Sat, 10th Nov, 2018 Pastoral Station, 60km north of Sandstone, WA

Drizzled rain through the night. The buckets are full of rainwater but the rain gauge only showed 5ml to 7.20am.

Black clouds still in the north.

More drizzle. I let out the chooks and found a very big egg – poor girl. For 17 hens we aren’t getting many eggs per day.

Steve crushed some grain for the horses and cattle while the generator was on to top up the house batteries since we aren’t getting much sunshine on the solar panels.

Rang Jon but got no answer. Then I rang Mum and Dad and Mum said Jon was in Port Douglas playing his golf competition. We had a lovely catch up. She said Val had had a fall and needed some stitches in her head so I gave her a call after I hung up and had a nice chat with her. Tried Daniel but no answer so left a message.

Thunder rumbling overhead. 9.30am 22 degrees and no wind. A heavy shower of rain fell and dropped 3ml in half an hour.

Jon returned my call. He and his mate had both won their games but unfortunately the other 3 guys didn’t so they didn’t get into the finals. He is loving golf which is great. Jess had to work so she didn’t go up with him. The other guys had rented a 5 bedroom place so he will stay the night with them so they can ‘drown’ their sorrows then head back to Jess tomorrow to spend the day with her. He said work has picked up too which was great.

Dark clouds still on horizon and I can still hear a few rumbles of thunder.

Steve went off on the 4wheeler to check the house pump then he fed the horses when he returned.

Daniel and Fran rang back. They had just set up their new portable spa pool and were about to try it out as it is quite hot there. Daniel is very busy at work. Fran has changed her shift so she has a Saturday off every second weekend so they can have time together.

Another big rumble of thunder overhead then the pitter patter of rain on the van roof. Sounds louder because we have the roof of the guest quarters beside us. Lazy day weather.

Had lunch then played a game of 3 to Kings – Steve won for the 1^st time in 6 games.

As the ground was moist Steve decided to drag the road ‘flattener’ around the house track and down the main track to the road to even out the lumps and bumps. I had seen some horse poo on the track so I grabbed my wheel barrow and collected it then rounded up some more to spread on another one of the vegie gardens. Light drizzle but you can work in that as the drops are far apart.

Had a cuppa then I worked on putting my photos into my blog while Steve checked out a movie from a trio movie DVD that Erica gave us. Raptor – really!! I wonder if these actors look back at the movies they did and cringe!

The dark clouds are moving around us and we can still here rumbling.

Cool afternoon, 5pm 24 degrees. After drinks Steve serviced the BBQ. I checked the rain gauge, another 1 ½ ml.

Thunder and lightning overhead – some big claps on top of us. More rain and it was so loud on the roof of the van that we couldn’t hear the TV.

Rain buckets full again. The rain eased but the thunder and lightning kept going into the evening.

NO PHOTOS TODAY.