Hey

Hey blog friends I'm still alive.... Photos from yesterday and today.......

Feeding cotton seed to the weaners, exploring bush tracks with nice views, gorgeous start to a hot day today 37degC max temp.

Hope you are all well

Catch you later......

Chookyblue.......

Playing tourist....

Run away for a few days with family remote northern territory...... Very lack of phone service..... 

Great scenery.... More pics when I'm home.....

Catch you later.....

Chookyblue.....

Hey.....

Wow we've sure had some winter days which has been great......i do love to have all the seasons.....a few frosts.....the fires burning keeping us nice and warm......
its very dry and no rain on the horizon.......we've had a bit of a break from feeding but we'll be feeding again very soon..........or should be now......

There's been some great sunsets of late............

guinea fowl feather.......so pretty..............

I was supposed to be in Sydney with Anni to help her again.....it was such fun last year.........but I just couldn't get there........She was sending me some pics of her and some of my friends who she ran into.......Next year i'm going.........

Enjoyed a quilt talk and show and tell with Wendy Wild..........not the best pic but this is one of her more traditional ones........shes gone more modern now days..........nice to see the journey thru.......
Catch you later.....

Chookyblue.....

Quilt update.....

A great sky pic..... 

And an update of my blocks for my "Random life" Quilt.....

Catch you later......

Chookyblue......

Chookshed 7th Birthday Party Roundup....

What a great weekend..........this post was supposed to come sooner but it's been a big week............lot of travel for work..........

Saturday evening in our short walk around the house yard just on golden hour........stunning sunset..........

Me, Suze, Kate and Miss Jules.........you missed a good weekend Lea.....(she got stuck babysitting a sick grandy)

This is the one I started binding and funny I started making this one at the 5th Birthday...........see it in progress here...........and my blocks are the 15 random blocks on the wall in the pic below..........

The design board was busy with layouts of quilts.........I made great progress on the fabrics.......random blocks.....brain was not in right gear but I have enjoyed just chopping and creating whatever block I wanted.........just squares and rectangles so far.........probably stick with that..........

Suze's quilt on the table she made last year but now it is quilted and she worked on the binding...........the liberty hexies are hers too............

Miss Jules was working on the blue linen 4 patch quilt..........a design from Anni Downs............
Kate worked on the wall hanging and Annis quilt Dancing Chickens and Flying Pigs BOM..........all her remainder blocks are prepared ready to stitch............

Here's the pile of fabrics that I still have so more blocks to come for sure..........I've made a few more blocks since this pic and got a couple more in progress...........trying to work with free mind is a challenge...........

thanks girls for helping me celebrate the 7th Birthday for the Chookshed.............

I sure hope you all had fun stitching at home virtually..........thanks for the lovely messages......if you have done a post and I have not seen it let me know........I had hoped to catch up by now but like I said big week.......enjoy the long weekend everyone.........

Catch you later.....

Chookyblue.....

Fabric pull

I went to a friend's and she said take some fabric... Like I needed more anyway.....

Anyway I sorted the fabrics up into colourways.......

The big print I think will become a backing....... Maybe random blocks?

How is everyone going??

Catch you later......

Chookyblue....

One binding attached......

How's everyone going party wise... I haven't sewn since Scrub Stitchin'......

I've got a binding attached which is great..... The girls are busy working on various projects......

Looking forward to seeing what you get up to sewing wise.....

Have fun.....

Catch you later......

Chookyblue.....

want to party???

Next weekend is the Chooksheds birthday..............

can you believe it is here again............

So as per usual i'm having a party.........some of the girls are coming over........do you want to join us virtually again????

Remember to tell the family your too busy and they need to fend for them selves..........pop the slow cooker on and dinner is done............

on another note.........

finally the cold weather is coming this week...........actually today............so happy.........yes I do hate being to cold but hey it's been way to warm for this time of the year and we need to cool down.........like to get some use out of my jumpers and scarves etc.......light the fire...........

OK best go.....hope I see you next weekend..........

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

Chookyblue..........

far far away.....

sorry girls I forgot this one has been sitting in drafts...............

love this pic of the moon setting one morning early........still amazes me how far the moon really is away from us......

the other far away thing is this beautiful parcel from Flo in France @ Chez Princesse Nounouche...........it arrived in the mail last month.........just gorgeous and perfect for me.......a lovely  stitching bag and some beautiful fabrics........all blue.....wonder how she knew I liked blue............LOL...

so very much appreciated thankyou Flo........

I've been trying to catch up on some blogging.......

miss my blog friends......

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

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

2019 tribe.........

wow I look at these two pics and wow so many of us.........

the best tribe to spend a retreat with........

Creative, fun loving and always up for a hug or a chat...........

Catch you later.......

Chookyblue.........

Scrub Stitchin' mystery

Annette, Natasha and me.........

Me and Kylie...........

Me and Sue........

the wicked two.........

It's so good hanging out with the girls... Laughter  fun....and great to be stitchin'.....

Mystery adventure revealed.............star gazing..........with a talk with an amazing lady full of knowledge........very entertaining........

I got this pic of the moon with my phone thru the telescope........AMAZING....

Catch you later.....i've got sewing to do..........

Chookyblue.....

Scrub Stitchin '

Let the stitchin begin.....

Catch you later......

Chookyblue.....

Cleaning....

Decided to try and start cleaning the dirt from the chookshed..... Not sure why it will probably be pointless but it's been good so far and a friend helped me with some it sure got me motivated..... It even smells clean in there......

Catch you later

Chookyblue

Rain.........

Wow what a contrast of weekends.......

Last weekend dust storms 38-39 deg temps

this weekend rain........real rain...........useful rain.........

I had heard it raining during the night but to finally get up and go to the rain gauge and find it almost full...........(its very old fashined and an old Fowler jar but then I tip it into a measure that I keep inside)..............to measure 83mm of rain.........water everywhere........OMG SO EXCITED

pretty sloppy feeding the calves........

the house dam is full and so are all the other ones I could get to..........

had to move the cows to some hay...........they still need to be fed.....along with everything else.........I had so much fun out in the mud checking everything.........clothes splattered with mud..........yippee

another full dam.........so windy yesterday..........

I was riding around on the bike with a jumper and coat on all day..........and got the big doona out last night...........snuggled up in bed was so good......

summer is gone and autumn is here........

the calves yards had water front views all day.............

but sadly the wind was so strong it was picking up dust in some paddocks yesterday afternoon............so I'm still not cleaning............

BUT hopefully this is the beginning of the end for the drought.............its gone on for way too long...........but as you can see we have have nothing on the ground so its got to start from scratch in many places.............

BUT its a start and restores hope to many.............

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

Chookyblue........

Dust Storm

I know that last post was a dust storm but this one is from Friday arvo

no warning at all...........no "areas of raised dust" forecast

See in the middle just above the trees.........that was the start of the dust storm........it goes almost all the way across the pic..............

18 mins later

the dark different purple down low is all dust..........it just had shadows on it.........

another 20 mins later

the power in this was amazing.............completely still before it hit...........

the aftermath.............

the bathroom window and door were open...........

even with the rest of the house closed it still seeps in everywhere............

this one is probably the second worst one I think............

we've had dust storms from every directions now during the drought......

Catch you later........

Chookyblue..........

dust stoms.........

We've had more dust storms /dust blowing days then I care the think about especially over the last 6 months.........this one was from January.....

We had one in Dec that day turned to night almost and i'll try and find that video........they look like you can see further better then what is actually reality......

they won't stop until it rains properly.........

Catch you later........

Chookyblue........

Blog fix......

Its ok I am alive.........other then I quick thanks at christmas my last post was early December...........I did say life was a struggle............its only now looking back I realise how bad it was then......at the time I posted last I was on leave.......it had been pre-planned as I was getting exhausted but as it turns out I never went back.......just before that leave started I quit that job and thankfully was offered another one all at the same time.......so much happier at work.....while still the same sort of work as in admin area its a completely different field of work......completely different clientele.....while I loved the job I did it was not a good workplace for my mental health........

it resulted in days of doing nothing on my leave from mental and physical exhaustion....guilt of quitting a good job as I worked very well with my boss..........a day almost completely in tears and my rock bottom then slowly coming back from that.........

But I am enjoying the challenge of learning my new job, there is more travel involved so adjusting to that but its helping me to learn the job also......

I'm sure your sick of hearing about the drought but it still goes on and as my friend in the US who shall remaining nameless but thankfully persists on emailing me (which I am very grateful for) said we are with you........so next post will be another farm post........one day I will get back to sewing but for now there is no time.............

recently i've had some issues which I think are from physical fatigue........drought if you have livestock like we do is daily or in our case twice daily feeding.......I have been bucketing feed to weaners since June/July...........we are into our third year of feeding stock.......for those not in Australia there is a massive area in drought of some form.........

this is just NSW the state I live in but others states especially Queensland have big issues also.............I'm in the dark brown area which is the worst but currently 100% of NSW is in drought of some sort.....(I don't entirely agree with the how the data reflects on this map but I am currently working with the DPI to try and make this more ground truthed).....some towns especially out west are running out of water.......we are very lucky with water supply at present.......

Its a matter of keeping an eye on your little community and they on you.....thankfully we don't all have a really bad day at the same time but we keep each other going......

But today I was away for work and got to catch up at an early breakfast with some of my blog buddies.......who don't blog any more........We took this pic especially for Diddles another blog buddy.........

Ali is safe as she is just a lurker but Kate and Suze are a million times worse then me but hey its how I met them and Ali and they are great friends........so good to have a blog buddies fix.........I need to get with the tribe and the magic of that gathering..........its ok scrub stitching is coming soon............

I apologize for not responding to some emails...........yes not my usual old style but i'm tired and not on my laptop as much where its easier to write replies.......

also struggle to think what to write back.........I will get past this....

thankyou

Catch you later.....

Chookyblue.....