First Guest at the Woodstock Hilton

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DAY 422


Ah, Sunday morning, a nice breakfast of tea and toast (with marmite of course - I am happy to adopt everything Australian, but I cannot deal with Vegemite), and then it was outside to get on with a few things on the trailer, we need to finalise the modifications and get the trailer ready for when we move on. Unfortunately Andy decides to make a couple of modifications to the modifications already done, I do despair, but I can see the point of what he is trying to achieve so I give him a hand.

After a nice start to the day, I do feel a little lost, I think it is that New Year feeling, everyone heads back to work tomorrow, and we don’t have a focus so Andy and I agree that we need to sit down and make a firm plan. There is still so much that we want to do, people to see and places to go and we have had an invite to head up to Cape York with Stewart and Yvonne who we met in Broome way back in May 2009, we loved Cape York and there is still so much to explore up there, we want to pop in and see a lot of people that we have met on this trip, but work must come somewhere in between and perhaps it should take a bit of a priority right now, but time will tell.

Everyone is busy today, Susan is making tomato relish, Bree is looking through family photos with Helen, James is helping Robert with the dog yards and eventually I manage to sit down and have a quiet read, I am struggling to put down Sara Henderson’s book about her life at Bullo River Station and spend most of the afternoon with my nose in the book with only brief breaks to make a cup of tea and pop down to the Nangus shops for Helen.

Eventually Andy comes in and sits down to enjoy some reading time, he is still reading a Len Beadell book, a TV is on in the background but neither of us are watching.

The afternoon withered away and became early evening it was feeding time for the dogs, so as soon as Andy came back off we went to give them their dog nuts, first stop Kimba and Tiny. Of course Kimba is watching her TV and pays little attention then she realises we have food and runs over for a fuss but then runs back to her TV., today’s episode of Chickens and Ducks, Tiny of course wants her usual big fuss, so I give her plenty of that.

Robert shouts over to us, “Bring Tiny’s kennel, a dog bowl for food and her water bowl,” Tiny is to be the first guest at the Woodstock Hilton, These are the newly built ddg Kennels built by Robert and are fantastic, she runs out of the yard that she shares with Kimba and made a run for the house, I shouted to her to come back and obediently she does, but of course but I take her in a different direction than usual, we head up past the chicken run and then Tiny smells a rat (in the proverbial sense of course), she suddenly flops down on the ground all four legs incapable of doing anything, I try to encourage her to move, but no, as I move closer she gets up and runs in the opposite direction and strangely enough runs straight back to the gate where Kimba’s yard is.

Tiny wants to be let back in, I try to get her to move, she is usually so obedient, but I think she is now worried about where we are taking her, again she flops down on her belly and refuses to move.

After several false starts, I thought I was getting there at one stage and then failed miserably, so there was only one thing for it. I went back to the gate where Tiny was waiting, I picked her up and carried her into the new yard, she did not struggle, but let me tell you her name does defy her, she is a heavy dog, I have described her as a bit of a tubby custard, but she is really not that big.

I wanted to stay with her for a spell, but Robert wanted to close the gate so I stepped back to leave, no sooner than I was out of the gate Tiny was hot on my heels, but Robert was too quick and the gate closed.

Tiny ran straight to the back of the yard, had a quick look and then ran into her kennel where she quivered as far back out of sight as she could. Tiny was not a happy Kelpie and no matter how much I tried to coax her out, she would not. The only thing for me to do was to walk away and see if she came out to explore.

When I went back up with my camera she was waiting by the gate, hoping of course, but I did not let her out, I began to think Jack hates me being with the camera and now Tiny is not going to be pleased with me either.

Robert and Helen both hope that being in the new dog yard she may not bark so much at night, a little bit of psychological mind games, she may feel a little intimidated to start with and there are also security lights, it is hoped that if she starts barking and moving around the security lights will come on and she may stop.

I can see her from the house, she is still looking a little surprised at her relocation, but the good news is she is not barking, I hope that tomorrow she is still talking to me.

Back at the house, Susan had dinner cooking the table outside is set, we are just waiting for Andy and Jason to return from the shed, they disappeared up there with the trailer so that we can make finalise the modifications in other words the last bit of welding, get the spare wheel back on so that the trailer is ready to hit the road again.

We, Well Andy and Jason had to move the Spare wheel bracket forwards as we had fitted the new draw bar trunk that we mentioned a week or so ago, Andy is very fussy and though he has never welded before, asked Jason for a favour and knows just what he wants.

The boys reappear and dinner is served, it was delicious, but once we had all finished eating, and the little bit of washing up was done it was time for bed, I just don’t know where the time goes, I had hoped for an early night as we have an early start in the morning, but the blog still needs up loading along with the photos.

We get into bed and I sit and upload everything and finally turn the light off. I can hear nothing for a short while, as in there were no dogs barking, until of course the dulcet tones of Trixie could be heard, but still not a peep from Tiny.

Well that’s our day for today so its and so to sleep.

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Photos

The First Guest
At the Woodstock Hilton

Tiny
In her new Accomodation

Kimba,Still Watching
Dog TV, This exciting episode, Ducks & Chickens