A Holiday, or Not

The time came for our family holiday. Two weeks in my parents' holiday home at Bremer Bay on the south coast.
But shearing was just finishing and harvest was under way. So there was no way that The Farmer could just pack up and go away on holidays. The kids on the other hand were champing at the bit and NO WAY were they going to miss their holiday. The fact is that we have never had two weeks summer holiday even though every year it is marked on the calendar. There is always farm work to do, and especially so when shearing is scheduled for January.
This year we decided that I would go with the kids for the first week and then Roger would join us once harvest was finished and he had drenched sheep to put into the stubble paddocks, and tidied up loose ends after shearing. My parents were going to come to stay at the farm and look after things while he went on holiday during the second week.
You would have noticed that I said "were going to" in that last paragraph, and you would have heard the saying that starts "the best laid plans..." so I don't have to tell you that my parents didn't get down to the farm. In fact my father spent several days in hospital suffering form food poisoning. I was glad it happened while they were in Perth and not while they were at the farm, and so far away from a hospital (although of course I'm sorry it had to happen at all.)
With Roger stuck at the farm I turned to www.helpxchange.org and contacted a young French backpacker who was available to help me with the kids. Estelle caught the bus to Jerramungup and we drove 100kms to pick her up, and then she spent a wonderful week with myself and the kids at Bremer Bay.

We came back from our holiday yesterday, and boy do I wish I was back on the south coast again. It was close to 40C here today, and that sort of temperature just makes me melt. With more hot weather on the way it makes me wonder why we came home...

Hugh on the Quad

I had been planning to take some photos of Hugh on the quad. He looks so cute in his motorbike boots and helmet. He has just started to ride the little four-wheeled motorbike. The brake requires quite a bit of strength, and he needs to use two hands to handle it. Which has never been a problem, until this afternoon. He was riding when it started to rain, and to his credit he thought about putting the bike under shelter. Unfortunately Roger has been putting it on the verandah right up against the glass door at night, so Hugh tried to do the same.
I heard the BANG from the laundry, and I must say that laminated safety glass is a very good thing. There was glass everywhere, but the little shattered pieces were fairly easy to clean up.
I didn't get the photo of Hugh wearing his helmet, gloves and boots, as he had fled the scene by the time I got my camera.

Cape Le Grand

After the lovely sunny day we had yesterday we were greeted with real south coast weather this morning. We went ahead with our drive out to Cape Le Grand national park, but we didn't have any lovely walks along the beach or time spent sitting on a headland watching whales cruise by. Instead we saw a grey landscape, mainly through the car window. Many of my photos were spoilt by the rain drops on the lens...

Roger was pretty keen to inspect this tractor on the beach at Lucky Bay. It was the tractor used to tow a fishing boat. But he thought it needed a new gasket on the tappet cover... look at the leaking oil!