It's been a while

Well, it has been a while since I last posted, almost 12 months I think.

Sorry to leave you hanging for so long, but you know, been busy with stuff.

With my eldest child now moving up in the grades in SOTA I have actually had to put in a few more hours in the school room.  Not easy with a young one hanging round my ankles, but I manage (badly most days, but somehow we still get it done).

On the family front - FIL is still the same, MIL is getting gradually more sane (? how is that even possible!) and the rest of the IL's well, the less said the better.  Went to the ring with one of them, almost got physical until another IL pulled her off me.  I'm not shy about having a confrontation, but I have to admit that I was shocked when things turned so ugly so quickly.  Could be worse though.

It brought to mind an incident that happened to a friend of mine, just before she got married, we'll call her Mary.  Mary was visiting her future IL's and things got a bit heated when the discussion turned to where the newlyweds would live after the wedding (his station or hers).  Mary's future MIL didn't like some of the things that Mary had to say about their station.  MIL proceeded to chase Mary around the house and whack her with the broom.  Funny now, some 10 years in the future, but then it would have been terrifying.  

Here's your future mother-in-law, the mother of the man you love, grandmother to any of your future children - chasing you around the house and assaulting you with a broom.  Made for a very strained relationship in the future I can tell you.  And people wonder why some people don't like spending time with their in-laws!

But, you will be glad to know that there have been no such incidents here recently (note I said recently - but that's another story!).

Now for some good news.  

There's been a lot happening in Australian agriculture recently - particularly the beef cattle industry.  The halting of live exports to Indonesia was a shock and the industry is still struggling to recover, some doubt that it ever will and the face of large-scale beef cattle production has been changed forever.

Now we don't just have markets and Mother Nature to contend with, we have to face the ever-increasing threat of animal activisim in our lives.  Their ignorance and militant rabidity when it comes to animal welfare strikes fear into the heart of any reasonable primary producer and unfortunately, there are too many people willing to believe their scandalous lies.

Wait - that's not good news.

The good news is, there are some great people out there trying to promote the positives about our lifestyle and our industry and one of the best is Steph Coombes over at http://ausagventures.com/.

So do yourselves and our industry a favour and have a read and spread her blog about.  It's great reading.