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.

Ahh home sweet home

Back after a massive trip away - kids survived the trip, as did I, hubby is a bit tired though (I'm not allowed to do any driving, but I'm not the one who lost a plastic binin the middle of the busy highway!).  Great to be home.  My own bed, own shower and own toilet.  Bliss.  Downside though - IL's are still here.  hmmmm.

What? For me? Awwww...

Wow, I am humbled and amazed to receive an award from a fellow bush blogger.

 Thank you to Bush Govo for awarding me the Liebster Award.

I have also shamelessly ripped almost this entire post off from her site.  Which is awesome, by the way.  A very impressive piece of work and a credit to a young lady who is passionate about her job, the bush and her lifestyle.

This award is passed on from blogger to blogger.

The rules for the Liebster Award are:

• Choose 5 up and coming blogs to pass the award onto.
• They must have less than 200 followers.
• Give lots of thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to their sites.
• Post the award on your blog.
• List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites.

Now the tricky part - awarding the Liebster Award to 5 more up & coming blogs....

I may have to get back to you on that one.

Now is the right time!

Apologies

Dear Readers, I am so sorry for the huge amount of time that has passed since I last posted.  Almost 2 whole months has gone since I shared something with you and for this - I am deeply apologetic. 

So, you may ask, what hs been happening to keep me away from the computer for so long?  Well, where do I even begin?

Firstly, there was Easter.  A fairly painless event this year - thanks largely to my parents who visited and saved me from the torturous goings-on at the IL's. 

Secondly, I give quite a large amount of my time to a few local community organisations and April/May is always a busy time for us.  I am sure other wives/mothers/girlfriends/govos would appreciate that if something is going to be organised in the bush, it is the women who generally do it.  The menfolk all get together and agree to do something - but the actual doing is done by those who are most capable and that is the ladyfolk. 

And last, but certainly not least - SOMEONE ELSE HAS BEEN USING MY COMPUTER!  My lifeline to the outside world, my sanity, my dear friend, has been sullied by the touch of our grubby English backpacker.  And has he is not what you'd call blessed with brains, I had to log out of all my accounts and clear my cache, lest he stumble onto my secret identity and go shooting his big dumb mouth off to the IL's. 

I am a fairly generous person, and don't mind sharing, but I was a bit nervous about letting anyone use my computer.  I guess it's the modern equivalent of the diary I guess and I don't know that he would have the common sense to keep his mouth shut.  Nice guy, but yeah, not smart.

So, what's new with you all?  I'll try & squeeze a few more posts in, because at the end of the week we are off for a few days R & R.  Just have to survive the drive first. 

Repeat to self & stay calm....

Cooking - who knew it was a competition?

So, I am a pretty good cook. I am exceedingly modest too, so that should read I AM AN AWESOME COOK. Most of the time. I have had my fair share of disasters in the kitchen, but unlike others in my extended family - I learn from my mistakes.

The MIL has this thing where she makes my kids their favourite food & then sends it home with them so they can 'share with mummy'. Yeah right she is trying to beat me at my own game. My kids are not fussy, they will eat just about anything provided it has enough sugar/chocolate/combination of both, so you know when they refuse - it's pretty bad. And then, when our greedy guts horse won't eat it - you know it's not fit for human consumption. This pretty much applied to everything MIL has ever baked, made, frozen, cooked, whatever. She can even ruin packet food, which is a pretty mean feat.

My mother (who happens to be an extremely awesome cook) lives in fear of being invited for a meal to the IL's house. I live for the day when my mum gets drunk enough to tell MIL exactly what was wrong with the meal - I have witnessed something similar at another dinner party when the hostess innocently asked 'how was it?'. Mum was 3 sheets to the wind on cheap wine coolers and proceeded to give a detailed description of exactly what was wrong with the meal – I (an impressionable teenager at the time) found this hilarious, the hostess was mortified and the other diners (including the hostess’ husband) in complete agreeance.  Needless to say, we weren’t invited back again!

 Anyway, my kids are wise to the MIL’s tricks, they usually ditch the food in the garden bed on the way home (seeing as how no human or animal in its right mind will eat it) and ask mum to make PROPER food, using a recipe from a book, and not just a random procession of ingredients thrown in the mix master, beaten to within an inch of its life and baked at 5000 deg until burnt beyond all recognition & covered with any revolting concoction that involves icing sugar & alcohol & butter.  (Snarky much?  Who me?)

 So it turns out cooking is a competition & I’m winning.  How do I know?  Everyone eats my food………