Archive for March, 2008

Country Cousins

Of course in Tasmania you bump into cousins at every turn!

Here’s my cousin Wooks and me enjoying Keith Urban at the Southern Roots Concert (until I cleared out to watch the Weddos).

Wooks is the person I write for when I create my novels.

She’s a bright, brainy, funny country girl and when I write, I ask myself, ‘would Wooks enjoy this?’. So thanks Wooks for being there!

Tough decision: Keith Urban or Mick Thomas?

After nearly 10 hours of music merriment at the Southern Roots Concert, I was torn between watching Keith Urban play or Mick Thomas of Weddings Parties Anything fame.

Both bands were on at the same time, on separate stages at Hobart’s Botanical Gardens … but I knew in my heart where I would head … it was to the Weddos!

John and I have been fans of Weddings Parties Anything for a decade or more.

They are legends in live Aussie pub culture and their songs speak to me of my country and my culture. I love ‘em.

They hadn’t played together for nearly 10 years. (John and I watched them live for one of the last concerts in a pub in Richmond, Melbourne in 1999.)

So I went off like a frog in a sock up the front last Saturday when I heard them live again.

Keith might be easy on the eye and married to Nicole and be the hottest country star in the US and possibly the world, but give me Mick and his mate, Squeezebox Wally any day!

Singing the Blues

Singing their souls out at the Southern Roots concert on the weekend were some legendary old timers of Blues music.

One keyboard player was 84 and another muso who looked more like a granny than a guitarist wowed the crowd by playing her instrument over her 70-something-year-old head!

They were incredible and inspiring and part of a magic organisation called The Music Maker Foundation which is a charity aimed at keeping the blues alive.

It was such a treat to have them come from Southern USA all the way to Southern Tasmania to play. 

Southern Roots Concert

Down in little old Hobart Town, last weekend, we enjoyed a 12 hour marathon of worldclass music at the Southern Roots Concert in the beautiful Botanical Gardens.

We kicked off our day with Tassie’s Pete Cornelius and The Devilles who sing a blues song called Whiskey Drinkin Woman about a girl having ‘an affair with the Bundy Bear!’

Judging by the pic, the song could be about me! Here I am enjoying the day with my mum, Jenny and cousin, Michael. 

Red Dog to beat the Black Dog

My fellow Kelpie lover and dear friend Jackie Merchant is taking on the very brave and generous task! She’s training a Kelpie to auction for charity for beyond blue, an organisation that helps people with depression.

Jackie is an extremely talented designer (who created the gorgeous Waler and Kelpie and Collie logos for me on the right of the screen), but she’s temporarily downed her design tools to train Beloka Kelpie, Red.

Red will be sold in June at the Casterton Kelpie Auction and all proceeds will go to beyond blue.

Having put a dog through its paces in front of the big crowd at Casterton myself, I know how scary it can feel … so good on you Jack.

We’ll certainly be pledging some funds to you and Red to help beat the blues!

Read on for more information about this wonderful woman and her Red Dog …

Read more…

A must for every girl!

How cute is my new tractor/irrigator! I saw one like it watering the beer garden lawn when we were staying at the Dargo River Inn in Victoria.

Even though we’ve got no water spare for my garden I had to get one of these nifty little mini-irrigators. They have an auto stop switch when they get to the end of the line, like a real irrigator so it means water is never wasted.

We’re upgrading our bore and dam systems and I’m hoping with a little rain I can start my garden all over again.

The kids have been missing out on water play for the past two years, so yesterday, with the temperature boiling for the third day in a row, we let them play under the new sprinkler for ten minutes.

It was an extravagant use of tank water, but the smiles on their faces was worth every drop.

Dam fine day for a ride

Our newly cleaned out dam is finished and as Roger drove his ute away, the rain began to fall.

We took the kids down to the dam to check out the dozer, muck about on the ponies and see what a great job Roger’s done! Stupendous!

It was lovely to ride in the rain and it’s still falling now as I type. It’s just a shower but some is better than none! 

Hot Mumma

Our trick riding horse, Edith is back with us on maternity leave. She’s in foal to our Waler stallion Akbar with her second foal.

While the conditions in Tassie have been stinking hot, they would be nothing compared to the conditions Edith lived in as a wild horse in the Tanamai Desert near Alice Springs.

Despite her place of origin, she was looking for shade today.

Dam Drought!

It’s a stinking hot day to be on a dozer in Tassie, but Roger from Tunnack is on the job today, digging out another of our dams.

He’s got a string of jobs in the area lined up.

Never, in living memory has this district seen it so dry and hot. We’ve never had a problem with water supply until now.

Times are a changing! Look out for higher food prices coming to a supermarket near you!

Our curious horses have enjoyed getting in the way of the dozer today. Young Whipcrack, the Waler, enjoys a drink of bore water which we are carting daily.

Truck ‘em out

With not one drop of rain in sight, it’s time to offload more stock.

Our sheep numbers were once around the 2000 mark. Now we are down to 900.

Here are a mix of culls waiting for the truck. We’ve sorted through and taken a handful from all our mobs to take pressure off the land.

Hopefully our ovine friends will be going to greener pastures.