Here it is !!

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DAY 411



I was up bright and early again this morning, Jason comes across from Merriville with a pot of Antibiotics for the chickens, as the one we had to send to Chicken Heaven the other day was one of Jason’s and now Helen has got lots of Jason’s chicken cast off’s it seems sensible to give them all a good dose of medicine.

How do you get chickens to take medicine, well the night before last we tipped out all their water and left them for 12 hours, this morning we filled only one drinking water barrel and put the Antibiotic powder in and left them hopefully to drink.

We shut the ducks in the chicken coup with water and left them they did not need any medicine as apparently the ducks wash their heads when they drink, honestly I haven’t got a clue what this means, but I will try to find out.

Jason tell me and Helen the chooks need to have a good drink, but how the hell do you know how much drink the chickens have had??

Andy brought me a cup of tea this morning, unaware of what was happening with the chickens, I sat for a while in bed to drink it but soon decided that I needed to be up and about and join in the hustle and bustle in the kitchen.

Helen is already busy preparing food for tonight and Andy is knocking up coleslaw. After breakfast we Skype a couple of friends for a chat, back in England they are covered in snow, so unless it rains they may actually have a white Christmas.

I check my messages, I have lots of emails from England with Christmas wishes, and lots of comments that we are not missing “a darn think in England, so stay where you are,” That’s fine with me, I am happy to stay here, listening to the news we hear that Basingstoke was grid locked and about 60 people had to spend the night in a bedding department in a department store, I have been caught in a gridlock in England before when there has been a motorway closure, it is far from funny, I was sat in my car for 5 hours almost in the same spot, eventually making it into London, what should have been a 1 hour 30 minute journey.

The weird thing is that I have managed to drive up to Basingstoke in the snow before now and get to work only to find that the people who actually lived in Basingstoke could not get in because they were snowed into their houses.

Jason and I are talking about what happened to the Patrol with our oil catastrophe yesterday, I had explained that we (I) had stupidly forgot to put the oil filler cap back on and we lost some oil and the oil filler cap.

He asked me if I had looked in the engine bay and said that I had, twice and Caroline did also, but we just could not find it and have ordered another one that will be in Wagga today, he reaches in to the engine bay and plucks it out like a cherry from a tree, “Here it is,?” Jason smuggly lifts the filler capand put it in its rightful place, A few expletives spring to mind!!.

We have phoned the Nissan dealer and yes the oil filler cap has come in, I explain that it is no longer needed and he grumbles a bit but I think we won’t have to pay for it.

39.7 degree’s outside and it feels very warm inside too, but Andy and I have to venture out again, Helen needs a few things in Wagga and Andy and I need to pick up a present for Josh, so we borrow Helens car, even though we have the oil filler cap back in place Jason suggested that we clean the engine bay first, it may avoid a fire!

We head straight into Wagga thinking that the traffic would be bad, we may struggle to get parked and of course the shops would be heaving, wrong! We breezed in, found a space and went shopping, it was a lovely quiet day, we even managed to stop for an ice cream!

When we finished we headed straight back to Woodstock, we see Susan’s car is on the driveway, she has come home for Christmas and New Year, we see the two city dogs, Misha and Rocky are with her making themselves at home on the veranda, they both bark when they see us.

Indoors we find another hive of activity with preparations for tonight in full swing, Andy disappears for a nanna nap, while I get the vacuum cleaner out and whizz round the floor, Andy wakes before I finish so he helps me move some of the furniture to get round the awkward bits.

Once that is done, I mop the floors in the bathroom and hallway, I then shower to get ready for tonight, in the meantime James and Bree turn up, James has come back with his girlfriend for a couple of days and then they will head to Melbourne to spend some time with Bree’s family.

We are all ready, there is gin and tonic on the go, while we wait for everyone to arrive we sit around chatting and before we know it there is a room full of people. The bubbly comes out along with the Hibiscus. Both Susan and Kristy had the same idea they both brought along jars of Hibiscus, the trick being that you put them in the bottom of the champagne glass with a couple of spoonfuls of the syrup, when the champagne is poured on the top the Hibiscus opens up and the champagne bubbles float up the from petals.

Once you finish the champagne you can eat the Hibiscus, which I found quite sweet, it is supposed to taste of raspberry and rhubarb, I am not keen on rhubarb, but found the taste of this quite pleasant, judging by the look on Kristy’s face, she was not that keen, in fact said that it tasted quite sour.

Well, dinner was soon served, we had a cold buffet and all sat around a very long table, we all ate, drank and chatted until it was quite late, then one by one people disappeared, some having 35 kilometres to travel to get home.

The rest of us remained, we tidied up, loaded the dishwasher for its second load that evening and then retired.

Kimba had been let out of her yard, as that is where the city dogs are sleeping while they are here, it was not long after going to bed I heard Kimba run past the window in hot pursuit of something, the other dogs started to bark, I heard Helen go to the back door and shout at the dogs to “shut up”, silence fell and the moon shone brightly.

Another day closer to Santa, he will be nearly ready to go out on his long journey across the world delivering presents, I wonder if he knows how to find Andy and me?

Until Christmas Eve then!

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Photos

Balancing the Pork
This looks like Kimba had Pork, Balancing on her nose, it wasn't

Jack, Doesn't
After the Vets incident, he definatly doesn't like Caroline taking his photo

Looking Good
After Their Anti Biotics

Wild Hibiscus
The new graze, wild Hibiscus Flowers in champagne, the bubbles are supposed toopen the flower

Comments

[Stacy]

I don't want to be a pie...
I don't like gravy! Lol, your first bit about chickens reminded me of that line from 'Chicken Run' :-)