Santa Who? Is He a Neighbour?

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DAY 412


Well today is Christmas Eve, and even though we are 10,000 miles away from where we started, the hubbub of Christmas is no different. The only major difference is here at Woodstock Farm, Nangus, New South Wales, Australia its 38.3 degree’s and without labouring the point it is baking hot.

Christmas Eve in the UK will never be described at baking hot, most probably because home in the UK is wrapped in the middle of Winter whilst, here in Australia our new world is right in the middle of Summer.

Though many of our readers will sigh and wish for the warmer weather after being entrenched in snow for a while, here on the farm, they have been in drought for nearly a decade, and all they would like for Christmas is some rain, though tomorrow the weather forecasters have said there may be rain.

It’s a simple analogy that things will not grow without water, so farming is a tough business to be in. Robert is still out there giving it his all, clearing the dams in anticipation of the weather forecasters, Helen thinks it may not happen but Robert is clinging on in vain hope that there may be rain, that has been promised.

We are all busy, Helen is busily preparing food for the big feed tomorrow, James and Bree his girlfriend have gone off in to Wagga to get the final bits of shopping and whilst in town need to pick up a new water pump, the old one has broken down, the house is fed via a bore and a rain water tank, but the water requirements for the homestead are huge, showers, dishwasher, washing machine, lawn sprinklers, drinking water all needs to be found and with us all around our usage is huge.

There is a constant stream of things to do around the place, Robert comes back at lunch time and has finished for the day, he goes and has his lunch then crashes on the bed for a well earned nana nap.

James and Bree get back, James goes and gets the front end loader from over the shed and brings it back to where the homestead dam is, a couple of large tree’s have gone to tree heaven and Helen wants them brought down so James tried to push the big tree’s over with the big bucket as high as it could be, but they would just not budge, so his next plan was to attach a chain and try to pull it over. The big tree was not going over without a fight, even though it was dead, it still would give up and whilst pulling the big chain snapped and again the tree would just not come over.

Finally James went and got a chain saw and cut in to it then attached the chain to the loader once again, under pressure the big tree finally succumbed and toppled it was then pulled clear of the dam and would be piled ready to be burnt in the winter time.

The second tree went over without even a whimper and crashed on the floor, eventually been dragged off by the front end loader.

Jason and Kristy had come over to say Merry Christmas, the were on their way to Jason’s Mum and Dads in Deniliquin and had about a 3½ hour journey, but Jason had dropped by to give us instructions on feeding the dogs and the chooks over at Merriville as they would be away for 3-4 days. Kristy revealed that they could not wait to open their Christmas presents so they opened them before leaving Merrivlle.

Jason as you all know by now works for Robert and Helen and he breeds prize chooks, heavens he is entrusting us with his prize chooks over there to be kept fed and watered, there are about 150, some in executive pens and some running free and I don’t quite understand why.

Jason’s dogs, Spook, Candy and the pups all are under our responsibility as well and so is Kristy’s pup DJ, I don’t know if we are ready for such responsibility, but we will give it our best shot.

We have been helping Helen out in our small way doing jobs around the place where ever we can, I accept its not hard work, but round the place there have been quite a few bits and pieces that Robert hasn’t gotten around to do so we have tried to help as much as we can.

An external light needed to be replaced and it’s a job I have been aware of for a while so while the girls are watching something trashy on TV, I go out side and do this little job, which I know Helen would appreciate.

Susan makes some Pizza’s and puts them in the oven for our evening meal, the
G&T’s are poured and the evening gets in to gear.

Susan speaks to “Moses” who is in Africa, they speak via face book, Susan messages to Moses about Santa coming tonight and Moses responds back by saying “Who is Santa? Is he a neighbour?”

After our food we have the blog to do so that needs producing, James and Bree are playing tennis on the Wii and Helen says that she wants to play a board game and goes off to get a box of Tri-Omino’s its like dominoes but with 3 sides and numbers at each corner, it is a really good game.

I sit down with Helen and she beats me 2 games straight, then says that she needs to retire to bed, and has told Robert that she does not intend to get out of bed before 6.00am! We will see.

Helen wanders off to bed, Susan has already retired so Caroline and myself sit down for another session of Tri-Omino’s and we both win a game, James and Bree are doing their last lot of present wrapping and we are still having beers and gins as the evening has finally come to a close.

We have tracked Santa on the Norad site and he was over Fiji which is not that far away from where we are, he had lots of little islands to get around before he finally got here so we thought we better go to bed as we might miss him.

So bloggers may we extend our Christmas Wishes to you and hope that each one of you has a fantastic festive day with your families and loved ones.

Sweet dreams.

Kangaroojack XXxx

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Photos

Christmas Eve Destruction
James pulling the tree over

A different view
Woodstocj from the dam