Shearing

The shearers arrived this morning bright and early to start shearing about 5000 sheep. We used to shear most of our sheep in January, but we are gradually shifting to an earlier shearing.
Here are some photos of the action in the shearing shed this morning.

And then there is Hugh. Riding his pink bike with the flowers on, and wearing his pink singlet - the hand-me-downs from three older sisters. Note the black tyre on the rear wheel of the bike. It had to be replaced when he blew the old one doing skids (but I think it might have been worn a bit thin by previous users.)

While Mum and Dad were Away

While Mum and Dad were away, Bonnie, Odette and Hugh stayed home with the helpXchangers. They took advantage of our absence to stay up late and have a mock fashion parade, mainly wearing Matthew's clothes I believe. They used the desks in the playroom as a catwalk! Here are some photos that Bonnie took as proof.

Odette, Hugh and Bonnie posing in some of Matt's clothes.

Odette parading one of Matt's t-shirts and a pair of jocks

 

Bonnie showing the way teenagers wear their board shorts

 

A cool dude Bonnie in Matt's gear

 

Oscar makes a pose

Odette looking every inch a model

Hmmm. I have updated to the latest version of Blogger, and my photo formatting is not good. Looks like I have some more work to do to learn the latest tricks...

Matthew's Award

On Friday evening Roger and I went to Matthew's School presentation night. He has been attending MacKillop Catholic College in Busselton, and is just about to finish year ten. Next year he will be going to the WA College of Agriculture in Harvey which is better known as Harvey Ag School.

We had been forewarned that Matt was to receive an award, and he won the Year 10 Award for Outdoor Education. It was great to see him up on the stage receiving his award. The night was well done, with entertainment by the school bands and the year 8-10 dancing students. At the end there was an audio-visual presentation of "The Year that Was" put together by the year 10 media students.

Matthew receiving his Award

  

Matthew on stage with other award winners

 

Matthew and Roger outside the entertainment centre

Orientation Day

Sophie's orientation day at the Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School went well. We met a few of the parents and children who were there, and had plenty of presentations from teachers and staff. While Roger and I were doing that Sophie was off with the new students. She was assigned an older student to be her mentor in the boarding house. 
The Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School is situated at Gelorup, just south of Bunbury, and it is in a lovely bush setting. I attended BCGS for my high school years, and I was a boarder for one year. But the school has grown considerably since I was there. I think there were about 320 students in the whole school when I left in1982, and now there are about 900 students with over 100 boarders. There are many new buildings and stat-of-the art facilities.

Orientation at BCGS

Sophie will be attending the Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School next year, starting in February. We have always known she would be going away to boarding school, but somehow it seems to be creeping up on me a bit too fast. She is only eleven, and she will be leaving home...
Today is her orientation day. We will be meeting staff and other parents and students in the morning, and then after lunch the students will stay at the school. The boarders will be staying overnight and doing an activity in the morning. Sophie is pretty excited about it, but also nervous, as with any new experience.

What Farm Kids Learn

The other day we were talking about the number of women in town who are pregnant at the moment.
Little miss seven commented that "it must have been mating season"!!
Isn't that the sort of observation that would only come from a farm kid?

Open Garden

A garden montage (click the picture to view larger)

Sunday saw us visiting the garden of Des and Ellen Gooding, just out of Darkan. Roger is slowly establishing a vegetable garden at Warragal Park, and he is always keen to talk to other gardeners to get tips and ideas. The Goodings' garden has many different areas, and hundreds of different roses. The roses blooms were HUGE. The season has been perfect for them. They also have poultry, and have covered the chicken coop to stop the crows getting the chickens.

Looking through roses out to alpacas and sheep

A cute plaster blue bird hiding in a staghorn

Roger enjoying strawberries from the garden

All sorts of roses...

The part of the garden that I liked most was actually a part of the house. The Goodings are building a lovely big sunroom/outdoor room onto the back of their house, which adds so much usable living space to their house and garden. It has glass doors and windows all around, so you can feast your eyes on the garden while you're in there, but it is sheltered form the wind and will be a heat sink in the winter. Now guess what I want???

Marie and the children about to enter the newly extended outdoor room.

Odette showing her fascinator, and the bandage over her cut.

Odette and Candy (helpX from Taiwan)

Odette looking totally Glam!

Hugh didn't want to be in the photo - but I got him anyway!