Our Country Life

In November we moved to a house in the country and it has been one of the best blessings in our Australian story. We have land to enjoy exploring, living and growing on, fresh rainwater to drink, and room to run (although I'm not doing much running at this point!) I love hanging our laundry out on the line, growing food we use every night in a veggie garden and collecting fresh eggs every morning. We love watching the sun set on the hills, having all sorts of wildlife encounters and spending more time at home with plenty to keep us busy. You can make any place a home as long as it is filled with love, peace and light, but living in such a lovely spot definitely adds to the magic and makes for some special memories.

Hailey loves to help build and fix things! She helped me put this coop together and placed all the screws in the holes and held things up while I tightened things. She has helped me set up beds, sewn all kinds of projects with me (she likes to help with the needles), and if something needs gluing or taping she is in! Brian fixed an oil leak in our engine one day and she was completely enthralled and watched the whole process and talked about it for, well, still talks about it! She is also an awesome helper in the garden and loves to water, plant and pick. She is excited about our new plan to build a birdhouse together to hang in a tree outside our window and reminds me every day. Guess we need to get to it!

Our chooks are really little pets. We love them! They make this place a home. On a warm day they will sit by the doors or windows and just hang out! Robin, the black one is the most friendly, which gets her into trouble with Hailey sometimes. Brandy is the head hen and poor Snowflake we unfortunately lost a few weeks ago to an eagle :( I am taking extra precautions now and we have a new hen, Bronte, who is brown and black which should help keep her a bit more safe. I love how they all lay different coloured eggs so I always know who's is who's. Bronte will start laying soon and will lay green eggs!

 Thank you ladies!!!

Hailey is a country girl through and through! We got her some gum boots to run around in, but sometimes that's nearly all she gets on in the excitement of getting outside to explore, harass chickens, draw on the patio or ride her scooter. She isn't afraid to get dirty and I don't know how she does it, but she can run around in her bare feet like a champ! She loves all the wildlife. Just yesterday we saw an echidna crawling around the garage area (a rare sighting). We have kangaroos, possums, wombat holes, cockatoos, rosellas and heaps of kookaburras who love eating all the little lizards we have here. Plus the sheep that live nearby and of course our hens! On top of that we have wild blackberries growing by the river and have so much more space in the kitchen that we've been making all kinds of homemade goodies. Hailey loves to help make almond butter, granola and the most amazing wholly healthy protein bars which I will highlight in a post later because they are far too good not to share!

We had a small herd of cows for a day! I was home with Hailey and heard a police car stop outside the house. He told me he had just herded some cows off the road onto our property and closed the gate and that I could take it from there. What?! He took off with me calling out,"So what should I do??" Thanks buddy. Leave a bunch of cows for a very pregnant lady and a toddler to wrangle. Hailey and I got on our boots and went to find these cows so I could at least see what they look like and if they had any tags. I thought they were just a dream til we found a fresh pie and knew we were on the trail :) They were down by the river. That afternoon we drove past a neighbour's property where I saw a few other similar looking cows. It turned out he was renting from the guy who was missing a few cows. Unfortunately by the time they got to our place that night the cows had found a hole in our fence and ran back down the road! Hopefully they found them!

Just last week we started seeing sheep around the house in the mornings with their brand new baby lambs! Brian and Hailey had gone for a hike one afternoon to see them out by the fenceline and found a stray. He was all alone with no other sheep in sight and seemed fond of them so they brought the baby home and we drove to our neighbour's to see what we should do (they are his sheep). While we were chatting at their house, the little guy fell asleep in Brian's arms while he unknowingly swayed back and forth. I guess he's nesting too! Danny (our neighbour/landlord) drove the baby to a hill where they go for the night and is pretty sure he found his mother!

What an adventure we've had! We love living here and all the country fun it brings. It's a special time for our family and I'm so happy we get to bring our little boy home to this place.