Tues, 6th Nov, 2018 Pastoral Station, 60km north of Sandstone, WA (Terry’s birthday)

Joy, Lance and Kayla left at 6am in the truck.

7am I got up and it was only 15.5 degrees!!

I let out the chooks. Warmer out in the sunshine. Clucky is happy in her cage, I gave her some more grain. One of the big chooks laid an egg so I slipped it under her so she can hatch another one.

Grabbed the portable phone from the house to take any messages and to give Steve’s dad, Terry, a call for his birthday. No answer, left message and will try later.

Rang Mum and Dad for a lovely long chat. All good there. My nephew David remarried on the weekend and they all had a great time. Val has been in and out of hospital again with fluid build-up, poor thing. Had a bit of rain.

Did another load of horse poo then caught up on my blog.

Steve came back for lunch so we looked at some more of our photos from 2 years ago. We had arrived in Wiluna in July and I had photographed this information about the Canning Stock Route and the Gunbarrel Highway. It was in the layby as you enter Wiluna so I didn’t think about it when we headed off in May. It was interesting to read again so I have included it here. Also the cutouts for Canning and Len Beadell that were around the park.

Checked on the chooks and it looks like another brown might be wanting to nest too. Got another bigger egg so put that under the nesting one.

Wendy sent a photo of her and Sandy enjoying themselves at Melbourne Cup. I gave her a call and she said they missed me. A photo had come up on Facebook the other day of us heading off to the actual Melbourne Cup four years ago.

Rang Kaylene but she had just gone out so had a chat with Rick. Rang Margaret and Bob for a chat too.

Drinks watching our old photos. Lovely cool evening. Sky covered in stars.

Mon, 5th Nov, 2018 Pastoral Station, 60km north of Sandstone, WA

7am 17 degrees, cold breeze and clear sky. What happened to summer – getting colder not hotter.

Steve went detecting as Lance didn’t have any chores he needed doing. He is sorting out the truck as they heading to Perth tomorrow to pick up hay and grain and see family etc.

Kayla and I did school – the teacher said it is raining in Geraldton. Got through a lot of work as Kayla with miss days going to Perth this week. Had fun doing the science experiment of ‘erupting lemons’.

Lovely cool breezy day. 1am 28 degrees.

I finished ‘ripping’ my cds and sorting out which songs I want etc.

No joy for Steve but he is determined he will find some gold.

After cuppa Steve ground some grain for the horses and chooks. One girl is clucky and has been sitting on her eggs yesterday and today so Lance moved her into a big cage. She had her egg and had collected 3 of the bigger chooks eggs who was also laying her eggs in the same spot. There is a naughty chook that has been eating the eggs – I caught her at it but didn’t realise in time to catch her but I couldn’t say which brown chook it was. Will keep an eye out as she will have to go. Clucky chook will sit on her eggs now for 21 days.

The sunflowers are out and the nectarines are growing well. Joy also has mangoes and everything is growing well.

The wind is cold this afternoon so I had to close the windows in the van. We had taken the blanket off the bed as it had been so warm but now I will have to dig it out again!!

Sun, 4th Nov, 2018 Pastoral Station, 60km north of Sandstone, WA

8am 21 degrees, cool breeze.

Quiet morning as everyone enjoyed a sleep in. Steve went off detecting again while I continued ripping my CDs.

Joined the others for a cuppa. The kids are having a ball together.

Said farewell to Chris, Sandy and the boys. Sandy will stay in contact as they might get us to station sit in the new year so they can have a break if we are still around the area.

Gusty cool wind keeping the temperature down – only 29 degrees at lunch.

No luck for Steve but he is getting plenty of exercise. We got back on the scales last week and didn’t do too bad for our 6 months away. Only put on a little bit. Weigh in again tomorrow!!

Watched the Supercars race in NZ as we have satellite TV in the Guest Quarters that we can use.

Joined Joy and Lance for a drink. She made us a quiche for dinner which the fresh eggs.

The cold wind stopped as the sunset. I put the chooks to bed – they are so funny.

After dinner Tom and Sandy rang for a chat. They are settling into their house again.

NO PHOTOS TODAY.

Sat, 3rd Nov, 2018 Pastoral Station, 60km north of Sandstone, WA

8am 29 degrees and very windy.

Steve went for a wander with his detector.

I helped out Joy by giving the Guest Quarters a clean ready for their friends this afternoon.

Cleaned out the chook pen and gave them fresh hay. The old stuff I spread around the plants. Did another load of horse poo for the vegie gardens. The poo dries hard so it is easy to handle then once you wet it and mush it up I can spread it easily with the shovel on the garden beds and around the fruit trees.

Lovely cool breeze today though it is 35 degrees in the van lunch time but it doesn’t feel that hot.

I found out about ‘ripping’ my music CDs onto the lap top so I can then put them on the USB so we can have more music when we travel and also to play in the van as the dust has gotten into that CD player too.

No joy for Steve when he returned for lunch. He headed back out determined to find something other than rubbish.

Storms are building around us.

Later in the afternoon Chris, Sandy and their two boys, Mitchell and Harry arrived. Harry is in Kayla school class. They have property at Paynes Find and Sandy grew up ‘gold mining’ with her parents there. They have the gold battery and museum there that we missed out on seeing when we drove through.

Flashes of lightning and some rolls of thunder out to the east. Rain out there too as I saw a rainbow.

We got a few drops of rain but the light show was fabulous.

BBQ dinner with lots of chatting. Still flashing around us but the stars are out above us.

We just got into bed when the wind whipped up and a shower of rain fell with more lightning and thunder overhead.

Fri, 2nd Nov, 2018 Pastoral Station, 60km north of Sandstone, WA

7.30am 23 degrees and nice cool breeze. High thin cloud.

Checked the chooks for eggs, let them out to wander about and fed them some grain.

School of the Air with Kayla again – very interesting. I am learning a lot and we have fun playing games in between work sheets etc.

Steve and Lance finished off the shadecloth.

38 degrees for lunch – clouds are building up.

Read a book with Kayla then we had a cool off in the spa. Played lots of ‘Simon says’.

5pm the storm has built and is crossing east of us. Very black out there. We got a few drops then it went away. Made a light rainbow.

Watered plants and pottered about. Put a quiche on in the oven for dinner.

Had drinks with Joy and Lance as the sun worked its way down through the clouds. Lovely colours – should have got the camera.

A few more drops of rain and a blast of wind but then it settled down and was all quiet.

NO PHOTOS TODAY.

Thurs, 1st Nov, 2018 Pastoral Station, 60km north of Sandstone, WA

7am 22 degrees, overcast, nice cool breeze to wake up with.

School of the Air again with Kayla but with two classes which was interesting. A quick shower of rain came over us.

I went for a ride with Lance and Kayla into Meekatharra so they could get some shopping and I could check the mail etc. I took my laptop so I uploaded the final days of our Desert Tracks trip. Won’t be too much now in my blog while we are here at the station.

Returned Malcolm’s call – all good just checking what we were up to. He finally got the deposit back from the hire company.

Back home for late lunch. I hadn’t gotten around to putting the photos into my diary on the laptop for all of the trip since May 1 so that will be a job to get down when I can.

High cloud cover blocking the sun so it hasn’t been as hot today.

6pm though it was still 31 degrees in the van but didn’t feel hot.

Quiet evening watching our photos and a movie. We have the TV in the guest house to use which has satellite so we will try that out to watch the Supercars on the weekend.

NO PHOTOS TODAY.

Wed, 31st Oct, 2018 Pastoral Station, 60km north of Sandstone, WA

7am 24 degrees – lovely temperature to wake up to. Clear sky.

Worked with Kayla on her school work while the boys finished putting up the shadecloth around the verandah.

Joy mentioned that she has to order a thermostat for her gas oven so Steve offered to have a look at it. Wasn’t the thermostat so he was able to fix it for her which she was very grateful for.

Had a dip with Kayla in the spa – freezing cold so very nice since the temperature has climbed to 37 degrees with a very hot gusty dry wind.

Worked on my blog in the van with the fan on – not too bad as I still have my togs on.

Clouds started coming over.

Collected horse manure in the wheelbarrow then wet it and mashed it up to put on the vegies gardens. Steve extended the gas pipe on the Guest House hot water system to make it more efficient. At least he is keeping his hand in doing some gas fitting.

Had drinks then we each watered a section of garden to keep the plants happy in the early evening.

Cooked dinner then had cold showers as it is still very warm.

Watched some old photos than a movie.

NO PHOTOS TODAY.