Down on the farm

It rained again today. not very heavily but fairly consistently for a while. This is good because it keeps topping up the tank (the bore pump still isn't fixed). Oops ... I can't believe this week has gone by so quickly! It has rained almost every day - different times, different quantities - but still rain.

D came the other day when it wasn't raining too much. He was at Latimers for five hours or so and did a really good job of tidying the place up - there are some places you just can't get to on ROM. It did fine up later that day as well (was it Monday?) because B had a fire going (it is B after all) and M and I dragged some of the refuse from D's efforts down to it. Pearl was also allowed in the creek - which is still "up" from the storms, and as they continue to let water out of the Hinze Dam. It's quite impressive that M has water views so close to the house at present.

Well, despite a false start, both Mu and Za have been enrolled in school. There was no trouble enrolling or placing Za but there were problems with Mu and at one stage there it looked as though he might not have easy access to schooling here in Australia. But after interventions from M, and others, the contact at the school greeted them on Friday (?) with open arms proclaiming "Good news! Good news!" as though she hadn't been the one who had identified the insurmountable (my word) problem with enrolling Mu. His first day is next Monday and it will be interesting to see how he approaches the day ... especially as he announced that he was "very happy" to find out earlier in the week that there was a chance he may not have to go to school here.

Hopefully, though, he won't have caught the lurgy that both Za and his mother have by then! M took them to the doctor the other day and antibiotics (and bed rest?) were prescribed. It can't be any fun for Fe!

The good thing about rain it that it washes all the rubbish from the air - and that leads to brilliant night star views. The Southern Cross seemed amazingly bright this week. (That reminds me, I don't think I've seen the moon for a while!)

The Big House is having a promotion in February where you can swipe your Absolute Rewards card between certain hours on a Tuesday and Wednesday and have a one-in-10 chance of winning a prize. That's not bad odds - and seem to be true. Me won a portable DVD player on Day One, and Az scored $20 Casino Dollars the next. We'll be fronting up there again both days next week. It's not too bad, especially when you can combine the trip in to The Big House with the Spinners Special - this month - in honour of Chinese New Year which starts on the 10th - a Chinese stir fry for $9.90 for members. Non-members have to pay more! M and I did make it to CSP this week - the jackpot is up to over $110k, and while that would have been nice to give a home too, we weren't able to this time around.

Even though it has been raining here, we must still be in drought in the fruit-producing areas. They tried to charge me grapefruit prices on my navel orange at the supermarket the other morning - mind you, it was the size of a grapefruit!

Otherwise, all is well here. The girls did Bingo on Wednesday (M won enough for lunch); S and I did Trivia on Monday night - but, alas, failed to place on the podium this time (first time in five weeks!); and M has visited more than a few shopping centres with the family.

Oh, and I saw one of the balloons flying over Latimer - the lowest I've ever seen it. At first I couldn't work out what I was hearing (it wasn't the mower which had already been going since 5:30 somewhere over toward's B's) - until I realised it was balloon burners. It was quite exciting, and a little bit breathtaking, especially when it looked as though they wouldn't clear the trees ... but they did (phew). I thought about chasing them to take a photograph when they did land, and even though I started to, I soon lost them - d'oh ... these things could be so much easier if there was a spotter in the car to watch them while I watched the road!

Lottie is having a bit of a spell from racing and has been moved into the paddock with Choo Choo Ma Ma and Holly. It's odd to see three of them in there - but that may not last. M was saying she'd been speaking to L and he was saying that CCMM cannot stand Lottie and gives her the "evil eye" and actively chases her.