New Year 2023, Boys Camping, Girls day Out,

 Happy New Year everyone, and Happy Birthday to my sister. Other than a quick birthday visit it will be a quiet day today. The family have all left and now I can catch up with everything. The past week has been busy.

The boys all went camping and had a wonderful time, swimming down gentle rapids, cooking marshmallows and making damper. All were very tired on return. 

 

John with his usual activity.

Boys Camp Site

The girls had a lovely picnic at a very crowded local river, and we ended up at the furthermost point, an all grass area under the trees. The swimmers had a short walk to go for a swim, although the current was fairly strong.

On A Quiet Day, but was Packed this time.

 Our normal area above, but was so packed with cars and people had to go as far as we could along the road around the corner, left of this area, where the mangroves are.

The next day we had our nails done or a pedicure, which I chose, as too much gardening ahead for me with overgrown gardens full of weeds, to have pretty nails. This was the very first time I have ever had a pedicure, could get used to it easily.

 

Miss P before cutting length.

 

It has been lovely to see the family again but it goes to quickly, and we usually only see them twice a year if we visit as well.

 

 

 John and I visited the jeweler for my 50 Year Anniversary present, and I chose two necklaces and a ring shaped pendant, all of which I will always wear at the same time.

 

Feeling very spoilt, as other than a gold bracelet he got probably 35 years ago, this is very special, to get jewellery.

So .......2023 here we go.

Till Next time.

 

 

 

Clean Up of the Son's Vineyard.

 After spending Friday and Saturday doing a major effort on the vineyard, I decided today to give my poor body a rest. It is going to take several days to finish it, and I will go back when I can. 

Our son lives on an acre, and made a small vineyard in the back corner. Last year though the grapes failed and as every year he lets it get overgrown, waiting two years was a bit too long. Mind you there is plenty of wine already made, as the vines are now 10 years old both white and red.

There was a huge lot of tall weeds, even a couple of saplings, and lantana. The easiest thing to do first was cut the net down the centre of the rows, throw them over into the middle  of the next row, and roll it up as we went to then drag it out. Sounds easy, but believe me it wasn't. 

Cutting the net down the centre with a knife.

Net was then pushed over to the other side.

Pushing the net over a high wire fence line was at my highest reach, so in the end grabbed a handle off one of the tools and used that. In the meantime it meant using the secateurs to cut all the growth to do that. Lots of bending too, and prickly stuff.

After all this was done, then the ride on mower was taken down each pathway. The nets all piled into the trailer and taken to the dump. One of many rubbish/weed loads.

 

Cutting the spurs back to two nodules for Spring burst, after the tractor run. Even the chickens helped.

 The younger kids helped me clean up between the paths and around the vines, with metal rakes I took, we dragged all the cut stuff to the end, and using hedge clippers cut all the grass around the vines as well, this was yesterday as it took all day Friday to get to that stage.

 

Digging in around the edges of vines.

 In the meantime the big trees on the fence line were all being pruned severely to about half the height, and two Camellias as well. This was all chipped with the Community Garden Chipper and using their large trailer taken to the newly built extra large mulch bins. One load went Saturday and today will be another two, in all probably close to 5 loads.

 

Trees in back pruned to haf as well

John cutting one of the Camellias.

Chipping the branches

Out the front the fence hedge was also being cut back. 

 

I actually enjoyed my two days, being with the family and the kids. Miss P had yet another bad cold, but she cleaned up the kitchen prepared lunch, morning and afternoon teas each day and made chocolate muffins. 

Today I am going to declutter some magazines after flipping through them, and the sweet peas are out so will pick my first bunch of the year. 

Till Next Time. 

 

 

The Grandkids Week Two

 We officially took the kids home Friday and drove back from Sydney yesterday 5 1/2 hour trip, which is pretty good now that the highway by-passes are all finished. Our 1/2 way point is Coolongalook, a very small town situated either side, with petrol, food, playground and amenities, the perfect spot for a break.

Lunch while the kids played on the swings

  The garage is across from the park, so very handy if you want a coffee, or sandwiches which is what we did on the way back. 

Amenities Block

 We arrived at 3.30 and our daughter in law mum came home at 4pm. took one look at the youngest's hair and discovered nits. I had no idea and he didn't say a thing, but when we picked them up originally Mum did mention she had checked and it was dandruff. 5 mins. later we were all lined up for KP24 nit shampoo, then combing. What a greeting, couldn't stop laughing. Eldest two diligently combed through my hair.

They had fun during the week. Our local daughter in law took the girls shopping and 6 hours later came back all carrying bags of stuff. I minded the 3 boys who did nothing but play online games.The boys following day were then taken to Spring Loaded, which is a jungle gym of sorts. The next day though they could hardly move, with sore back and shoulders. 

We had more rain and excitingly for the children lots and lots of hail. The storm kept going round and round and 4 lots of hail. Not a lot of damage done which was good. 

Rain was super heavy

Checking out the hail on the water

Next doors cover

Some hail quite large.

The kids helped me take some stuff up to the driveway for going to the tip, and I think enjoyed their last week. They were pretty tired when we got them to Sydney after two weeks of activity. Master W will be starting High School, the eldest in year 8, and the youngest year 5.

John appeared twice in the paper this week. The above one was in the Telegraph with a title of 

                             "I could Kill a Plastic Plant" Unlikely Leader of Award Coffs Coast.

 The next one was in the Advocate of Citizen, Bravery, Junior Sportsperson,Social Inclusion, RFS, and of course John was Volunteer of the Year 2021 -  Coffs Coast.

To date he has raised $100,000.00 and this week the new ride on mower is turning up for the Gardens. This will be used around the garden beds as the tractor mower is two big.It also comes with a little trailer that will hold a large sprayer for watering.  John will also be holding lessons also, especially for the ladies. 

Till Next Time.

The Grandkids Week One

 As you can imagine it has been a pretty full on week with three grandchildren here. On top of that the dishwasher is not working but in actual fact I am finding it quicker to wash twice a day than filling the thing so luckily hasn't been a problem. Washing clothes though has increased, between towels and clothes, lucky we have had some hot weather. 

The older kids are addicted to their phones, the younger his tablet. I took them down to the beach 2nd afternoon here which was lovely. We took Einstein for a walk. I am getting a bit worried about him as his health hasn't been too good. The vet gave us doggy arthritis medicine, antibiotics and anti nausea but he is not eating very well so hard to get the tablets into him. 

During the week we had a day at Urunga walking the whole of the boardwalk out to the headland.

Looking back to the beach

The tiny baby fish in this area is amazing. I have never walked the full length of it before but with the nice weather was really good.

Notice the Mangroves in the distance

Across from the boardwalk you can see another beach, how they get there is beyond me, must be a backroad somewhere, somehow.

The Secret Beach

Swimming area with jumping platforms and ladders.

There has been a lot of work done to the swimming area, since we were last here. The river has new platforms for jumping and a deeper area has been made.Very safe for children. So after an hour of walking another 1 1/2 hrs.of jumping off these platforms for the kids while John and I sat waiting.

 

It was very busy as this is connected to the Caravan Park which was full, plus seemed like all the Urunga mum's were there in Beach Cabanas. Not a lot of shade around, I took my UV umbrella I bought in Singapore, glad I did now. 

For lunch we moved onto Mylstrom, 10 minutes away as I thought it would be less crowded. There is another swimming area in the river, more like an enclosed baths. Lots of shade trees as well, so after a quick lunch of egg sandwiches, the kids went back in.

Mylestom swimming area, in the river.

A favorite was jumping in the right hand end and floating with the tide.

Speed boats going by made waves, another favorite and lots of squealing and laughing kids. In this area is a large brick shed with tables, and a swings and slide area. Also a cafe/shop across the road. So if we go out again will bring them back to here. It is about 20 mins away.

We eventually got back at about 4pm and the next day Friday, they spent the morning with the cousins, on the trampoline and in the smaller blow up pool. Of course all of them told me they weren't tired but Saturday were like zombies and spent all day, lying around with the phones and tablets. I read lots of quilting books getting ready for when they leave. Grandma felt like a zombie.

A Different View of the River Reserve, with Rail Bridge. Trees are the picnic grounds. Water at bottom goes to the ocean

 In the late afternoon, we went down to the local river to meet up for dinner with the cousins again. I actually had a swim this time, even though the tide was right out.

I think today we will just do nothing, well that is after I wash all the wet towels, swimmers, clothes, picnic stuff, make lunch, tidy the kitchen.....................................!!!

Till Next Time.