Goodbye

Yesterday we sent the last of our cattle (except two steers that will be for the freezer) to our son at Gundiah.  It is with both sadness and happiness that we did this.  Sadness because we love our cattle but happiness that they are going to a good place and that we will get to see them again.  Can't say that about any other cattle that we have sold.
I freely admit that I dislike working with cattle in the yards and Philip only called upon me as a last resort.  However, the "last resort" was happening more often so I am happy that is now finished.  What I will miss though is the morning walk when I could say hello to the cows and their caves, and get to know their individual traits.  Some of our cattle are "pat quiet" others look at you with disdain. One thing is for sure though that they are all quiet cattle and by that I mean that there is no vice in any of them.  You can walk through them in the cattle yards and they just quietly move out of the way.
So, yesterday our morning started at 5.30 am. when Philip mustered the cattle into the yards and we drafted off the calves from the cows.  By 7.00 am our "cross loading" body truck had arrived and by 7.30 am we had our first load ready for the the B-Doubles waiting on the bitumen pad 100 metres from our gate.
For those of you that don't know what cross loading is I will try to explain.
The B-Double trucks cannot enter our property because they are too long so we get the truck drivers to wait at the bitumen pad while we load a body truck that then transports the cattle to the waiting trucks.  The body truck reverses up to the B-Double and the cattle then move, via a ramp, from one truck to another.  As we had six decks of cattle to be loaded it was twelve trips for the body truck that carried a half deck.
It poured rain yesterday while we were loading the cattle, that seemed like a fitting way to say goodbye to the cattle.  They now have a journey of almost 1600 km that will take about 36 hours to complete.  We gave the cattle plenty of room to move around on the trucks so that when the truck drivers have to stop for a log book break the cattle will be able to lie down.  It's the best we could do.

Cross Loading

The week that was.....

We've had a busy week catching up with friends.  First at Palm Cove where our great friends and hosts cooked up a delicious meal for the seven of us.  Love, love, loved the salads that Kate made to compliment the bbq lamp chops, sausages and chicken.  And lets not forget that curry.  To die for.  It was such a beautiful balmy night sitting on the verandah at our friends Palm Cove apartment.  As usual, the conversation (and drinks) flowed easily. We stayed the night and next morning......ham and eggs.  What else!  Thanks guys!

The three amigos

Anyone for a bbq?

Friends.....

Sunday evening we were invited to our gardeners house.  Her parents were coming for a visit and she really wanted us to meet them as they are ex westerners (from the Hughenden area).  Boy, did we hit it off.  We had so many friends in common, it was quite amazing.  Trude's husband was home after doing a four week stint at his FIFO job in PNG.  He didn't get to have christmas with his family so Trudi cooked up a beautiful ham with all the vegetables and trimmings.  It was another fantastic meal.  After dinner we took our chairs downstairs and sat around the bonfire that the kids had built. Another memorable night.

Dinner at Trudi's place

There is nothing more relaxing than sitting around a bonfire.

Saturday morning I rose quite early to get down to the Mossman Farmers Markets to pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables.  I made a resolution at the start of the year that I would do this and also to eat from the freezer more often.  By that I mean eating some of the frozen meals that I religiously place in the freezer to eat when we are short of time.  Of course, they don't get eaten!  I have enough frozen meals to feed us for at least a month.....

This lady was selling "red avocados" that I googled and they are in fact Mamey Sapote.  I bought two and will make them into a healthy dessert. 

A lot of the produce comes from the Atherton Tablelands at this time of the year.  

Last night we were back in Cairns for dinner at our friend Jane's home to check out her renovation.  What a great job the builders have done and kudos to Jane for her fantastic taste in furnishings.  It is a lovely home with a "heart".  We all took along a food contribution and started with a cheese ball, and crackers followed by garlic prawns with crusty bread.  For the main meal we feasted on Stuffed Mushrooms, Asparagus Spears with soft friend Egg, Potato Bake, Steak and Sausages.  To round out the meal Jane had made a lovely lemon tart.  We were as "full as googs" as we said goodnight to our friends.

Dressed to kill

Today we are watering the garden.  It is very dry for this time of the year, but then again January can be a horrible month as we await the start of the monsoon season.  I went around the garden and picked a few flowers before we started watering.  The garden is looking lovely at this time of the year.

Next week we are going to be extremely busy as we send all our cattle to our son at Gundiah.  We are starting to "wind down" as we head towards retirement.  Bring it on!

Vale John Edward O'Neil

On Thursday we sad our last goodbyes to my mothers partner for the past 19 years.  He had just celebrated his 80th birthday.
John came into Mum's life shortly after my dad passed away but had been a family friend for many, many years.  John worked in Main Roads in those days and passed on a lot of work to my plumber father.  They were great mates.
I can't say that it was easy to accept John into mum's life, but it really didn't take very long for his charm to rub off and for us to see that he was good for mum.
They both built lovely houses on Ogilvie Road in Warwick but it wasn't long before Toowoomba called and they found the perfect place in Hume Street.......identical town houses side by side.
Every morning John would deliver the paper to Mum after he had read it. That was their way of checking on each other.  They also shared their evening meals in front of the TV.  Mum would make up her tray and walk the six or so steps to John's place where he would also have his tray made up.
They enjoyed wonderful holidays together seeing much of Australia until mum's health restricted her from traveling too far, so it was either the Gold or Sunshine Coasts along with the yearly visit to us her at Julatten.
John could be very opinionated and we did not see eye to eye on lots of things but he was also one of the kindest, generous big-hearted people I know.  I am going to miss him greatly.

RIP Johno.