Happenings

I've been all over this country side in the past week. Well, not entirely, but it sure can feel like it when you travel nearly 800kms back to my home town and then another 200kms further to visit our family farm.

A little distance never stopped me.

I absolutely LOVED getting back to my home town last week to see my friends and family. It was the best week, and I managed to cram as much as I could into almost seven full days.

A few snap shots of what has been happening with me lately.

Firstly, I finished off Kate's Mary-Jane's which no longer resemble the typical "Mary-Jane's" but are adorable and comfy none-the-less.

I also managed to whip up a squishy cowl neck warmer for my dad on Tuesday afternoon. Dad spends some mornings on the motorbike on our property and it can get mighty cold this time of year. I hope this warmer will do the trick. I felt so at peace sitting and knitting in my parent's garden. I miss it just thinking about it. Sitting on the patio with our family dogs beside me and the sun going down over the yard is pure magic to me.

[Both project details can be found on Ravelry here.]

Also pure magic - visiting our family property. A few friends and I headed [further] west and spent two nights 'roughing it' in our swags in the bush. I love camping and it is becoming a tradition with our friends now. I love every bit of it. Even when my hair starts to smell of smokey campfire. I love it.

Seeing my horses was definitely a highlight. I miss them so much.

I can't wait to get home again. If we lived closer I feel like I'd be there all the time. There really is no place like home.

E, x

Tree change

As I sit in my outer-Sydney 'burbs apartment on this sunny and beautiful Sunday I can't help but miss the bush.

I'd be lying if I said I missed everything about the bush, but sitting here in the city hearing the leaves of the perfectly placed and manicured trees blowing outside my window makes me miss the 'real' fresh air and the proper smell of old gum trees and true nature.

It's no surprise to me that I miss home. Everybody at some stage in their lives will miss the place where their roots lay. I miss our farm and one day hope to go back there, maybe on a more permanent basis, who knows.

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately, and I don't know if it's just because I'm drawn to them because we enjoy the same things, or if there is a gal trend happening, but a lot of people seem to be getting back to the 'original' ways of doing things. So many more people seem to enjoy the humbling feelings we get from growing our own veggies or making our food by hand. Deep down we seem to search for that 'grounding' that getting back to basics brings us.

I miss growing veggies, I miss collecting eggs from our hens. I miss the smell of my horse and the tangle of her knotted and rouge mane.

I miss riding on the back of a motorbike across hard and cracking ground with the sun boiling down on my (pasty ha!) white skin!

Deep down I want to move to the country and live peacefully, growing our own food, raising our own cows and living in the moment. Right now, I'm not sure we are in a position to do this, but there is an urge in me that wants a change.

There are so many great things about living in this city, but boy are there some magical things about living in the country.

I've noticed over at Retromummy's blog she has had some guest writers blogging about their 'tree changes' and most seem to be about going back to the country! And one of my favourite 'country', foodie blogs at the moment that makes me pine for home is Local is Lovely. Check them out!

E, x

A thought for the farmers

Although I am no longer living in rural NSW like I have been for the majority of my life, the stress and sadness of the current drought gripping rural Australia still affects me.

A lot of city-folk might not realise how bad things in the bush are right now and it's easy to forget how others live when we get caught up in our own day-to-day rituals.

My family are the owners of a property in far western NSW on the Darling River. (I've mentioned our property in many posts before - check the 'farm life' labels on the right hand side of my page if you're keen to see more!)

Dad's plane on the new airstrip on the property.

Lately my parents have been working overtime to de-stock (sell off extra numbers of cattle) because we just don't have the food or the water to keep them all.

This week my mum emailed me a picture of the thermometer under the veranda at the house on the farm and it was hitting a high temperature of 48'C!!!! And that was in the shade!

My dad was trying hard to move our small calves to another paddock where they would be able to find shade under some trees because they were suffering in the heat. Other cattle were yarded and trucked off to be sold.

Here is a movie dad sent me today show the "mighty" Darling River - how sad that it is almost dry.

My dad sends me regular emails and photos via text to keep me updated with the property which I love. He keeps and eye on my beautiful horses and makes sure I get to see them at least once a month through the inter webs.

My horse Splash (on the left), and Dad's horse Ben.
Both looking skinny and not liking the heat very much!

It pains me to see our beautiful property in such dry and sad conditions, but I know it's apart of farming, as we all do.

I love rural Australia but it is suffering currently, and it pays to reflect on the hard times those are having in this drought. Some farmers are far worse off than us, some have even had to sell everything they have just to get by! I just hope the rains come soon to help save the livestock and the farmers from these terribly dry conditions.

Keep our farmers in your thoughts this week, and lets all pray for some much needed rain.
E, x

There's no place like home

A belated happy Easter to all of my bloggy friends out there! I have had a big, busy weekend! I just got back to Wagga to finish off the remainder of the week at uni before heading home again on Friday (seems silly but that's the way the holidays fall for us!).

I spent the weekend with my family and boyfriend. On Sunday and Monday I spent my time on our family property breathing in some sanity with that fresh country air. Of course we got some work done too and as tiring as it can be, it feels so good to do some farm work. There is nothing in the world like it!

We mustered up some of our gorgeous cows and calves to move them into another paddock with more water from the creek. Unfortunately things are getting increasingly dry on our property despite some rain about a month a go. We are having to shift our cattle around to release pressure on the bore pumping water to the paddocks for the stock to drink. The joys of the dry season!!

As always, it was a family affair with my Mum, Dad, my older sister Kate and her boyfriend James pitching in to get the work done on Monday.

I always feel good after spending time on our property. It may not be every ones cup of tea but I love it. I feel refreshed and grounded again. All of the dramas of normal everyday life seem to become non-existent and I can hide away from the 'real world' for a short time out in the bush. 

The best part about it all is spending the time with my family. There is something beautiful about working together working towards something like the family farm.

I am a country girl at heart, no doubt about it. I have travelled roughly 1400kms this past weekend and am feeling a little wrecked but can't wait to get this week done and dusted to get back home for some holiday time. 

I hope your weekend was a beautiful one spent with loved ones too.

Back in the land of technology

Hey friends! I am back!

I took total advantage of the long weekend that we just had and made a last minute decision to head back home to spend the weekend with my parents.

We spent the entire weekend on our farm which for most people would seem like it is in the middle of nowhere, and most people would probably be right by saying this!

Our farm is 200km from my home town and is located about half an hour from the small rural "township" (more like a village) called Tilpa on the Darling River, NSW. I had no mobile phone service and out internet isn't quite set up yet at the house so I was totally disconnected from the online world! (We do have TV though so I managed to catch the final scores of the AFL, woo go Swannies!!)

This is where we stay when we visit our farm. Mt grandparents live in the original farm homestead so we built this. We call it the Quarters and it was originally just 3 old donga's (aka shipping containers) put together and now reno'd! We are slowly getting our garden and trees growing! 

I love the farm. I am a true blue farm girl at heart and I enjoyed every minute of my time out there. Things are so much more peaceful on the farm.

Its quiet (except for the mass abundance of pretty birds whistling all through the day and into the night), its calming, and since we had no major "farm" work to be done while we were out there, I got to spend time with my mum cooking and drinking cups of tea and I managed to get some drawing/painting done and spent some quality time with my horse (whom I'm sure has missed me even though she clearly shows little affection when I bring out the halter and lead rope which equals work for her! lol)

Splash finally showing me some love! lol

Spending time doing things that I really love makes me feel so grounded again. It really makes me re-think my outlook on life sometimes and I'm starting to learn that in life it doesn't matter what you do, how much you earn or whether you live in the big city or a small town, all that matters is that you are truly happy in yourself.

When I am with my family, friends, boyfriend and lucky enough to spend days on our gorgeous family farm I am truly happy.

How was you long weekend? Did you take a trip or make the most of the free time to stay at home and relax?

I can't believe that it is October already! And "Ocsober" has commenced! That means no alcohol for the entire month of October for me! Are you joining in too??

Mid Week Ramblings

Is it windy at your house? Its windy here at mine. I've been hearing on the weather news all day that we should be expecting huge gusts of wind and some rain and I think its starting to set in down here, eek!

How is your week going so far?

Mine is going very quickly! Probably because this week I am having to cram in a million little "to-do" jobs in order to get assignments completed and then uni life can simmer down again!

I donned my "farm girl" boots today (some of my new bloggy-follower-friends might not know that I am a farm girl!) Born and bred in a remote country town, my family owns a big farm on the Darling river and I love being a county girl.

Its hard, because I often feel a bit torn between my life as a graphic design student (which tends to pull me to the big cities and the love of all things "city" i.e. shopping, shoes and good eateries lol) and my love for farming and the rural scene.

Today I had to make up a stencil for an assignment at uni. It could say anything we wanted, we just had to make it and and take a photo of it. I decided to use a bit of hessian to spray paint mine on and put a statement about farming.

I feel like farming is a bit mis-understood sometimes and overlooked as an old, dying field that is of no importance to the modern day. I totally disagree. I feel pretty passionate about farming in all regards and feel strongly that without it, we as a population could not eat or wear clothes among other things!

We depend on farming so much today and I think it is so important to support this. Farming is definitely  a big part of our present and future and I thank all of the hard working farmers out there brining us beef, lamb, chicken, veggies, cotton, fruit and sooo much more. Its a tough life for a farmer and is definitely a thankless job.

Unfortunately I can't show you the finished product (only the stencil above) as I have been trying to upload the pics of it for over an hour now with no success.... GRRR!

Ok, my little "farm girl" spiel is over now!! lol Enjoy the rest of your week! xx

In this lifetime...

What is your biggest fear?

Snakes? Spiders? Clowns? Death?

I used to think that my biggest fear was dying or losing the people that I loved the most. Death is scary, the thought of never seeing somebody ever ever again in this lifetime is a horrible thought. Of course this is something that still frightens me like crazy but lately I have been feeling scared about other things, U have had this feeling or urgency to complete everything that I have ever wanted to do. 

I'm scared of running out of time and not doing everything and anything that I have always wanted to do.

My biggest fear is not having enough time.

I think maybe as we get older we start to realise that time goes by so fast, we understand that we cant control everything and sometimes we get so busy that things that we used to want to do fall by the way side so we can get our "normal" jobs and day-to-day life work done.

For me I'm starting to get scared. I'm twenty three, I feel like I may have wasted the last three or so years of my life "fluffing" around, chopping and changing my mind, moving away and then moving back home again, starting a degree then deferring it, falling in love and then back out again. I feel like I am only just now starting to realise what I want out of life and all of the amazing things that I want to do with my time.

Tonight I was sitting beside my dad on the couch as he read the newest issue of the Outback Magazine. He was admiring all of the gorgeous cattle herds and farms that cover the pages of this issue. He was "Ooohing" and "Ahhing" at how beautiful these properties looked and we both admired how great their lives looked, just being "Farmers" living off the Land. I love farming, and having grown up with my dad and his dad being graziers on the land I have always thought that I might end up on a property somewhere down the line. Now that I am finally choosing to finish my degree in Graphic Design over the next two years, I feel like my "farm-girl" lifestyle is getting further and further away.

(image)

As I saw a picture of a farm-girl in the magazine my stomach sank. I thought, "How great would it be to just be a "farmer" like this girl?". I told myself, "maybe in another lifetime". I felt a little sick at this thought and I got scared.

"Maybe in another lifetime?". We only have one lifetime. I want to be the farm-girl and the graphic designer and the horse enthusiast and the fashion-ista and the avid traveller all at once! Is it possible to do all of these things in one lifetime? This lifetime? Am I running out of time at twenty three?

For some reason I used to feel like when we decided what we want to be once we became "grown-ups" it meant we had to stick to it. You decided to be a nurse, that's it... you're a nurse. Now that I am older and realising that I have a passion for a whole swag of things (farming, design, photography, agriculture etc) I'm starting to believe that if you work hard at it, you can be as many things as you want to be, all at the same time. There doesn't have to be limitations just because of a chosen profession!

I am going to start telling myself that it is possible to be the fun, graphic design-y, crafty, country farm girl all at once. We don't have to choose one particular path, we can have it all in this lifetime!

The key is to start working towards it NOW!

I'm not going to wait around to contemplate and change my mind and get confused on what I really want to do. I'm going to throw myself into everything that I enjoy and enjoy doing it and I'm going to do it well!!

Time to get over my biggest fear. I have plenty of time, as long as I start now!

(Me and my Dad riding our horses on our farm)

What are you afraid of in "this lifetime" ?

A new addition...

I really know I am back in the "bush" (and home!) when Dad brings us a new baby poddy calf home to bottle feed for a few days!

This one is a fresh week or so old and is such a cutie, her name is "Tan".

We'll be taking her back out to the farm this long weekend providing the weather holds out (its raining here today).

I wouldn't mind keeping her around for a little longer... Im such a sucker for a baby animal! lol

How's the weather at your place today??

Ellie...............x

A day in the country...

Some days its good to just get out of the house and see some of the "Outdoors."

So despite the drizzly, rainy weather today, my little sister Jessie, her little pooch Lil and Me accompanied my Dad and Pop out onto a property on the outskirts of town to do some farm work and get out of the house.

I love these opportunities to spend time out in the bush and with my family. I always have my trusty DSLR camera in hand to catch some happy snaps of the good times and the great outdoors!

Even Lil enjoyed the time out and about and got her little "paws" in the mud!! Cute!

All in all it was a great day out and helps to clear the mind and gives me a chance to breathe in some fresh country air! Gotta love that!!

How was your Sunday??

Ellie............x

Farm Girl...

Hanging with my special horse and friend "Splash" at my parents home.

Gotta love the farm life!

Ellie...........x

Red dirt, Black mud, Deep water!

Yesterday I got to get out of the office (yay!) and head out "bush" to our property on the Darling River. Well, we got to part of our property on the River. You see, our property has been flooding over the last couple of weeks and is now cut off!

We had strategically parked cars and motorbikes in areas around the property so that our Managers would be able to still take a boat ride to the car or motorbike and continue driving to parts of the property that can't be reached otherwise.

One of our cars that was parked on the town access road was cut off this week when we had another 2 inches of rain on Thursday night and a small creek (that connects to a large creek) filled with LOTS of water. My Dad, our friend Reg and I headed out to farm to try and get the ute moved from beside the creek and take it back to town. But this plan didn't quite work for us!

The small creek that had filled with water was a lot larger than we had expected and the ute was a lot more bogged than we anticipated!

So I took off my boots and we walked through the flooded creek to get to the ute to try our best to dig and push and get the ute out. But she wouldn't budge!

We tried our darnedest but the mud was like thick sticky clay that I even got bogged in a couple of times! It was humid and hot but I had a ball even though our ute is still stuck in the mud! We're hoping that it doesn't rain before Sunday when we'll try again to get the ute before the creek floods completely and sinks it even further!

It might not look too bogged in these pics but believe me, this ute was going nowhere!

So the big day out at Budda was slightly unsuccessful but even though we couldn't do what we needed to do I was so happy to be able to see our farm in flood! It doesn't happen every day around here and after all of this water goes it might not happen for another 10 years, who knows?!

Our land is looking green and fertile and hopefully after all of this rain our cows will look healthy and fat! What a season we've had so far!

Ellie x

A Farm Girl

I've grown up in the country and all my life I have always felt that I am a true "farm girl". I've spent time living in other cities and have spent enough time there to know that I am a country girl through and through.

Don't get me wrong, I love lots of the things that the cities have to offer. I LOVE shopping (I'm quite and addict actually! lol), I love great food, good wine, I love to dance at cool clubs, I love the beach and I love the accessibility of ANYTHING and everything in the city! I also love my cute BF that was born and bred in the big city!! hehe

But there's just something about the country that keeps bringing me back. Maybe its the open spaces, the animals, the people and the places? Most probably because it's always been "Home".

During the New Year break from work, a friend helped me bring my horse back in from the paddocks of a large and very grassy property outside of town to my parents home in town. I hadn't realised how much I missed working with her and having her waiting to see me every afternoon.

Last night I spent some quality time with my Dad and my girl "Splash". I managed to snap some piccies and these remind me of just why I love being a Farm girl! You can't do this type of stuff everyday in the City!!

Gotta love the perks of living in the country. There might not be many, but we make the most of it out here!! x

On the 4th day of Christmas...

On the 4th day of Christmas ... I finished my crochet zippered purse!!

After a lonnnnng night last night at the infamous bush Tilpa Hotel on the Darling River for our work Chrissie party, I managed to crawl from my bed (after only a couple of hours sleep) to get down to Jellywares for a very "relaxed" crochet class.

(Roger out the front of the pub)

Jode had also been at Tilpa last night so we were both keen for a slow class and I managed to finish off my zippered purse and I LOVE IT!!

It's a perfect size to fit some coins, some notes, probably a lip gloss or keys. I think I might take this little cutie out to the markets tonight!

There wasn't too much to this purse and I'm thinking that I'd love to make another, for the next one I could make it a little bigger so it could hold a little more stuff, but this little one will suit for now!

Such a cool little project starting out as a "Mystery"! Can't wait for the December mystery project!!

How has your weekend been so far? I hope that wherever you are, you're not getting washed away with all of this crazy rain!! It's raining here this afternoon, its definitely snuggle up on the couch weather!!

Happy crafting :o)