Kelpies and Friends

Are you a fan of Emma's blog A Simple Living Journey ?
As well as her interesting articles about raising a family and living off-grid in a Yurt, her "Weekend Reads" post at the end of each week is a gentle nudge towards further reading and discovering new bloggers.
So, late one night, along the breadcrumb trail I went, to discover Artist As Family; teaching neopeasant lifeways
I had seen this family featured recently on Gardening Australia (ABC TV) so I was excited to find their blog written by Megg Ullman and Patrick Jones.
They live and teach Permaculture in Daylesford, Victoria, and their attitude to life makes my heart sing.
Go over and check them out for some seriously good inspiration and a feel good boost.

Spirits are high, as green is the colour that surrounds us now that winter has set in.

Grass Roots magazine has gone coloured!! Not just the cover, but the photos inside are in colour too.
So I'm a little bit  very excited to be a part of this history making issue with TWO articles this time. Well, that's what happens when you get ahead of yourself, and think that sending two articles will take the pressure off meeting the next deadline, and they publish both in the same issue.
So I'm back to my laptop again to come up with articles for next issue.
Emma A Simple Living Journey also has an excellent article in this one.  Congratulations Emma!
What a pleasure and a great honour it is to work with editors Megg and Jessamy. I am truly grateful.

Jack is determined not to be left behind as we prepare for the Casterton Kelpie Muster this Queen's Birthday long weekend. The sheep hurdles on the back of the ute with the recycled green garbage bins; a kennel each for both Kelpies.

Photo by Casterton Kelpie Muster

 Meg is entered in the Triathlon which entails; the fifty metre street dash, the high jump, and the hill climb.
Jack is just six months old, his first time competing among the huge crowds, so is entered in the fifty metre street dash only.
 It's a full day of fun for the dogs and their humans on the Saturday.
The working dog demonstrations are held on the Sunday, followed by the auction of those dogs in the afternoon. Last year the top prices for the dogs went as high as $16,000 and $22,000.
We have made some lifelong friends there in Casterton since we began volunteering to help set up the venues on the Friday before the two day event, and we look forward to catching up with them again.

The Avan has had a wash and will be packed and ready to go first thing in the morning.

 The cows have grown their winter coats. Isn't nature incredible?

Autumn leaves are hanging on.

Alan is giving me that look. Yes it's very unfair of me to block his access to the fire and I felt suitably reprimanded.

 Only just enough space for all three.

We went for a drive to the Adelaide Hills on Monday to purchase this little cream coloured fitting for the top of the old stove. It was also Brian's sixtieth birthday and the first day of his two weeks of annual leave, so we had lunch at a cafe in the Hills to celebrate.  

He worked hard yesterday at installing the flu and roof capping so the old stove was given its inaugural first lighting up with a bottle of red wine. 

Happy Birthday Brian!!

We also had a look in a salvage yard for some reclaimed timber to build the benches and shelves on both sides of the fireplace. The prices were exorbitant, so it was decided (thankfully) to use the old decking boards that were taken up at the beginning of this seemingly endless project. Phew... that's what I had wanted to use in the first place, but if there's one thing I've learned in my long life, is never to get in the way of a bloke on a mission. Just hold back and eventually the right way will prevail. 

 I am much relieved. My idea of keeping a rustic/industrial feel to the outdoor kitchen is falling into place.  

The gate to the Pekin bantam shelter is left open during the day so they can free range in the house garden, controlling the earwigs and generally looking gorgeous as they wander about the place.  The three dogs also have free range of the house yard and although they all co-exist peacefully, a certain dog likes to wander into the bantam house to steal eggs and other tasty morsels. Poultry pellets are especially delicious.

The answer to this little conundrum was to put up some strands of electric fence wire outside the gate. The dogs remember this wire from when they got too close to the cow paddock dividers so the dummy wires do a great job of preventing dogs from going where they're not welcome. 

I'm late night blogging again and there are still a few more things to write on the list of items to pack in the morning. 

The thermos and lunch bag are on the kitchen table ready to be filled in the morning before we set off on our six hour drive to Casterton. 

See you on the other side.

Cheers,

Sally XX