Archive for April, 2008

Boots and all

Sometimes in life things fall into place as if by magic. Recently I was contacted by a delightful young artist called Amber Martin. She’d read my books and, without realising I’d seen her art.

We connected creatively in an instant and now Amber is busily finishing a cover for my latest non-fiction eBook.

Many country folk would’ve seen Amber’s work on an RM Williams publication, featuring two boots.

Even though I didn’t know at the time it was Ambers’ work I remember thinking how beautiful the painting was. What’s unusual about Amber’s work is she uses boot polish to help create her paintings and she sees her subjects through the eyes of a country girl.

As soon as I saw her website, I knew she was the one to create the cover for my new book, Wise Women and Hot Dogs — which is an eBook collating training tips for working dog owners.

We’ll launch the book in May at Agfest and for now, I’m waiting excitedly for what Amber, my delightful new-found friend and colleague from Orange, NSW has created. View her work here.

Lee you Legend!

Country music star and Australian of the Year, Lee Kernaghan, came to our little district to spread some cheer.

It was great for folks like my mate Kathy who is one of the few remaining farmers in the Buckand district with her husband Ross.

The rest have sold out to plantation companies.

Kath and Ross have endured drought, dust storms and downtimes … but Lee K. helped them have some fun for one day! Thanks again Lee for keeping the Spirit of the Bush alive and well.

Spreading cheer

Former farmer Brian Eagan has brought his Aussie Helpers Charity to Tassie to help farmers in drought times.

Brian, has taken on a mission to deliver everything from dog food to sheep pellets to Weetbix in a bid to assist farm families.

You can get more information at the Aussie helpers web site.

Thank you Lee and Lucy!

Here we are! John and I with the very generous and inspirational Australian of the Year, Lee Kernaghan in the Woodsdale Footy Clubrooms last weekend.

Thanks to our friend Lucy and her husband, Darren Byers (our shearer!), they invited Brian Egan from Aussie Helpers and Lee K. to bring some drought relief to the farmers of the Southern Midlands of Tasmania.

Lee sung a few songs and spent hours talking to locals.

I was also able to deliver a ‘love letter’ to Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon regarding the impact of tree plantations and drought in our district and outline some positive action he can take to help local community recover from these distressing and depressing days that we find ourselves in.

Lee truly is a generous, wonderful person and a great ambassador for all of us in rural Australia.

Let’s hope the pollies sit up and take some notice and put some policy in place so we farmers can keep supplying good clean food to our nation.

We can’t eat bloody gum trees!

A bird in the hand

This curious Noisy Miner bird decided to invade our lounge room this week.

I have no idea what possessed it to come through the sliding door, but I found it sitting on our couch (which it had pooped all over).

After catching it and releasing it, our friend Jake commented that it must’ve been totally freaking out and wondering ‘who was that old lady and what did she want?’

Thanks Jake! I know I’m no longer a ‘minor’ but there’s no need to highlight that I’m rapidly approaching 40!

Keeping positive

I’m sitting here at my desk trying to concentrate on the creation of my fourth novel, but there’s a gale blowing by my window and I’m disturbed by the muddy colour of the sky.

I wondered if there was a fire somewhere … some one burning off? When I went out to investigate and looked across the paddocks I realised my eyes were stinging.

I was in a dust storm.

It is hard to believe as I live in Tasmania — in an area renowned for reliable rainfall. The dust isn’t coming from our farm, but further away in the Southern Midlands.

Read more…

Water play!

Rain at last! The autumn showers have been enough to put a puddle in our brand new dam and Diamond and her son Lumpy enjoyed a swim paddle for the first time in months.

We are hoping for a strong autumn break so we can begin to recover from a run of &&*(*house seasons.

We sold 900 head of stock in the past financial year alone and have been de-stocking now for two years, cutting our numbers by more than half.

It’s meant our country is healthy and the remaining animals are coping well, but our potential income from the farm has been severely cut.

No wonder John and I work two part-time jobs each off-farm to keep it all going strong! Better get to and write some more!

Tractor treats

My kids love tractors! Here they’re watching our friend and neighbour, Ben, work up a sad drought-affected paddock on dad’s farm.

We’ve soil tested and know just what’s needed to breath some life into the ground again.

We’ll be applying liquid fertiliser in the form of kelp and some liquid humates to encourage the micro-organisms of the soil.

Thanks to Ben, the kids had a great morning.

Now all we need it for some clever person to design tractor cabs to accommodate children.

Babysitting while going round and round sounds like a great plan.