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Published: December 7th 2008
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As were were still on New South Wales time, it wasn't too hard getting the kids up and there were soon exploring the property including a new puppy further back in the land where the farm dogs are kept. Greg returned from a few morning errands and joined us all for breakfast. After breakfast, we headed off in the rental car with Lisa to Dougal's house down the road so that the kids could try out the all terrain vehicles and visit the wild Emu's that live there. We checked their property first, a lovely place down by a river that has platypuses in it, before determining that the closest ATV was on one of the other properties. We headed over there were we met up with Dougal again. He and a crew were in the process of assembling a large irrigation system for watering the hay.
The boys were enthralled with the ATV and quickly figured it out with Joshua driving. We led them up to a large paddock where a few Emu's were hanging out at the far end of the irrigation system. The two of them took a tour over while Lisa explained a bit more of
the farm's operation.
The four son's are all involved in the farm which does mainly hay for feed. Up until last year they also did watermelons and currently farm peanuts in addition to the hay. They have a huge operation and have bought up several smaller farms over the years. As they are working together on the farms, they each specialize somewhat with Greg doing more of the marketing end, though it sounds as if everyone helps out with everything in the end. There are quite a number of people employed by them and we met several of them around the properties.
When the boys were done with the ATV (or rather when we finally managed to drag them off it) we headed to town to go to the local school where Sonia teaches and Olivia and Cameron attend.
The school in a quite substantial building and property, though there are only 19 children in grades 1 - 6. Sonia introduced us to the teacher/ Principal (she fills in for prep time) and we got to chat a bit while the kids had their recess. After the recess were went upstairs with the kids to their classroom.
Our own children can be a bit shy with strangers, so I wasn't sure how communicative they may or may not be in telling others about their own country. In the end, the teacher did a great job of steering the conversation and Evy did a lot of the talking. Benjamin and Joshua managed to answer questions on sports in Canada, the climate, and the wild life as well as other things. The kids treated us to a singing of the Australian national anthem as well as their school song and Waltzing Matilda. I think our own kids had been quite nervous about speaking to the class and so there was a decidedly lightened atmosphere when they began to realize it really wasn't that hard. The class gave us each Bonshaw school pins and well as a Bonshaw bag (London, Paris, Athens, Bonshaw, Sydney, Rome) which will fittingly travel to all these places with us.
After our time at the school, we drove to the town of Texas where we ate a picnic lunch that Lisa had kindly packed for us. Next we hit the library for a few hours of school work and INTERNET access. We wondered
into gift shop in town after the studies were done, and the man behind the counter asked if we were “The Canadians”. It turns out he is the editor for local paper. Apparently Greg had phoned him and told him about our story and to keep and eye out for us. We answered some questions about our travels and he took a picture for the local paper. Between this and the school visit were were beginning to feel like celebrities !
We gassed up for tomorrow's long drive (it is a long way between gas stations here) and headed back to the farm. We are feeling quite at home now at “Island Home” and spend some time on the porch writing our Christmas cards while we wait for Lisa and Greg to come home. There is a storm coming and the black clouds are building in the distance. After month of hilly New Zealand it seems strange to see so much horizon. The occasional car in the distance seems to take forever to reach where we are.
When Greg and Lisa return, they suggest a trip in the truck further up their property to see the Kangaroos and
Emus. We head up with all four of us enjoying the open air in the back of the truck with the warm wind blowing in our hair. We see several groups of Kangaroos and Emus before stopping on some highland in a cow pasture. Greg and Lisa bring out some wine and snacks and we have a relaxing tailgate party until the rain starts.
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