Holy Dooley - How's Jesus?

---

DAY 423


No sooner than I am out of bed and sat in the kitchen having a cup of tea, I see that Susan’s car is all packed up and ready to hit the road back to Canberra. This means that today the city dogs are going home. I am going to miss both Misha and Rocky they have warmed to us over the last couple of weeks and as the other dogs do these two have their own personalities and it has been a pleasure to have them around. I wonder how they will feel about going home. The last two weeks have seen their confidence grow from wanting to come indoors all the time to dogs that like to venture beyond the veranda and out into the paddocks. Even some touchy growls with the working dogs at the beginning have smoothed out.

Once Susan has gone, it seems like the house has gone quiet, I’m not saying that Susan is noisy, far from it, but you notice a difference when someone leaves and I guess this time Susan leaves truly heralds the finish of the Christmas and New Year break.

Well the important thing on the list of things to do today is to disinfect the shearing shed, the Shearer’s are coming this Thursday, uh, to shear some sheep would you believe. I asked Helen if I would be disappointed with the Shearer’s, she replied “yup!” I guess there are no Bryan Brown lookalikes there then.

Andy and Helen disappear to start on the shearing shed, while the house is quiet I get the chance to Skype Mum and Dad then afterwards I wander over to the shearing shed to see if I can lend a hand. Helen and Andy are already hard at work and I join in, the floor is saturated and any excess water is brushed out of the door, the bench is wiped down and disinfected then the kitchen area is cleaned. Soon the shearing shed is ready for the shearers.

Everyone was in for lunch and we could hear the rumblings of a storm outside, it was very dark over the back and for a change it was heading right over Woodstock, were we going to be lucky and get some rain here?

Yes, we were going to be lucky, the storm raged, so much so that the noise sounded as if the house was falling down around our ears and it was not even yet over head and when the rain came, it came thick and fast, we ran outside to shift Helens new furniture back against the wall otherwise it would be in for a soaking, but the wind brought the rain in across the veranda horizontally we were outside for seconds and yet under the veranda we were soaked, it was cold too!

Andy and I already had a bet on how much the next rainfall would be, I guessed 5 millimetres and Andy guessed 8 millimetres, I was close, the rain that fell in those minutes gave a full 5.5 millimetres, game to me!

A quiet afternoon followed for me, but Andy was busy with the trailer still doing some finishing touches to the modifications, we bought some spray paint to touch up the trailer where some welding has been done, but after the primer goes on he decides that it is the wrong colour, so another trip to Bunnings is required.

It was not so much of a quiet afternoon for Helen, she had some visitors stop by for one thing or another, Margaret from the investment club popped in closely followed by Pip, who lives next door at Billabong a neighbouring farm. I put the kettle on and we all settle down for a chat, Pip asks how Jesus is, we all look at each other and decide that she is talking about Moses, Susan’s boyfriend who is currently in Africa.

We pass the afternoon, Pip takes some eggs with her and heads off back to the farm where some more work is awaiting her attention.

One thing we have noticed over the past few weeks is a common phrase from Helen, she does not swear but when something annoys her she goes “Holy Dooley!”

Later on we take Tiny and Toby for a walk around the paddocks and along the old creek. No sooner than we are outside then the mosquito’s are attacking, this seems so unusual here, we have not experienced mosquito’s here before but now we are inundated and they are mean, real mean, by the time we get back I have a few more bites in the collection.

With Toby and Tiny back in their respective places, all the dogs are fed we head back indoors and have some dinner.

For some reason an exhausting day and we try to watch a bit of TV but before 10.00 we head off to bed, I guess now everyone is getting back to work some kind of routine needs to be back in order.

Until another day tomorrow.

KJ

---

Photos

Washing the Floor
Of the shearing Shed

Some Serious Scrubbing
Is needed for the concrete like sheep poo !!