revolving doors............

I wasn't noticing it too much but making some visitors arrangements today Wow it is a bit like a revolving door here at the moment...............visitors visitors visitors.................

it started the Friday after Christmas...........Boy Wonder had a mate come and stay.............he was here til the Sat a week later...........on the Friday before he left my cousin and her other 1/2 stayed with their little boy who is 1.........they were only here for one night.......

..on the Sunday after we had 2 visitors come who are staying indefinitely........they have just slotted into the crazy unpredictable life that we have..........then Boy Wonder had another mate turn up on Saturday who is staying until Wednesday...............Were were having some friends come Australia Day weekend but they have changed to this weekend coming................and they rang yesterday to say there daughter, SIL and baby will be coming too...........and this morning more friends rang to see if we were around they would come and visit...............they are coming on Wednesday and not sure how long they will stay.............but they also know the friends who will be here on the weekend so maybe they will stay to see them but we haven't seen either couple for a long time.............it's nice having visitors esp during a drought its a bit of a pep up...........most people want to avoid you when it is hot and dry...........

maybe I need one of these rooms for this week...........

So it will take a little working out and bed swapping here and there but I think I have it all worked out if I have everyone together.............

better start thinking about food..............they are bring some food esp fruit and veg etc........it's terrible here.........so that will be good.......probably BBQ's and salads.............

It's going to be busy but the boys will give Mr Chooky a hand and it will be a nice surprise for him with the extra friends turning up on Wednesday arvo.......

...........I haven't told him.....SSSHHHHH keep it a secret will you........

Still no time to sew but been too busy on the farm to fit any in.............back up into the high 38's and 40's forecast for the weekend........

and just as a sign off Fairy Girl has organised her own friends sleep over who she picking up this afternoon.........shes is only staying for 2 nights........like I said its a revolving door...............

2 hours of peace coming right up starting now..........better get some book worked sorted out.......pay some accounts..........

......so i'll say see you next week........unless something extra blog worthy happens.......and you never know whats going to happen next here.........

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

hhhmmmmm............

no work for the next week yippee.............well town work..........farm work will be on......

had some girlfriends for lunch today...........was lovely........yummy lunch.....

Yep Kerri your coming to the next lunch with me........... 

sitting here checking out Kerry's revamped Cottage on the Hill website.....

I signed up for her newsletters......

http://www.cottageonthehill.com.au/

........trying to decide what fabric I like the most.......

Sunshine Rose......or 

Amelie...... or 

Guetermann French cottage Collection

Sunshine Rose is soft and pretty and so is Amelie but loving the hot pink and orange combination in the french one..........

What do you like???

&&&&

We got a little bit of rain yesterday..............nothing that will do anything without lots more......

It will settle the dust slightly for the sheep work tomorrow..........we'll be in the yards at daylight.............and we have more heat coming this week.......

33degC today it is heaven compared to the 42 forecast next Sunday........

hope those in the US are defrosting........and those in the UK not turned into frogs........

See much better to be dreaming about fabric....

.....enjoy your weekend..........

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

guess who's got a baby......

Introducing "Lollipops" born to Curly Pops yesterday............

a little black girl so cute..........

Thanks to Marc at Daisy Jayne who suggested this name for Indy and we thought we would keep it in mind for Curly Pops since she wasn't too far off calving........keeps with the theme of previous names "Cops" and "Cocopops" now "Lollipops

We took some oats over to Curly pops as a special treat..........

Cutie turned up..........she has a 3rd baby also which she had in the last week but it was asleep somewhere..........Q2 (Cuties first baby) has a 2nd baby too but the pic isn't too good to share............

The trees down the creek are all so bare.............dropped so many leaves......they are struggling............

and I wanted to show you this brand new baby..........supposed to be all black but look at those wild marking...........a little boy.........even cuter in real life.......

One day this blog will include some sewing...........

Catch you later

Chookyblue

more babies.....Neige, Louie and Buuurt.........

2 days ago I had my babies down pat............everyone was feeding well finally..........

But that afternoon 2 more babies came into the yard and last night another one..............

I got some pics last night.............Indy(7 weeks)on the left and Charlotte (3 weeks) on the right

very comfortable in the Agapanthus............

Louie and Neige (French for snow) (< 1week) with Indy in the garden

We got some visitors on Sunday when the calves arrived so and they named Neige and Louie.........

Neige is a huge lump of a calf..........he is only very young but huge bone structure.........

Charlotte, Buuurt (< 2-3 days) and Bell (2 weeks)

Buuurt (think of a new calfs sound) and Louie are very alike but Buurt has some brown on the edge of his mouth

Thankfully we have some extra hands helping with them at the moment as we have 8 lambs 2 of  which we are feeding milk and one of those still can't stand up properly.......

....between feeding calves and checking dams morning and night life is busy here  morning and night.......

Catch you later

Chookyblue

yesterday.............

3rd Jan.............what an awful day............this post is more so I don't forget............

we did set a new max record 47.6deg C (118F)

the record that was broken was set last year on the 13th Jan 46.7 which was an awful day too...........it was blustery all day but the dust didn't pick up bad until about 6-30pm and it was the day the fire took off and destroyed many homes, assets and animals in the Warrumbungles National Park...........

So i was on edge...........it was a terrible wind all day yesterday.......by late lunch the dust was unbelievable...........mostly local area I think............it would come thru like this pic below and worse and drop a bit and woosh thru again..............I had cleaned the house because we had visitors coming...............NOTE TO SELF..........NEVER have visitors on a day like this EVER again.......the air con struggled.....even last night was not the best and i had a bad nights sleep.....

I have decided 43deg while terrible I could live with  - BUT 47.6 with winds around 40km/hr and gusts up to 70-80kms I cannot cope with..........it has sucked the life out of everything........animals, plants and me...........I am thankful I don't live in the areas that have those temps for days on end......

We have a fire index rating and once over 100 it is catastrophic fire conditions but at one reading yesterday is was 235...........crazy.......

The dust I have cleaned up today............yuck........still more to do........everything is coated in it..........you could smell it in the house at times.......windowsills all need to be vacuumed and wiped clean................thank goodness I didn't clean the windows for Christmas.........lol

Our bathroom is on an open verendah so I had to wash all our towels etc today...........and sheets etc from the visitors...........Boy Wonder has had a mate visiting for the last week too..........and he left today also..........Fairy Girl wiped all the wires on the clothes line for me to hang out the washing.......anyway that my day yesterday............today was a very pleasant 32........36 for tomorrow then this next week is much nicer temps low 30's..........thank goodness.........it's been a long hot 3 weeks.......but others are worse so I am an thankful.............

%%%

Comments are stressing me out as I am behind since Christmas so I am calling it quits and not replying to the pile I have there waiting......I have done some but can't catch up......thankyou for visiting and commenting I really appreciate it but I am starting afresh tomorrow........and will keep on top of them again...........I do like to reply to comments left on my blog..........it is the interaction of blogging that I love and how I made friends so it was worrying me but I have made a decision and feel better already.............

Catch you later

Chookyblue

PS I love my vacumn......

PSS droughts suck.......

PSSS I have turned comments off for this post.....

46.1 and rising..........

Our record is 46.7  this could be broken very soon unfortunately...........and it's only 1pm.....
UPDATE 46.9 was the highest I have seen so far and the power is being funny.............gosh I hope we don't lose it.............
UPDATE 47.6 is a new record..........unfortunately............everything is struggling..............

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

holidays yeh right - busy time............

Holidays.........definietly NOT.........still haven't got to the bookwork or sewing.........but things have been hectic here..........so pleased to see the end of 2013 now I just need the end of the drought.........FIL is out of action again and looks like it will be for awhile....thank goodness Boy Wonder is around in school holidays as he has been working fulltime with Mr Chooky......feel bad about that but there is no other option..........

&&&

So much has happened in the last week........lost a cow.............not sure what was wrong with her.........so now we have a 3rd calf........under a week old when we got her last Saturday.........introducing "Bell" as chosen by a friend............thinking old fashioned, sweet and cute but that night she bellowed............and bellowed........until lights were out and as soon as it was daylight she bellowed some more.............but she is the perfect poddy now.........she is very well behaved like Indy..........quite, lovely nature etc

Miss Charlotte on the other hand should have been a cheeky naughty name..........Charlotte is too sweet a name for her.............she is loud...........licks and slobbered everything and will nibble if she gets a chance - ouch..........she is pushy and strong willed..............

Here she is with Indy........Charlotte at the front........Indy relaxed on the path...........

they are still living in the garden along with 4 lambs but we have put  a couple of barriers up so  that contains them as the lambs are feral and run away instead of coming to the water etc...........

Water problems.............we have dams going off here and there...........2 cows got sick from the dam in this paddock............I think they refused to drink the water.........we didn't know and one esp was not so good..............managed to get them home and some special care and they are going well.............a new trough had to be found ASAP and installed............lucky we have already ripped pipe to that paddock just hadn't brought a trough..........so it was just a matter of connecting the pipes up..............see the cows are coming already for fresh water.......and it only just got finished.............

one of my absolute favourite foods at Christmas is toast with ham and then balsamic soaked tomato  and onion...........the longer they have been soaking the better..........it is something we have every year for breaky with the neighbors..............

watering has been cut back in the house yard so 2 lawns areas have died...........

it's a stuggle keeping up with the rest too with this heat and trying to cut back on watering...............the big house dam is going down and down.........who knows when it will rain so I need to keep water there to put to troughs in paddocks around the property............

just trying to keep things alive.........it is a battle....

and since I stopped watering the outer lawns the kangaroos decided to move in................so they are trimming one lawn and just moved to another one and the calves and lambs have the other one...........I haven't mowed for weeks and weeks..............

lots of roo poo..............and we have seen some big roos in here............

sunset one day last week........

Indy saying "hi"

a favourite spot for the calves is between a Cecile Brunner rose and a duranta...........

Bell having a rest.............

I was on the back of the ute emptying the feeder the other day and snapped these pics...............sheep coming into the ute............

trying to get to the front of the feed line...............

water is keeping us busy.............checking for bogged sheep and that the troughs have water is a constant job............

43 deg here today awful weather but not as bad as some placces...........45 or 46 is forecast here tomorrow............OUCH........and i have visitors coming - that will be interesting.........

Anyway off to bed.............

Catch you later

Chookyblue

FIS received.............

My Friends in Stitching Swap partner was Sue from Quilting in Stitches..........

Each day just before Christmas we got to open a little parcel...

S - snowman  press a button on his back and he boxes

A- aeroplane ornament

N - natvity wooden buttons

T - illuminating tree

A - Angel button

It was fun having a little parcel to open each day............

My main present was this gorgeous table runner............

I just love it.........

I was so excited when I opened this up............it looks wonderful on my table.......

It is right where I walk past all day and it looks great.........perfect colours...........and even more perfect design.............the centres of the flowers are the tiniest yo yo's........

Thanks so much Sue you are the best Santa anyone could ask for........

Sadly this is my last swap with this group as I am stepping back.........life is a little overloaded at the moment so something has to go.............it is a yearly commitment and I don't want to let the group down.............thanks girls but I know I will still be in touch on your personal blogs still......

Catch you later

Chookyblue

PS need to find the pics of what I sent to share too............