Crosbie - Willowite

Willowite - Life on the farm
Regular, brief updates for Hinda (everyone else will find this boring as .....)

Sat Oct 7.
Cracker and Dump are growing like nothing .. sure they're ducks?

We're waiting on a call to arrange this weekend's delivery of Trinity and Tuck - our new Llamas.
This weekend's work is tree planting. Off into town shortly to get 600 bamboo stakes for the tree guards.
We hope to plant 150 Mexican Cypress trees tomorrow along the north boundary.
Thinking of you and Matt - hope you're enjoying Nepal and climbing slowly.

Llamas arrived and settled in very well - Charlie and Felix were very interested. So were the dogs.
That's Trinity (left) and Tuck.

Wed Oct 11
Tuck got an old piece of barbed wire stuck to his arse and legs - caught in the wool.
Was a right kerfuffle cutting that out. Poor baby. But he had no cuts at all.
He's quite strong - and didn't like the rear end attention at all (understandable given he was gelded only 10 days ago)
We got your lovely email and Paris cried. Miss you beautiful girl.

Friday Oct 13
Boy was yesterday hot!! 36 degrees - hottest day ever for October.
Remeber the candles you gave Jeannette Hnda?

Sat Oct14
Wombat's a bit tired

Matt wanted to see Dump:

We're off to the Birregurra Fair now. (wasn't much ...)

Sun Oct 15
Mandy Garry and Dom helped and we planted another 100 Mexican Cypress trees. Have planted
200 now. Have to water them every 2nd day though. Paris and I do that and have it mastered with
quad bike and trailer.
Josh and Anna were round for fish n chips ... Josh driving again now. He hands in his thesis this week
so is almost finished.
Work week begins again now .. gee it'd be nice to be on holiday .. maybe in Nepal ...
Hope you are well.

Wed Oct18
Went to Dixie Chicks concert last night .. Paris first concert.. Very good but getting to bed
at 1am on a work / school night is hard.
Rain was forecast last night - had a couple of showers but only 1mm registered.
In the papers all the time are stories of farming hardship and this being the worst drought ever.
It's easy for us - we can just buy water in ... must be heartbreaking for farmers whose crops have failed again.
Well .. on that bright note - off to work / school we go.

Sun 22 Oct
Quiet weekend - Paris and I had Friday off (Showday) but we went shopping in town rather than the show.
Got tax done - will let you know your cut Hinda.
Sun - poisoned gorse and thistle in the 7 or 8 acres around the house.
Went to Moriac shop for coffee and saw a For Sale sign for a peacock. Pick him up in two weeks !
Need to build a cage / shelter first.
Had 1mm rain on Friday and then Sat - worst drought ever - terrible stories of hardship in the country.
All we have to do is buy some in . We don't need it for our livelihood like many.
Has to rain properly soon.
Hope you guys are well. Love us.

Sat Jan 2007
Well - that took a while !!!!
We lost broadband (wireless) and it has taken this long to get ADSL going - what a nightmare ... but now we're
up and running again.
Well we are all well here in the middle of summer and the longets drought in a billion years ..
But guess what ???
TODAY IT IS RAINING !!! woohoo !!!!
We've had 18mm rain this morning with more forecast tomorrow.
It's just great seeing everything wet - the llamas and horses drenched - the ducks waddling around from puddle to puddle.
And the best part is that it is expected all the bushfires in the state's NE and Gippsland will be out by Monday ... fantastic.

Of course we have new family members:
1. Ruby is Paris beautiful little kitten who is getting as tough as nails - she'll be a real farm cat. It's really nice having a little playful kitten aroiund.
2.Dobby. Dobby is a young Rainbow Lorikeet - who loves to sit on shoulders and niblle at everything.
As I look in the lounge room now he is sitting right on top of Jeannette's head.
3. Shimba is the orphaned baby elephant Hinda spponsored as a 50th birthday gift.
Although we won't be able to bring him here, we'll look after him forever.
Will put pics here of the nrew critters tomorrow.
It's hard reading your emails without crying Hinda ... that means we love you.
Talk soon ... Dad
Here's Paris and little Ruby ...

Sat Feb 25 2007
Here's Pete's new tractor - Jeannette thinks I should write "TONKA" on the front but that's
just disrespectful. It's Chinese. deisel and 20 horsepower!! When I get some attachments for it I think
it'll be just fine.

We had a fire across the road last week - burned about 10 acres but the wind kept it
away from our property.
Neighbour was driving his tractor along Willowite Road and probably it started from carbon
deposits from the exhaust.. CFA put it out though - it just got into Phillips place. They got it just
in time.
Jeannette and Paris were away at a horse clinic and I was in Melb getting the tractor -
just shows you can have all the fire fighting gear you want but if you're not home - it's useless.
So we're never going out again !!
Oh - we have inherited the three goats from Phillip as well - when we can catch them .
Had Josh, Anna, Kayleb, Jeannette, Paris and me there for 1.5 hours the other night - didn't even touch one !!
They just jump the fences at will ... plan B is to try and get their confidence with food and see if
we can get close enough to grab them one day.
It was great to hear from you Hinda - as we were getting worried. Take care.

Sat May 12 2007
All at Willowite to say bye to Josh (off to Everest today) so did a quick video to say hi Hinny and Matt.
family01.wmv
and Paris and her horses:
paris01.wmv

love you
June 2007
Orphaned lambs Harley and Rose

Kayleb's growing all the time:

July 18 2007
Time for an update on the animals. Harkley and Rose are growing and doing well. Harley had two trips
to the vet last week - getting gelded and then getting his eyelid sown back together two days later (thanks Jasper)

Pip and Jasper at "the gate" (their favourite word)

When we go for a walk around Willowite there is usually quite an entourage - a bit like Noah's ark really.
Here we are at the weekend:

time for a nap with surrogate mum Wombat