept going, heading to the newsagency I couldn't help but smile, see, there are still some decent guys out there!

So, I'm at the newsagency now, looking for a "Do Not Bend" stamp. Couldn't find any sort of stamps at all but I still had a goofy smile on my face from the ute encounter. Then something made me look up, and whaddya know the ute guy is there too!!! (That's where you say, wow! Must be fate! Go and marry him now!) I would have, but what do you say? "Are you stalking me?" "Wow! You like newsagencies too?" or perhaps the good ol' "So...do you come here often? Nah, I didn't think so. And before I could decide, he was gone. Damn. But thankyou universe/God...I get the message. Don't give up!

Deciding I had cooled off enough, I decided to head home. But I needed to eat so I headed to McDonalds. Got some disgustingly greasy fatty food, ate half of it then saw a girl I know. She was the last person I felt like talking to, so I ditched the food, grabbed my medium coke and made a run for it while she was at the counter. I wasn't 5 paces out the front door and the coke almost came to grief too...right there in the carpark, the ute guy!!!! Okay, so I know what you're thinking...STALKER! But I highly doubt it. Fate? Perhaps. But I got in the car and drove home, never to see him again. Or will I?

Ramblings

2009-03-08T21:29:00.005+11:00

This evening I want everyone to wish and hope really hard for me! What are we wishing for? That when my boss calls in the morning (which I know she is going to), that she says she doesn't need me to come into work! Okay so I could always do with the money, and I don't mind the actualy working bit, but I haven't had a day to myself since the Showjumping a fortnight or so ago. And for a gal who loves being on her own, it's driving me a tad nutty!

So I had tomorrow all planned, I was going to take my mum into town (she doesn't drive so she relys on me or my my dad to take her out) then while she did her thing I would do mine. I have to post a few things, and buy a few things...you know how it is when your list builds up over a few weeks? But other than that I was going shopping, with all this money (okay, that was sarcasm!) I have been unintentionally saving because I haven't been able to go out! I was going to go to the library and do my favourite time-passing activity while in town = go to the public library and read all the latest magazines, without having to buy them! Might borrow a few books if I find some decent ones too. After a nice lazy day I'd buy a big fat, cheesy, cheap and greasy pizza and take it home for tea!

BUT WAIT! I was at work today and the boss asked if I would be able to work tomorrow. All thoughts of my planned day quickly zipped out the window, replaced by grumpy customers and sore feet. So I hummed and harred, giving the impression I had something planned (BECAUSE I DID!) then she launched into a long sad story which I won't go into detail about, then she started CRYING. Now how are you meant to say no to the lady paying the bills when she's crying? So I said yes I could come in if need be. Yeah I know, softie.

On the other hand though, BP is trying to book a day with me to muster the last paddock. Rowie still hasn't been ridden (except bareback in the video I showed) so I don't know how she'll go. It's a paddock where we can't take the bike, so BP will probably take Rowie and I'll take Bundy. Even though Bundy is quieter, BP doesn't feel compfy on him because he's so lean and narrow. I remember when we got him I kept saying, "he'll fill out...". Now he's 9 years old and I'm still waiting! Haha! BP likes a bit of horse underneath him, so he says. I have another free day on Wednesday, but there's a cyclone in Queensland, and when there's a cyclone up there we usually get rain down here. The paddock we need to muster gets very greasy and slippery in very little rain, so we can't get the truck in. So it seems even if I do get the day off, I may not be going out afterall!

Well that was a lot of useless ramblings, but I needed to get it off my chest. I will get a day out sooner or later! Living one hour from the closest civilisation, and you need to escape every now and again.

Composing a photo

2009-03-07T19:50:00.000+11:00

I don't generally like photography "how to's". I find them either hard to follow or they don't tell me anything new. But I read this one today and I really wanted to share it, because it really helped me. You don't have to be a professional photographer to benefit from it, it can help with any sort of photo.

Get ready to sponge up the info! Rapid Composition

I TOLD you the air smelt funny!

2009-03-07T17:58:00.000+11:00

I have been meaning to post this photo since the afternoon I made THIS post. I've been so snowed under with work I didn't get time to until now.

This was the sunset that afternoon!

Why do I have horses?

2009-03-05T22:14:00.001+11:00

Last night I put Bundy in the yards with some hay to get him through the night. Little did I know, one of the gates wasn't latched properly. I left for work this morning, already about 5 minutes late to find Bundy lying down (not flat out thankfully) with a huge belly full of lush grass. Great. He had got out during the night and obviously spent the whole night stuffing his face with lush green grass. So BP kept an eye on him during the day but it didn't go any further than Bundy feeling awfully sorry for himself. So tonight he is back in the yard, with the gates all triple checked!

Horses, who'd have them!!?!??!!?

"I tell you, the air smells funny!"

2009-03-04T18:29:00.000+11:00

Strange things are happening in the valley at the moment. I don't know what exactly, but the skies are strange looking, and I swear the air smells funny. BP laughed at me when I said that. But there was a time in the drought when I swore a new drum of Molasses we bought smelt funny. I don't know if he couldn't smell it or didn't want to smell something wrong with it, after the money he had just forked out for 1000litres of molasses! Anyway long story short, the cattle refused to eat it, or anything touched by it. He finally agreed to take it back, the manager smelt it and dry-wretched all the way to get us a fresh container. Turned out it hadn't been washed out properly from the last thing that had been in it, some sort of raspberry flavoured...err, something. So the moral of this story is if I think something smells funny, I'm trusting it!!!

We very rarely have 'smelly air' out here, we are so far away from any coal mines (thankfully!) the trees soak up the smells. I still can't put my finger on what I smelt today, the air looked and smelt smoggy even, very very strange especially since there were no winds!

On a much happier note, look at my harvests this afternoon! These photos were taken within 5 minutes of everything yo see being picked! And all completely organic!!! =D

Cucumber, a little tomato, beans, silverbeet and corn!

My first corn! Okay...okay...it grew in one of BP's beds...but I still call it mine!!! YUMMO!!!

Boredom and injuries!

2009-03-01T08:53:00.001+11:00

I'm sitting here wondering what I can do to fill in an hour. I didn't go to work yesterday because got up suffering from severe back pain. I don't know what brought it on but I was certainly in no shape to stand on my feet for 6 or so hours. So I called in sick and spent the day either in bed or on the lounge. And gee was I bored! I did manage to read some of my book I've been intending to read, but all in all a pretty wasted day. So because of that I didn't find out what time I had to start this morning. I tried calling work last night, I got onto the boss' daughter and she said they couldn't talk at the moment but they'd call me back. Didn't hear from them until about 10 minutes ago though, while I'm here dressed and about to leave, and they said I don't have to start until 10am. It's 8:51am at the moment, so I will have to find something to do for the next hour!

First day of Autumn today! I can't believe summer is over! Apart from a bit of extreme weather in the middle of summer, summer was pretty tame really. Winter is getting closer...ahh! Scary!

I'm thinking of starting another travelling toy. This time it'll just be something very small and light, probably even just a finger puppet made out of felt that will fit in a regular envelope. Instead of going from person to person, I'll be sending this one to people who can get a photo of him/her infront of certain tourist attractions that I pick. But anyway, will post more about that when I get organised!

Videos of me riding!

2009-02-27T22:19:00.000+11:00

After reading Mustang Diaries: Video! Darling on Steve Holt! plus Sandy Bridleless (the Darling riding Sandy bit) this morning, I was inspired to learn to do the same. That and by watching Stacy Westfall on youtube (Link goes to that clip).

So this afternoon I was playing around with the two horses, and decided to get on. Am I the only one who finds herself riding in the most dangerous situations (e.g bareback, no reins) with the least protection (in shorts with no helmet)? I just get the gut feeling the time is right to try my new trick and the helmet is too far away!

Anyway, this is what I got up to!!! Yes...I'm in a video mood today!

I love the soundtrack with this one.

If you are wondering why two have soundtracks and the other doesn't, simple. It's late and I'm tired, and just can't find the right track to go with it! Plus...at least now you can hear the birdies! LOL! =P

Riding Rowie bareback, especially after getting off skinny-boy Bundy, is like sitting on a pillow...or a bench! Seriously, she's so wide and spongy I can't feel her spine or wither! Unfortunatly at the end of Rowie's clip I only just started trotting, the first time bareback, and my memory stick filled to capacity. So I rode for another 5-10minutes and it wasn't filming. I kept loosing my balance, even at the walk because she's so, err....rounded, that I'd just roll around up there!!!

Friday's Photos and a video!

2009-02-27T13:13:00.000+11:00

^ Turkey! No, wait...it's a cow? But her name is Turkey! She's waiting for her turkey food.

We were offered some Turkey food (both starter and grower pellets) at a very cheap price, and planned on mixing it in with the feeders and Potty calves' feed, but they didn't really like it ... but this cow does! She runs across the paddock every morning that I feed up (for some reason doesn't turn up when BP is feeding) to get some turkey food! Hence the name, Turkey!

^ "C'mon muum!!!! We're hungry!!"

^ Rowie. Yep, actually standing tied!

^ "OH MY GOOOD!!! A CHIP!!!!!!!! AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

^ Fatty Boombaa!

^ Yum Yum!

^ Olly!!

^ "mmm...human finger...."

I love the soundclip to this video, it fits perfectly with how relaxed everything was this morning.

Progress with Rowie

2009-02-24T22:23:00.000+11:00

I feel like I made a massive breakthrough today. You know the feeling you get when you get a new horse, it has little flaws/bad habits that you don't like but are easily fixed? And you get this feeling in your stomach thinking, "wow, this horse could be fantastic once I tweak him/her a bit!" Well, I had that feeling with Rowie today. Rowie? But Rowie's not a new horse! No, but better late (*cough* 2 or 3 years!) than never!

When I got Rowie she had little flaws, problems made only by the people working with her not her fault at all. These were walking off while mounting, jogging instead of walking, especially when coming towards home, and yanking at the reins was a big one. She would also put her tongue over the bit. So all these things were connected, but, and I hate to risk speaking too soon, but...she seems to be okay with those things now. Okay in the fact she still does/attemps to do them every now and then, but nothing nearly as bad as before.

The only thing I haven't been able to get her to stop is pulling back when she's tied up. She just seems to freak out all of a sudden and want nothing but to get away. But once she breaks whatever is holding her, she's happy. I can't really find a single trigger, mostly because her ears are being crowded or touched, but I've been standing behind her while she's done it, and even been nowhere around at all. I've tried almost everything, sitting with her for hours trying to both calm her, and to move her when she starts freaking out, I've tried bailing twine but she loves that when she realises it doesn't hurt much to pull back then. The only thing I haven't tried, is tying her up and letting her pull and pull. For obvious reasons! a) I don't want her hurting herself, and b)I don't have anything I can tie her up with that she won't break!!!

Until now. This afternoon I was coming home from work, shutting the gate and Rowie cantered across the side of the hill below the house. It was a sight to see, she's a good looking mare but boy is she FAT! Lumbered across the side of the hill I should say. It was then I thought, there's a perfectly good horse cantering along there, going to waste. I haven't ridden her in so long, and the last time was when she played up on me. So it's about time I refresh that and get her back into work, if not only a few kilos lighter!!! I just looked back to see if I posted about that ride but I don't think I did, but I did come across THIS post, if you would like to refer back to it!

It seems this post has become one of those long boring posts rambling on and on, so long story short, this afternoon I was lunging her, and something happened and she stepped on the lunge line. She freaked out, and pulled back like she does when she's tied up. So I thought if I could leave the rope dragging on the ground, like they do with yearlings maybe she would get over it? After some playing around I was putting pressure on the leadrope myself because she was refusing to step on it herself. After a little while she got over it and didn't freak out. So I tied her up to a nice fat strainer post with two already broken leadropes, so it wouldn't matter if she broke it. I tied a know that will come undone after extreme pressure and rubbed her all over. When I got to her ears she freaked and pulled back. And pulled, and pulled. I scrambled out of the way incase she leapt forward or broke away, but nothing. After about 3 or 4 seconds she walked forward again and sortof said, "hmph. Well that didn't work" After that i touched her all around her ears and eyes and she threatened to pull back, but didn't put any weight on the rope. If I can keep this up maybe she will get over it?

Just a random thought, how fantastic is it that Blogger has finally enabled Auto Save in Blogger Draft! Saving me sooo much heartache!!!

Photo

2009-02-22T20:42:00.000+11:00

"We're going over that?!?!"

I've found Heaven!

2009-02-21T18:24:00.000+11:00

Yep, I found heaven! Laying on the lounge, hearing nothing but the hum on the water-pump transferring water from an overflower tank into another emptier tank...with slices of soothing (fresh, organic, HOMEGROWN) cucumber over my severly sunburnt face.

Yeah well kindof like that, except the cucumber was on my skin not my eyes!

Not a very eventful morning, just dragged myself out of bed to go to work, which I'm not complaining I really need the money!!! But this afternoon I watched a storm brewing up, but the boss' wife is away for the weekend so my workmate and I had twice the amount of work to do. So I didn't make it home before the storm, after a minute or two I headed off to my car, as soon as I closed the door, "thud". I froze. What was that? "thud" ... "thud" Yep...hail. So I did a nice spinning job in the boss' paddock where my car was parked, and made a mad dash to the cover over the fuel pumps. But it didn't last very long. I decided to wait and see if the storm would pass, and lucky I did! About another 3 minutes later the hail started again, only 4 times the size of before! I wouldn't have made it home!

So I came home and the storm had passed so I went for a walk. I love walking after a big downpour of rain, water still rushing around and everything so fresh. I came across my bull, Smokey and went over for a pat. I was holding my hand out saying, "hey matey, how ya goin'?" When he started coming towards me. With a bull you never know exactly whats going through their head, so this spooked me a bit because he never does this. I thought he was coming to have a go at me!!! But he stopped and seemed to say, 'I wasn't going to hurt you, I just wanted some food!' HEHE!

Everyone has their differences, Smokey has this little patch of red hair on his shoulder. It appeared shortly after we vaccinated him when he was a calf, in the spot where he got the needle. Strange!!

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I was going to a rodeo last night, well there was showjumping during the day (8am til 3pm) then the rodeo started at 6pm. I left after the showjumping though because I had to get back to town before all the shops closed, and I'm glad I did because a guy died there at about 11pm! Got in a fight and hit his head on concrete apparently.

So tonight I will be going through my photos from the showjumping, I'm just glancing over them now and I'm disappointed with the first few I took but thrilled with a few later ones I took. It was the first time I have photographed showjumping so I will learn from this and be better next time!!! I really enjoyed photographing the showjumping, I'm not interested in the slightest in english riding, but at least you know where the horse will be and when, and if you concentrate enough you can count the strides and get the photo at the perfect moment! By the time I figured out the optimum position though I was getting really sunburnt (that's what I get for sitting in the sun from 8am-3pm with no hat!) so I wasn't concentrating very well!

Lots of little birdies!

2009-02-18T20:22:00.001+11:00

I went looking for some blackberries to harvest and bring home to cook with, but someone was already there:

Needless to say this fella and his mates made short work of my blackberries! So I spent a couple of hours photographing birds instead. Enjoy!

An Unexpected Visit!

2009-02-17T13:24:00.000+11:00

The past two mornings I've found a little suprise in my Driza-Bone. It hangs up like this on the front varendah:

Yesterday morning I put it on, went and fed Olly and Ellie, and worked in the garden for a little bit before taking it off. That meant I had it on for over an hour. When I took it off I felt something sticking to the back of my arm. I brushed at it, but when it didn't move I freaked out and really went crazy at getting whatever it was, off. A frog leapt off my arm into the garden! I had been walking around with a frog on my arm for over an hour without knowing!

So this morning I was in the process of telling BP about it, at the same time checking the sleeves to make sure he hadn't taken up residence in there again. First arm was okay, talking as I was checking, then I found him quite unexpectantly in the second arm. I squealed...yep very tough of me. So I didn't need to tell BP about it after all, he saw for himself! I put him in the garden again, I wonder if he will be there tomorrow morning?

I should be working today, I was starting at 10am, so allowing myself to sleep in coz BP had offered to feed up this morning, at 9am the phone rang. It was the boss saying don't worry about coming in today because it's been so quiet it's not worth paying anyone's wages. It really sucks actually. Usually I don't mind having a day off, but now I really need the money. I went to the campdraft last Friday, entry was AU$10, plus petrol which was probably $40. So $50 for that day out, then on Saturday night I spent about the same again. That's more than a day's wage for me at the moment. There's a rodeo on this coming Friday that I want to go to. Usually I wouldn't go to two events in one week, but the boss is getting sick of me taking Saturdays off (obviously, with good reason) so I can only go to the Friday drafts/rodeos. If I don't go to this one there won't be another Friday event until late March so I might aswell go. Plus...I want to. hehe.

Youtube videos

2009-02-17T12:43:00.005+11:00

This ad was just on TV, it took me weeks to get it but now I finally do!

And this clip I stumbled across, just cracked me up!

Okay, one more. This just seems unnatural to me!

More photos from the campdraft

2009-02-16T08:02:00.001+11:00

Not posting competitor photos, but some others I took to share! Click on photos to see enlarged pic.

No more outings for a while

2009-02-15T16:47:00.002+11:00

Home! Again! I left home on Thursday, came home Friday. Then left again yesterday and now back again! I have a love/hate thing going on with these sorts of weeks, I like getting away but then I miss being home too. Last night I had my big birthday party with my closest friends, having done the family thing last weekend. We had tea and went to a few pubs, it was so good to catch up with everyone we are hoping to do it every few weeks now.

I'm going through some more of the campdraft photos, and I came across this one. Look closely and you can see the horse throwing a show. He had a bad ride, couldn't get up to turn the steer so perhaps that contributed!

Click on the photo to see a bigger version

Some people (has nothing to do with the photo above) should be banned from riding horses. Sure, some camera angles and action shots can make good riders look bad, and visa versa...but there are some people, no matter how much cropping I do I simply cannot produce a good photo of the person. There's no excuses when I take 16 photos of a person within 15 seconds and for the rider to look bad/cruel in every single one. What do I call bad? When the photos show the rider pulling the horse off balance, hands 6ft above the saddle and feet 6ft infront of the horse! *ends rant*

Muddy Campdraft

2009-02-13T21:11:00.000+11:00

I went to a campdraft today to take some photos. Was a bit of a drive but worth it. There's a bit of a story about it, I was planning on going to pick up my new Canon 18-200mm lens today, but then I got an e-mail from the photographer for ABCRA and she wasn't going to be there so I could cover the event if I wanted. So of course I couldn't turn that down, especially if I'm going to be the only photographer there!!!

So I left straight after work yesterday, I had packed the car up so I could go straight from work, but halfway through the day I realised I had forgotten the GPS. So I had to duck home to get that anyway. Picked up a friend on the way and we drove down and picked up the lens. It wasn't raining at home, but when we got the where the lens was, it was a matter of making a run through the carpark. Not to mention it was Thursday...Thursdays are late night shopping around here, everything stays open til around 9pm so of course it was busy.

I stayed at that friend's place that night so I could get away to the campdraft early. The trouble is, she is a night person, and I am too...except when I know I have to get up at 6:30am. She it was like we were in school again, she wouldn't stop chatting! Between that, the worrying about missing "the perfect shot" at the campdraft, and hearing it pouring rain at 2:30am...I didn't get very much sleep at all.

Woke at 6:30...RAINING! Gah, is it still on I wonder? I figured it wouldn't be, but spent the next 2 hours calling a bunch of different numbers trying to find out if it was on or not. On the absolute FINAL call, I was told it was certainly on...infact it was going on at that moment! Great, I'm over 1 hour away and it's started. At the time I was on the way to the Post Office to send Annie to Italy, so wheeled around and headed to the campdraft. And this is what I found:

Mud. Yummy fetlock-depth mud. Try standing on the fence with a horse cantering past = SPLAT! But you know what? I didn't even mind it! Sure preferred it to 40 degree heat! I got a phonecall from an uncle today, he's very much up on the weather. I got a phonecall a few days before The June Floods from the same uncle saying the same thing; 6-8 inches of rain. It can come now, I honestly don't mind! I'm tucked safely inside working tomorrow, and tomorrow night I will be tucked in a pub surrounded by friends and with Sunday off work, not to mention it held off for me at the campdraft today...I can't complain! LET IT RAIN!!!

Check this out!

2009-02-11T14:52:00.002+11:00

As the title says, check this out!!

CLICK HERE

$25.00? YEAH RIGHT!!!

Ahhh...drizzle!

2009-02-10T09:42:00.005+11:00

Now this is much nicer weather! I actually have a JACKET on!!! Not pouring, but drizzle is better than stinking hot weather!

Ahhh...look at that lovely drizzle! Wouldn't mind if it poured rain for a week!

The poor grass is looking a bit shocked, but certainly thankful!

Want to give me a birthday present?

2009-02-09T18:35:00.030+11:00

Hi Everyone!

Thanks so much for all your birthday wishes! For my birthday I'm starting something new. I like to start things on days that are significant, so I remember when I began!

Want to give me a birthday present? Participate in this, it'll be fun and won't cost you much! It's based on the website, ToyVoyagers but I don't want to participate through that site because I don't want my toy left in random places for random people to pick up! So I'm doing it via Postcrossing, refer to THIS forum for more info, and THIS thread for info about Annie.

I have set up a blog for Annie, Annie the Aussie Kangaroo's Big Trip! where there's all the information about her, including a photo. It also has the weight listed of her and her journal, so you can calculate how much it will cost to forward her on before you agree to participate.

So how does it all work? On the blog there's a list of people who will recieve Annie. They will show her the sites, and photograph her at different places around the world. There's a journal travelling with her, and they'll write a diary entry to explain what they got up to. She also has a wishlist of things she'd like to be photographed doing, the list is on Annie's blog. Then, after they've hosted her for a week or two, they'll send her to the next person (I'll e-mail the address to them). I'd love her to visit my blogging friends, so if you are interested leave a comment or send me an e-mail at bundabergsangel@hotmail.com and I'll add you to her list of destinations! No-one has volunteered to have her yet so you can be the first if you like!!!

Fri 13th = 9th Feb

2009-02-09T10:48:00.029+11:00

I think we should scratch the idea of Friday the 13th being unlucky...and change it to the 9th of February every year. Seems bad things happen! On my first birthday we got one of the biggest floods ever here at our place, this year we are getting Australia's worst fire tragedy.

"The toll from Australia's deadliest natural disaster had reached 108 as at 6am (AEDT) today, authorities said, with the number expected to rise.

At least 750 homes have been destroyed and more than 330,000ha burnt out, while authorities said some fires could take weeks to contain.

Country Fire Authority (CFA) state duty officer Mark Glover said the toll could still climb further. "

See HERE for the news story.

It has been on T.V all morning. I opened my presents while listening to stories of people loosing everything, their houses, properties and their lives. So far I've seen the Prime Minister choking up and news-reporters crying while telling people's stories. Makes you really appreciate what you have. The worst part is some $!*%ing idiot started these fires on purpose! Geez, what I along with thousands of other people would do if we got our hands on them people!

There's another fire burning way out in the bush behind our place, but at the moment it's "out in Whoop Whoop" and today is a lot cooler so they should be able to get it under control. It must be the heat affecting people's brains, because someone must have started that fire since we haven't had any storms in weeks, someone also tried lighting around 13 fires in our area, not to mention the fires in other areas. Thankfully police have caught the people responsible for lighting fires at Peat's Ridge (see the end of the story. Later news has also reported a young kid, 15y.o I think was also charged with the 31y.o).

There's something happening today...

2009-02-09T09:20:00.003+11:00

...just can't seem to remember what it was.

Oh, that's right!

Happy Birthday to me....Happy Birthday to meeee......

Tamworth Country Music Festival

2009-02-08T06:26:00.010+11:00

A couple of shots I got at Tamworth:

^ Line dancing on the back of a moving truck...yep I can do that.

^ A kid sitting on an old tractor (alos on the back of a truck). I didn't realise he was looking directly at me until I just saw the photo now.

^ Yep, it was hot. Just ask this fella in front of me. He obviously didn't want his bald patch to get sunburnt...so he used a piece of paper as a 'hat'. Cheaper than the Akubra I was wearing!

^ Last but not least, I took this photo the other morning on the way to town. Sorry about the dirty windscreen, it's so hot and dry at the moment there's no use in washing my car-by the time I've driven to the front gate it's filthy again! They've been doing a lot of re-sealing around here at the moment, most of it is good but in parts the road will probably start bleeding(melting) in a few days if we don't get cooler weather!

Feeding up (photos)

2009-02-07T08:37:00.029+11:00

Yep, I know...I already posted photos this morning but now I have some more!! I took these within the last hour while feeding Olly & Ellie. Hope you enjoy them!!!

Every morning I feed Olly and Ellie, the both get some milk and grain. We have a rythym that we get into...I put the grain out, Olly eats some grain while Ellie follows me around until she gets her milk. As soon as Olly hears Ellie sucking air through the teat, he comes rushing over to have his milk. We were a little disrupted this morning, Ellie got the sulks because ... well, who knows with cattle? But she went and started eating grain, giving me evil looks. So Olly figured he must have fell asleep and she must have finished, so he came and had some of the milk in the feeder. Well, Ellie definetly didn't approve of this, and came thundering over and stole the teat back off Olly! So then of course I got the "muuuuuuuuuuuuumm!!! Ellie stole my milk!!!!!"

Just like children! Click on the photos to see a bigger version.

^ Before the sulking... "Mum...I don't mean to scare you but, THERE'S SOMETHING SILVER ON YOUR HAND!!!"

^ Mmmm...Milk!

^ After the tantrum. See, told you they were evil looks! Evil Ellie!!!

^ Ellie drinking her milk, and Olly in the foreground, "Muuuuuuummmm! She stole my milk!!!"

^ "Ooohh! You've got something more interesting!" *think Cookie monster sounds*

^ "Bet ya can't do THIS!"

^ "Woohoo! My turn!" gggaaahhhh, miiillllkkkkkk *drools*

^ Rowie coming to see what all the fuss is about. "Where's Bundy? He was here yesterday morning!!!"

Notice?

2009-02-07T08:30:00.002+11:00

Notice anything different about my blog?

No? Well you're obviously as observant as I am!

Yes? GOOD ON YA!

If ya still haven't seen it, look to your right. Nooo, your other right. Over there -------------->

See it now?

Yep I added a visitor counter. but not just any counter. This one knows where you live!!! MWAHAHAHA! *cough* Err, well your country anyhow, I'm not that stalkerish.

I think it's rather cool, but I hope it doesn't clock me every time I come to post! If it does that I may very well get rid of it! We shall see!

Anyone notice anything else?

Random photos!

2009-02-07T05:24:00.004+11:00

Some photos I've been collecting to post for a past few weeks:

^ We took some cattle to the abattoirs a few weeks ago, and this is what we were welcomed with. Two B Doubles and a small truck in front of us...

...another B Double pulled up next to us not long after...

...and not long after that 3 more B Doubles pulled up behind us!!! Thank God we weren't 30mins later than we were, we would've been waiting another 4 hours!

^ A sign out the front of the armory ...

^ ... a close up.

Odds and Ends

2009-02-06T21:43:00.022+11:00

Boy oh boy it's been hot! I didn't get away with my sunburn by the way, about 15minutes after I posted about it that day, I got the lecture. Ah well was worth a shot!

This weekend is meant to be even hotter, back up over 40 degrees again. Great. *rolls eyes* Sick of it. I let Bundy out this afternoon because of the impending hot weather, I just feel way too cruel keeping him in the yards in this heat.

I went into town this morning, had to post a few things and get groceries, came home...had a nap (yep, nana napping ... gettin' old now!) got in the truck with BP and went into town again. Took a load of cattle into the saleyards, half were ours and half for someone else. The sale is tomorrow but I have to work. Probably more comfy working in the air conditioned than leaning against metal railings in 40 degree heat. I won't complain about missing the sale this time!

I took some photos today, and along with some others I've been collecting over the past few weeks, I will post them up tomorrow morning. Now I must go and watch the earth end! Supernova is on telly! I get the feeling I've seen it before though, but I'm not sure if it's the world-ending movie I'm thinking of. I love these sorts of shows/movies for some reason...the world coming to an end, planes crashing etc etc.

Day before Yesterday...

2009-02-05T17:11:00.002+11:00

I just remembered something that happened that I didn't post about. It obviously happened on the 3rd when I didn't post. In the afternoon after work I saddled Bundy up and rode around on the flat for a while. I posted about practicing our stops, I enjoyed doing that so I did some more. The first few were amazing, all I had to do was roll my bum forward a tiny bit and push down (hard to explain), and he stopped. Certainly not a sliding stop but I didn't need one. After that though it started getting dark so neither of us were as confident so they went downhill a bit from there. But just those few first ones were enough to enspire!

I've never ridden a properly trained western horse, I'd love to one day though! It's my dream! Ben was a fantastic horse to ride too, I'm still sad when I think how I had to give him back. You could just tell he was a beautiful gentle giant underneath, he just needed to relax. Rowie was a lot like that when we first got her, now 3 years later (we've had her 3 years as of last Friday) she's finally settling into the routine. If I had one good working horse and plenty of time to give to Ben I would've bought him in a second. But I don't I've got 3 good horses, 2 of which need more work than I can give them already. *sniff*

Okay enough 'what ifs', I'm going to have some tea, water the garden and hopefully I'll have some time after all that to ride some more!!!

Yeehaa!

2009-02-04T16:01:00.029+11:00

Who needs a roundyard?

Yep, today I trotted and cantered on Bundy bareback. Woohoo!! Wasn't really a planned thing, I got a herd in this morning drafted them and took them home. All I needed was 2 steers + their mums, and a heifer and her mum. Anyway that was all fine, I came home and watched some TV for an hour or two, until BP came home and all I could hear was him yelling out to let the dogs off and send them down. So I let them off then went running down to see what was happening. I couldn't even see where he was just the direction the dogs went. I threw the bridle on Bundy and jumped on and started off to see what was going on. Turns out one of the bulls, George, had broken through a fence to get to the neighbouring bull, Bruiser. After seeing this without thinking I pushed Bundy on in a trot. No reaction, just like I was in the saddle. Earlier when I was getting the herd in I put the stirrups across the saddle and practiced my balance without them...I can't begin to tell you how much that helped! I was like a sack of potatoes at the start, but felt much more comfortable bareback because of it. Anyway I got George out of Bruiser's paddock and started chasing him. When the bulls start fighting you just have to get behind one of them and chase,chase,chase. Get them away from each other, and if you let them slow down they start puffing up getting ready to fight again. Well, trotting wasn't quite fast enough, and was getting a bit uncomfortable, so up to the canter. Fantastic! Again, Bundy was fine with it. I think it really helped that we were working...even if he's having a terrible day as soon as he starts working a beast he forgets everything else and just works.

I'm so proud of my boy...only took 5 years!!! =P Better late than never though!

Other than that, today...I got severly sunburnt. BP gives me a lecture every time I get burnt so I'm trying to hide it until it heals...although I've already heard my neighbour exclaim, "Gee, Gecko's burt!!!" So I'm guessing it might be more obviously than I thought. It's my chest shoulders and back of my neck...so surely it can't be that hard to hide? LOL!!

Bundy's 'schooling'

2009-02-02T18:35:00.004+11:00

Yesterday afternoon was nice. And fun as a matter of fact. I saddled Bundy (yes, bareback was getting a bit uncomfy!) and let the dogs off for a run. After the warm day we had they were dying for a swim. Started off with a nice walk, although he was a little pigheaded not wanting to leave home. When I refer to Bundy as not wanting to leave home...all he really does is walk slow and weave around, walking every direction but where I want him to go!

Once he was warmed up a bit we started cantering along. It must have been because he was fresh and so was still in a fend-for-himself frame of mind, but he kept spooking at nothing. The first time her did it I was almost off. Riding in 3/4 boardshorts I kept thinkg, "BP always lectures me about riding in shorts, he always says it hurts when you fall off...I'm about to find out!!" But nope he woke up to himself and I scrambled back into position. Cantered along a bit more, another spook. Bit further, ANOTHER spook! Now he was just being silly, trying to unseat me again. So I plowed on, cantered a bit further. When I had had enough, I asked him to slow down but he wouldn't. Not bolting, but just took the bit in his mouth and kept going. He's so flexible in his neck you could keep pulling the reins until his chin was against his chest if you wanted, and he could still move forward! So I'd had enough of this 3 year old behaviour, and I decided to practice something I'd taught him in the drought.

When the cattle were eating and I had a brake, I would saddle him up and ride around the flat. But he would rush around everywhere, especially at the canter. I wanted to teach him the one-rein stop, but I got bored with that and realised when he knew we were working on out stops, he would canter nice and low and slow. More of a lope than a canter. It was beautiful. I could leave his reins completely loose, something I've never been able to do with him. So yesterday I kept asking him to stop then back up after every few strides (varied between 3 strides or more). After probably 4 he soon got the point, and he canter nice and slow. And because he was waiting for a cue to stop, he was watching where he put his feet, and wasn't stumbling around as he usually does!!!

So this afternoon, late probably so it's cool, I'll ride around the flat doing the same. I think I'll wear jeans this time...and take it easy...all the muscles through my stomach and hips are aching something shocking, I can only imaigne how Bundy is feeling!

NOW THEN!

2009-02-02T06:43:00.009+11:00

Haha, this youtube video that I came across thanks to 1000 Tiny Things I Hate cracked me up!!! I just had to share it with you all!

Bareback Bundy

2009-02-01T09:36:00.002+11:00

I have Bundy in at the moment, I got him in when I get back from Tamworth just to try and teach him to bow. Well, that's going okay he's slowly getting better. Biggest problem is I can't do a lot of training right now because the only treats I have for him are sugar cubes...and I don't want to overfeed him on those!!!

Yesterday afternoon after getting a lecture from BP about having him in but not riding him, I put a bridle on him and rode around the flat bareback. He's very smart, perhaps too smart for his own good. Since he's getting treats he's started following me everywhere, while we are in the yards anyway.

What I'd love is a nice sandy roundyard so I can start trotting and cantering him bareback. I don't know what he'd think of it...or what I'd think of it for that matter...he's rather lean!!!! =S

BIRTHDAY...

2009-02-01T09:19:00.004+11:00

I just realised when I read Rising Rainbow's blog from a couple of days ago, that GeckoMusings turned 1!!! Little bit late, I first blogged on the 16th January, 2008. So...

HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY GECKOMUSINGS!!!

Happy Birthday to me...Happy Birthday to me....

Never fear, Gecko is here!!

2009-01-31T08:52:00.057+11:00

Wow, I have been slack. Again. I'm a terrible blogger at the moment! But I shall be good from now...promise!

Well I got home on Tuesday night, the trip was excellent. I went to the Tamworth Country Music festival, arrived just as the parade was going. I missed most of the famous people, although I saw John Williamson, The Sunny Cowgirls, The Wolverines and Gina Jeffreys (she must really like that shade of blue, she was dressed all in that colour including her hat!). After the parade I waled up then back down the main street...lots of people compared to how many buskers were playing. It wasn't how I remember it, when I went before, fair enough the child's mind plays things up, but I remember stalls with everything...handmade jewellery, whips, hats, everything! And they were everywhere. You couldn't walk 10m without coming to a new one. But it wasn't quite like that this year, so when I looked at the program and saw they had a campdrafting event over at the brand spanking new Equine Centre (AELEC), I sped over there straight away. I had heard lots about this new complex but hadn't actually been inside. I had my good Canon 40D camera with me for once, so I put it into practice and took some photos. Much to my suprise, my friend told me we had been standing there for almost an hour, and she was getting really hot. Me? I didn't feel the heat or the soreness in my feet from standing, I was having way too much fun taking the photos!!! Shortly after I was thinking back to how much I enjoyed it and realised, that's what I want to do. I've been having a lot of trouble with decided what I want to do. Ever since I left school, I've been doing odd TAFE courses following what I like doing (horses, agriculture etc) but not actually aiming for anything. But now, I actually KNOW. I also know I won't be able to make a living out of it, especially since I'll have to travel so far to get anywhere (nothing is close to home!), but it's what i enjoy so if I can do that aswell as whatever else I decide to do (probably dog behaviour/training/massage) I'll be happy!

I got some pretty decent photos at the campdraft, and I will post them up on the blog when I get an answer from ABCRA that they don't want them. I've e-mailled them twice saying I know you already had an official photographer there but do you want to look at my photos and offer them for sale, along with the other girl's...no answer but I'm not going to chase them anymore. I'll use those photos as my examples and aim to get into events coming up. There's an event down South in a few months time, a Rottweiler show and I've been in touch with one of the organisers and she seems interested to have me there, in saying that she has to put it to the rest of the club and we have to come up with an agreement of some sort. I won't know a yes or no for at least a week so just going to have to wait and see!

So that's why I haven't posted I've been quite distracted! I'm sortof expecting them to turn around and say no we don't want you, because everything seems to be going a little too smoothly. Oh, I'm not worried...it will come LOL!!!

Only starting work at 10am now, since the school holidays are over everything has gone quiet again. In normal circumstances I'd be worried about my job, but now I'm doing 4 days a week because there's only 2 of us working there now (other than the 2 bosses).

Back in a few days..

2009-01-23T14:53:00.003+11:00

Just a note to let everyone know I won't be posting for a couple of days, I'm on my way to Tamworth for the Country Music festival early tomorrow morning. So don't miss me too much I'll be back before you know it!

Clinton Anderson

2009-01-23T07:24:00.001+11:00

As most of you would know I've only just got satellite internet put onto my computer. It's a HUGE difference to dail-up. I put it off for a couple of years, too expensive and too limiting because I couldn't get unlimited downloads. The plan I'm on doesn't give me unlimited downloads, but I get a total of 5000MB of data per month for AU$34.95. I was paying AU$24.95/month for dail-up. I had no idea how much data I would use in a month, so I went for this package. Now I'm thinking I might be able to downgrade a bit, because in 22 days I've only used maximum 500MB - and that's a lot more than I would usually because I had to catch up on all those spammy e-mails with big attachments. And the best bit is, if I go over my data usage for the month, I don't get charged any extra, they just slow down my connection speed which turns out to be twice the speed of what I was getting on dial-up! not enough? Well, they are 100% Australian, a big thing over here at the moment!

Speaking of Australia and Australians, and of the internet for that matter, I ventured onto youtube for the first time on this new connection. It was a breeze, but I'll stop babbling now. I didn't know what to watch first, but I chose this one:

Okay, I gave in. I wasn't going to put it directly into the post, because it used to annoy me when I had dial-up...but now I'm preaching to get a faster connection so maybe this will help!

Watch it. It goes for 3:28 minutes but it's worth it. Heard of Clinton Anderson? That's who it's of. I've never had a hero, or an idol...but if I did have to choose one it would probably be Clinton. I know I may offend some people by saying what I'm about to say, but I'm just expressing my personal opinion now, no more preaching. I've tried following other horse people, Guy McLean, Monty Roberts etc etc...but Clinton was the only one who stuck. I've got one of his books, can't think of it off the top of my head, but it stayed on my bedside table for well over a year after I bought it. He's from Australia, I like the way he trains, and he doesn't say you have to train his way, he offers a base to build on. A quote from the man himself in THIS** clip probably explains it better that I just did, when asked how he's different from other trainers, "I'm more of what you call a meat and potatoes kind of a horseman, meaning that I kindof just cut to the chase."
** If you are going to watch this clip, switch your ears on...he talks awful fast! You know, I never notice Australian accents til they are speaking to an American! Then they seem so put on, even my own voice when I talk!

The video is just pretty much of him showing off what he can do with his horse. I had goosebumps for so long I swear started feeling sick! No lie!!! Oh what I wouldn't give to spend a month in an arena with him doing nothing else but working with Bundy!!! Anyone still not convinced? Well, he's not half bad looking either, that always helps!!! =D

Update, I'm still around!

2009-01-22T18:38:00.002+11:00

Any photos you want to see bigger, just click on it!

^ My first strawberry! This was a couple of days ago, I've picked another 3 since then, two of which were accidently fed to the guinea pigs by someone visiting. Lucky guinea pigs, they're 100% organic...worth a fortune in the shops.

^ I took this photo a couple of mornings ago, I really like it...it's so dreamy!

I know, I know, I've been very slack. The past 4 days have been so hectic. I had to come into town either on Monday or Wednesday, but I couldn't decide which day. I chose Monday, went to town to get new tyres on the car. They didn't have any tyres in the right size, so after all that I had to go back in on Wednesday anyway!!! The weather has been very hot, haven't tipped the 40 degree mark this week yet, but very humid none-the-less. Things are really getting dry here now:

This dam was overflowing a few months ago. The hot weather has evoporated a lot of it.

The acacia trees are stressing and dropping their leaves - nature's way of trying to minimise the moisture loss through the leaves.

Took this photo on the same day as the above. Scotch Thistles shedding seeds for next season!

My favourite spot on the whole property. "Clear Farm". I go and sit on the hill where the shade is and just think. I would love to build a house there one day.