Dog complaints of a Feline Kind

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December 25th 2012

Published: December 29th 2012

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kangaroojack

Wally

A great picture of Wal on the back of the tray

We were excited to arrive at Woodstock, It was Sunday evening 23 December and again Helen and Robert had extended an invitation for us to have our Christmas at the farm and as we love being in the bosom of people who mean so much to us, how could we refuse, oh and to see all our canine friends as well.

After a brief stop in Canberra to pick up some extra provisions that we were taking to Woodstock for Christmas, we eventually arrived at the farm at around 3.30 and after a quick shower, all of us soon had to man the pumps as Helen had invited 14 for dinner and as usual the kitchen was in full swing, the table was set and it all needed pulling together.

Robert and Helen’s daughter Susan and her new beau Dean had arrived just after us and James, Helen and Roberts son and his girlfriend Bree were already there, with Sandwich, the cat, yes you heard me correct I said a cat called sandwich, but we will deal with this later on.

The Wemyss family arrived at about 7.30, Andrew and Jo, with Josh and Erica and their other

Dinner at Woodstock

With the Weymss's

son Daniel with his girl Lorena, a lovely family who we have known almost as long as Helen and Robert and it was with Josh that Caroline and myself, helped with the harvest in 2009, and as Robert and Helen did the Wemyss family welcomed Caroline and myself in to their family with no holds barred which was just great.

Like Robert, the Weymss Boys are into big machinery, and their thing is earth moving and have some pretty big Cats to play with as well, two giant Caterpillar front end loaders a grader, a couple of tippers and rollers, so when we all get together, we are always talking about, big boys toy’s, workshops sheds and stuff like that.

Well Helen had banned (anyone) from going up to the machinery sheds before dinner was served, the Wemyss do like to go and look in the Woodstock Machinery sheds, whenever they are this way and Helen knowing full well that if the boys went to the machinery shed then we would be up there for ages, and she would have to send out a search party to call the boys for dinner and I agree that’s not fair

Fly Plaque

Because of the storm

when Helen had worked tirelessly preparing our meal.

Dinner was served and we all sat down to feast on this magnificent spread. A full Christmas Dinner before the main event which was just ace, closely followed by three deserts prepared by Jo.

It was great to be able to tell everyone the status on our citizenship and they were all really pleased for us, and we promised as soon as we knew our confirmation date, they would get a party invite.

As the evening rolled on the weather had come in really bad and there was a terrific lightning storm outside and the whole sky was illuminating the area in a 360 degree view around Woodstock followed by some big rain.

All the boys sat outside on the veranda, watching the weather whilst the girls sat inside chatting.

Soon it was time to leave, Erica Josh’s girlfriend had to be up at 04.30 as she works at the Wagga Dairy and had to be up to attend to her girls who all needed milking.

When all the clearing up was done, well the clearing up we could all be bothered to do, that couldn’t

Robert's new earings

Assistedby Josh

wait until morning was done, Caroline and I headed outside to where we had set up Gypsy as we had decided to sleep in the trailer as it was easy and fun to do.

Now for our non australian, overseas readers, its December!, nearly Christmas! and we are right in the middle of summer, the temperature today in Wagga Wagga was about 38 Degree’s and you would be able to cook an egg on the bonnet of your car if you wanted to, it was that hot.

I will tell you how hot it is, when we saw the dogs for the first time, Toby, who’s a hooligan couldn’t even be bothered to jump up as he was that hot.

Thank goodness for the storm as it had cooled down quite a few points on the thermometer and we dashed to the trailer so we didn’t get that wet and once inside, we closed up as much as we could to stop the rain coming in, but left as much as we could open as we knew it would be a hot night, which turned out to be hot enough, so we both slept on top of

Helen & Robert

Enjoying there Christmas Present opening

the bed with a quilts pushed back.

We woke to the usual Woodstock morning, calm, and peaceful, with the odd bah of a sheep and the occasional bark of one of the dogs, saying good morning.

With the cool morning air, wafting over us, I just struggled getting my lazy backside out of bed and Caroline was up before me, which doesn’t happen that often.

I think I managed to drag my carcase out of bed by about 9.00 am and I wandered in to the kitchen, everyone was up and Susan had breakfast cooking.

After a shower and shave I think I messed about with the truck and the trailer for a little while, and of course I had a nana, in fact I think at one stage the whole household had indulged in said past time.

James and Bree had packed their gear as they were off down to Melbourne to spend Christmas with Bree’s parents, so around lunch time they left for their 6 hour journey.

It was Christmas Eve, another storm rolled in, and before dinner we all sat outside and watched the spectacular event, however nowhere near as good

Caroline

Spoilt again.

as last night’s display. Later we sat around watching some TV and playing board games until it was time for bed and again as it had been a hot day, our night was lying on top of the bed.

Now for Sandwich the cat, just imagine in Buckingham Palace, all the Queens Corgis having a run of the place for years and years, and the Queen suddenly deciding that she wanted a cat in the Royal household, how do you think that would go down with her majesty’s dogs?

Well we have the same situation here at Woodstock, no Helen hasn’t decided that she now wants a Cat, but James and Bree, have this moggie called Sandwich and they are hopefully off to the UK for a year or so to work and Helen has the job of looking after the cat while they are away.

I swear to god, you should have seen Wally’s face when he first saw the Cat, if he could only speak, he would have taken Helen aside and said, “Look here Helen! All the dogs are happy here, what on earth is going on? Bringing a Cat to Woodstock, it’s not

Woodstock Prime Lamb

Helen had these embroidered for Robert

the done thing and even saying that he would write a letter of complaint.”

Christmas Day arrived, and again Caroline was up before me, eventually when I wandered into the farm house I found that Caroline was the first one up, nothing short of a miracle as she was even up before Robert and Helen and was apparently sitting in the kitchen drinking tea when Helen put in an appearance!

It was decided that tea was the first order of the day, followed opening presents and eating breakfast and as usual Santa was very good to us, we had decided not to buy each other presents as we had spent a lot on Gypsy, so we could not justify any further spending.

Just a quick Happy Birthday to Ram Chop who is one (1) today and fitting in at Woodstock and looking very well.

Everyone had lots of presents and we managed to fill a bag with all the debris, after all the present opening we all went and got ourselves ready for the day ahead, as Woodstock had more guests for Christmas Dinner.

I don’t know if it’s a Christmas tradition, but all the

Christmas Day

At Woodstock

Woodstock dogs get let off and are allowed to roam and play as they wish, (even naughty Toby), Helen said we could let them all off and she made sure that “Sandwich” was securely in the house so as not to end up as a sandwich for one of the dogs.

As soon as we walk up to the doggie Hilton they all go nuts when they see us, well everyone except for Wally, he just sits there in his usual professional manner, wags his tail and lets out a little whimper as if to say, ”Hi Andy, Hi Caroline, it’s great to see you.”

I do have to say that I am a little worried about Wally, since his accident he does seems to have lost that sparkle that he had, and it’s not just me that has noticed it, it’s great to see he is nearly bearing his ‘weight on this back leg and is happy to be on the back of the tray, but something is just missing. I am sure it will come back when he is fully functional and back at work again.

At the moment there are eight (8) working dogs

Toby!!

Demanding his,""cat sandwich"" now!!

at Woodstock, Wally (Border Collie), Kimba, Toby, Trixie, Hoover, Sam, Smokey and the dog with no name but called Tiddles. The remainder are all Kelpies, but Trixie, Hoover, Sam and Tiddles have some Border Collie in them as they are the offspring of Wally and Kimba.

Once out of the doggie Hilton, they all migrate down to the lawn, and roll round and play, Helen had a Crocodiles Head, for Christmas that floats in her pond and even with that peering out of the water it did not stop Tody from jumping in the pond, he doesn’t jump he just sorts of walks through the pond from side to side then wants to give you big wet kisses, which he would if you let him.

Hoover definitely didn’t like the crocodiles head in the pond and avoided it and they were soon all lying on the lawn with their pig’s ear that they seem to enjoy.

Toby, must have been able to see the cat through the screen door and he peered in, you could see just what was going through his mind, come here kitty and let me tear you apart, I promised to make it

The Crocodile Head

In the pond

as quick as I can.

I’m sure the cat could read Toby’s mind and retreated to the back bed room to be out of sight of such a brute, and Wally, just wanted to go and talk to Helen and say, see Helen, Toby’s all upset now he wants to know when he is having his Sandwich.

It is great to see the dogs having some time off and some fun together, to see them work is poetry in motion and they love it, so they are entitled to some fun time off.

Caroline wanted us to drive down to Yileena, which is part of the Woodstock farm group and means (“A dream come true”) there was a Chestnut Tree which was flowering and Helen said it was lovely to look at and Caroline wanted to take some photo’s.

When we arrived back from our short excursion and were just in time to greet Roberts Aunty Mary and Uncle Athol arriving for Christmas lunch.

Aunty Mary is a very sharp and spritely 83 years young and really Is engaging, Uncle Athol, still farms his own property he doesn’t say too much but when he does

"Sandwich the Cat"

No that is not a request!

he makes it count.

Mary made the Christmas pudding, and amazed us with all the history behind it, and she was specific in telling us it was boiled and not baked or microwave, the custard was done specifically with corn flower.

Caroline and myself found out a long while ago just how good the Country Women’s cooking was and it’s a sort of rite of passage, as I type this Caroline is just putting our second cup of tea on, its 5.50pm on 28 December and I have a tupperware box containing Helens slice, which she sent with us when we hit the road on Boxing Day, I have had three pieces, so far.

Our Christmas lunch was just great, great food, great company, great nana nap, when I came to it was only Helen and Caroline who did not have a snooze.

We finished the evening with a couple of games of Rummikub, Caroline winning two games, me only one game and Helen a big fat zero, we spoke to family in England and a managed a phone call with our friends Sue and Cliff in WA, then it was time for bed, we had