More pics from the blog meet...........

I have been a bit slow getting this post together..............I was a bit down after I came home............coming home to the dry paddocks, dusty bug ridden house, the high of seeing all the girl and the low of leaving them all behind, among other things............
I had a few more bits I needed to take pics of too so had to get that organised..................
Shopping at The Home Patch...............more pics below..........

Susan, Ann, Anita and Ros...........

hmmm what should I buy here.............

photo bomber Kylie.........

pretties............

Kate and Sandy........Kate has great plans for this piece of fabric..............

more gorgeous goodies in Anni's shop...........

Karen, Lynda and Jan...............

Kate the "Sales assistant" and Anni.........

Buddies from an online group Friends in Stitching............Susan, Fiona, me, Jan, Peg, Lynda, Sue

Sonia, Kate, Khrissy, Suze, Litle Chicken, Fiona

Anita and I always get a pic together..............

Kate, Little Chicken, Anita

Kylie and Anni..............

 in the pic below......top row.....a layer cake of Midwinter Reds and a matching tonal........my treat for my full time work stint in town......to the right my swap present from Anita (or her Mum or Aunt) - love it....the swap was "Make it, Bake it or Fake it"......Anita "faked it"............lol...
mine went to Sonia...........

bottom row - Bathurst Fabric and Trim has such a pretty selection of fabrics as you walk in the door..........I had to take a few home with me........this shop is packed full of so many styles of fabric........you would be sure to find something you liked and the biggest selection of flannels I have seen on one shop.....ever.......
A present from Anita and a cute christmas chicken from Suze.........
the bowl matches perfectly with the one Janice gave me for my birthday...........

Also while waiting at the counter at Hatched and Patched I spied this pack.............

Anni has a fabric club..............thinking how did I miss this news then I read the little note in the pack that said welcome to our first mailing of the Fabric Club........

I hadn't really missed anything..........

bi monthly you get 16 fabrics (10"squares)........seriously considering this..........

there was the bright pack above "contemporary" or go "traditional"..........I needed to brighten up my life so got the brights.........i'm sure you could join in too.........email Anni......

Thanks to Anni for allowing us to overtake The Home Patch..........

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Lunch was delicious at The Cargo Mill and a great spot for our big group.........they didn't want to hunt us out in a hurry.............

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Heres all the links of the bloggers.............

Khrissy @ BaiSiNoLil

Suze @ Bear's Mum

Dale @ Day Day's Blog

Betty @        (and Chris)

Fiona @ Dragonfly-Crafts

Sonia @ Forever Always (and Errolyne)

Peg @ Happy in Quilting

Anni @ Hatched & Patched

Kylie @ Indigo & Quince

Janice @ Jannimary

Ann @ Lavender Blue Stitches

Jan @ Little Red Hen

Lynda @ Lynda in Wonderland (Paula nearly a blogger)

Sue @ Quilting in Stitches 

Anita @ Riley's Ramblings (her Mum and Aunt)

Sandy @ Sandy's Patchwork Angel

Kate @ Show & Tell

Karen @ Stashing with Style

Susan @ Thimble Stitch

plans are in the pipeline for 2014............pretty sure it won't be just the day........it's just not enough time with all the girls.........especially when you consider the distances travelled..........
Jan did especially travel from Ballarat to Bathurst but most travelled more then 2.5hrs to get there...........up to 4-6 hrs for some girls......
......so we are a dedicated bunch to gather together.......
scatter all over country NSW and some from the city too........
If you want to do something you can make it happen.......
We can't meet weekly or monthly or even bi-monthly but we sure can put in an effort once a year (or twice if you count GDITC at Nundle)........now to find a venue..........a couple of suggestions are in the pipeline........

Catch you later

Chookyblue

Dam desilting........

This post was planned about 6 weeks ago but I never got the pics together in a post.....

 Ordinarily where the ute and people are there is water.....................but when you don't get any rain that runs water into the dams for 20 months they dry up..............

one of the rare upside of a drought is you get to clean out dams.........

lots of finer dirt particles gradually fill up the dam and it is called silt..............you can "desilt" your dams when they get down to increase the water capacity once again...

If only I had some heavy earth moving equipment I would be making this dam much bigger by taking out the wall between the 2 sections of the dam................the hole on the left is a spot we got some dug out of back in 2002/03 drought..........ran out of money and then it rained so we never got the job finished........now I don't have the spare money to get the job finished.......anyway Mr Chooky and FIL had desilted the hole on the left last week..........so then Mr Chooky decided to pump what little amount of water that was left on the right into the left hole so they could desilt the right dam hole.............

the pump only rain for an hour or so and all the water was moved............. 

A few days later Mr Chooky and a neighbour desilted the dam..............I got home from work and went to see how they were going......they needed my help on the UHF radio so I was parked in the dam telling them where to move the scoop to to get the mud.......hence being able to snap these pics......................

 See in the pic below about the middle there is a little bit of dust and a speck which is the tractor................the boys have long wire ropes and chains hooked onto each tractor on either side off the dam........in this case neither of the boys could see into the dam...

They drag the scoop thru the dam and it fills with mud........... 

It gets dragged up to just over the edge of the dam bank and then silt spills out down the bank............

a huge pile here.........and there is a big hole under all this.......... 

they finished as the sun set...... 

for a few weeks after this you need to check the silt pile to see if any stock gets stuck in it............sometimes we fence it off but this year we haven't been doing that......not enough time....

Luckily we only got one sheep stuck in the silt............see how far she had got thru it then pretty much got stuck in the middle..............

The silt looks like it is dry on the top but this stuff can stay wet underneath for a very long time................ 

I was not volunteering to get this sheep out..........Mr Chooky had to go to the rescue...........

he hooked a rope onto her and I dragged her out with the ute..........up she got and ran away...........Mr Chooky was still trying to walk back out of the mud................LOL.............

 Anyone for a mud mask.................

Anyway that is desilting.............we have done a lot of our dams..........still more to do.........others they have "rung" which is just cleaning up the edges of the dam with the scoop................going all the way around..........

Sadly the dams above are completely empty now............adding to the growing list.............the stock do have a trough to drink from though........ but it adds another job as you have to check it  everyday or two...........

.........take care til next time.....Chookyblue.........

on the sleigh............

This bundle went on the sleigh..............

round and round the world they go where they stop no one knows...............except Santa....lol.....

another day another Goanna.............same sort as the fat one the other day but not as big............

Catch you later...........

Chookyblue............

good mail..........

Much excitement my "Traditional nine patch swap" blocks came back from Googy Girl

they look great............was not expecting this parcel in the mail yet......

thanks to

Barb @ Barb's Creations

Betty

Chookybue (me)

Deb @ Frog Cottage Design

Fiona @ Bubz Rugz

Jan @ Red Shed Quilting

Kerry @ Cottage on the Hill

Lea @ Fairy Floss Stitches

Lynda @ Heavens to Betsy

Peg @ Happy in Quilting

Sandy @ Shiralee Stitches

Susan @ Thimble Stitch

And of course Googy Girl herself who did a great job organising us.............

Sorting all the blocks and sending them back out to us.........

 Also my non blogging buddy "the city girl" sent me a little treat.....you know who you are.......how kind........thanks heaps........they looks great............now to plan a little project with them.........

off out for a girls day.......I never get invited to a party plan thingy well not for many years and I have 2 different parties to go to in one week.................not that I am going to buy anything but the social occasion is much needed............

.........take care til next time.....Chookyblue.........

Hi I'm Indy....nice to meet you......

Indy it is...

Indy short for Independant which is what she will have to be now.......thanks Cheryll........I also liked Angeni suggested by Gracie which has a Native american meaning.........

but me and the kids picked a few we liked from the list and narrowed it down to Indy........

Shes been up walking around a bit............still pretty wobbly.........super cute.........had a great drink this morning coming to me for some milk........very impressed then not so good around lunch but got a better drink into her this afternoon................

thanks for all the great suggestions.......nice to hear from some new commentors.........

lots of great ideas there...........

Definitely not "fillet steak"...........

my hands are feeling a bit better tonight still a bit tender..........

but muscles I used that I don't normally use are a bit tight today.......

Fun and games.........

Catch you later

Chookyblue

What a day!!!! and help i need a name................

WARNING THIS IS A LONG POST BUT STICK WITH ME I HAVE LOTS TO SHARE
OK so todays list of jobs.................

1. bookwork

2.  finish my SSCS parcel
simple right.........
I FORGOT NOTHING IS EVER SIMPLE HERE!!!!!

Mr Chooky was going to do a job he didn't want to do at another property (couple hours tops) then back home to feed sheep.......so feeling guilty I said yes I would go help..........
I had a funny feeling the day was going to be delayed but had no idea to what extent..............
a couple of hours turned into 10hrs!!!!!!
Anyway when we got to the other property I said we should check the big dam out the back as the water is getting low........
On the way out checking the cows I got Mr Chooky to stop so I could jump out of the car and get this pic of a goanna...........different type to the one I had in my garden the other day.............
he's much bigger all round.............

Here he is up the tree...........Goanna's get frightened and they head for the nearest tree........
he was making a funny sound a huffing sound he was not happy with me taking his pic but obliged by staying in the one spot in the tree for a great shot...........
this sort have a fat tummy.......

We got out to the big dam and this guy was down having a drink so I got Mr Chooky to drive around the other side and I went hunting for him in the nearest tree...........
Again another type of Goanna.....think army camo gear here/ blotchy.....funny angle of the pic but you get to see him pretty well.............

Here's the dam.........very bad news here we have to move the stock out of this paddock ASAP it is buggered............silty and going green with a dead animal who got stuck in the mud on the other side too.........we don't want to lose cows in this dam.....we will have to desilt it ASAP...........3-4 days on  tractors probably..............I have a post to show you of desilting so you will know what I am talking about once I get it up on the blog.............

we went to check some more cattle as we will have to sell some and also checking the troughs and found a cow down calving..............
we walked her up towards the house a bit and left her..............went and did the job we needed to do...............then went back and checked her..............no progress.............we had absolutely nothing with us so we had to go home and get a bike and ropes and the calf puller and the gun (if all else failed)
by this time it was well after lunch............back out to the property we go......
I said to Mr Chooky so whats the plan..............he said I don't have one...........we couldn't get her to any cattle yards so we had to catch her in the paddock and tie her to the ute and get more ropes on her and try to contain her to pull the calf..............
this is the first time we got her............Mr Chooky gave me a serve right about now for taking pics instead of helping him - not that I knew what I was supposed to be doing!!!!!
We had her tied up more then this then she escaped............bugger......

This is the second time we caught her and she didn't escape this time...........Mr Chooky was trying to put the chains on the calves feet..........the calf was breech.........yee gods poor mother................
See the rope around her neck.............the previous time we caught her I had been pulling on that rope...........stupid thing is a hemp rope and I got what feels like a million fine splinters (3-5mm long) in my hands from it........my hands felt like they were burning.......I found some gloves for later......I pulled out about 20 of the splinters .....then later I dug out about 20 from each hand.....definitely no stitching for me tonight........the only needle I will be using will be to dig more splinters out.........
the rope going to the front of the pic was me pulling keeping her tight.......so she didn't escape again...........

the  she went down.........exhausted.........was easier to work on her then...........the calf was not an easy pull at all........real struggle....she would have died calving for sure as there is no way she would have pushed it out......the pic below is just after we got the calf out.............I had been right where the goo was coming out at the rear end..............Mr Chooky would have KILLED me if I pulled the camera out then when the calf was part way out as we were having such a struggle...........I didn't have a free hand either....

but there was no time to worry about the cow.............we had to get some life into the calf..............I thought it was dead then I saw the slightest movement..............so some gut pumping to clear the lungs and then we had it hanging off the back of the ute to drain it's airways.....clearing it's mouth out..........it wasn't looking good at this stage............but I wasn't doing mouth to mouth I can assure you............

finally she came to life much better.............we let Mum go and got out of the way............
Mum wasn't to interested in hanging around and we had to keep pushing her back to the calf..........who was sitting up but not up on her feet and not mooing for mum...........
Mum would stand there for a bit then leave again.............we would turn her back same thing happen again.......she was not cleaning her baby up at all........we waited with them for quite some time.....keeping Mum there................
in the end a storm was coming in and it was getting late and we had to make a decision..........the calf had still not got up on her feet.......Mum still not interested..........we could have a definite win win keep both alive if we take the calf home as a poddy...........if we lived there and could have shut her in a yard for the night and hope the calf gets up and "mothers up".........maybe we could have done that but that was not possible......

So into the back of the ute she went......dust was blowing and some lightning was hitting down..............we got a few spots as we were leaving but I think that was all we got.......
I got back home just as the storm hit here - dust blowing around pretty windy and then a couple of spots and all gone..........lasted about 2 mins..........
So here she is tonight having her first drink...........
she's a mess with all the afterbirth not cleaned up and the dirt stuck all over her.................

And now standing for the first time.........we had to drag her up onto her feet but she did stay standing on her own at times..........I rubbed her up a bit to try and clean her up a bit.....

and her she is in the garden tonight.............cute isn't she.........after all the effort I am so pleased we had a live calf.........i'm feeling confident about her....and the cow is alive she'll get sold from us but she didn't die calving......i'll have to give the calf some standing workouts tomorrow......her back legs are a bit dodgy but that's probably from pulling her out and they will feel a bit better tomorrow................

So I need your help............
She needs a name.......
It always to refer back to the relevance of the day or the calf  with me......
eg Curly Pop's had little curls of hair when she was born....
Curly Pops first calf was a boy Cops (Curly pOPS) and her next calf was Coco Pops because coco pops are dark and she was all black.......and keeping with the Pop's bit too............
So back to deciding on a name - it was a stinking hot day, a storm came in an there was lighting....
I did think of "lighting" but that doesn't sound good for a girl......
so any suggestions...
leave a comment if you have a suggestion of what I could call her.............
Catch you later

Chookyblue
PS even better news Mr Chooky just called out she's been up on her own out the back.........yippee.........off to give her another drink and into bed I am exhausted.............
PSS and dig a few more things out my hands............so sore.......

lets party.................

Catch you later

The Wallaby!!!!
PS Busted leaving the party on daylight.......1 wallaby, 2 rabbits, 2 kangaroos......
we had a great night in the garden ALL night.............

Santa's Sleigh is on it's way.............

Hope you are ready because Santa is on his way to pick up your Secret Santa Christmas Swap parcels to put on the sleigh and deliver to the other side of the world...............

the 7th Swap is kicking into full gear.............

don't forget to let me know when you pop your parcel onto the sleigh and also when Santa delivers one to you too...............

.........take care til next time.....Chookyblue.........

goanna, thread catcher.......

Yesterday I had a goanna in the garden...............today he was back again on the other side of the garden......I took a pic but it didn't turn out so well on my phone.......right at the Chookshed..........yesterday I saw him dig in some dirt and pull out and eat 3 mice...........he has a mouth full here...........

the girls got a shot/pic of him in this big metal drum when he crawled into it...........

See him down the bottom..............
not sure what they would have done if he ran out............lol

lots of clouds floating around but NOTHING............

Fairy Girl has a friend out and they wanted to make some thread catchers - not that they are using them for that purpose.......but they had fun making them........

AND last night the wallaby also dined on lettuce............Fairy Girl had planted a few of the leafy ones...........you know so you can pick a few leaves here and there............well the centre of all 3 is completely gone................

Can anyone help me with this (below)...............think it is a veggie but Fairy Girl lost the tag and she was the one shopping with Mr Chooky when she got it so I have no idea.......

Oh and remember my Google Plus issues.......see you all hate it like I do...(along with facebook)

.....well I thought maybe Melanie doesn't know why we don't comment so I told her in an email..............she has fixed it somehow........we can comment now.........
well done Melanie at Pinnylea Creations...........
pop over and leave her a comment as she has had post upon post of creativeness with out any comments.........goodness knows why she was still blogging with no comments at all..........that would be a bit disheartening.............
Catch you later

Chookyblue