7 Years (nearly)

7 years ago on 9-11 I saw the images that were streamed around the world from New York on the TV in the maternity ward at Grafton Hospital during a "false alarm" start to the birth of the twins.

Back home next day, but with the edict from the doctors that something had to happen soon, and 7 days later,things were happening, but not as well as they should - so next morning a quick trip to the op theatre and at 4-15am No4 son was brought into the world , followed 2 mins later by No 1 daughter (AKA "the littlest feral one).


No he's not trying to cut off No 3's head (though think that he would like to sometimes - lol) just trying out his presents.














Seven years ago they were cute, controllable(??) and cuddly - what did I do wrong ??????? - oh well, they all get older and become their own individual selves, but sometimes ------(wish, wish)

Oh well , Happy 7th Birthday for tomorrow Ethan & Lilly

Stuffed up days

Woke up Saturday morning ready to get into the current (repaint ) room -everything needed purchased over the last week, so a couple of coffees and ready to fire up the sander -wrong - both the new belts were not correct (too loose), so change of plans and go to plan B (using coarser belts) -they were too bloody shortand would not even go on the machine, so much hairpulling, ranting and raving, then looking for receipts etc and off to the local hardware store to get replacements - end result was belts that fitted, but 4 hours lost, so the room that should have been well and truly finished now still needs a couple of hours at least. Given that I leave home in the dark through the week and usually get home in the dark, the loss of 4 hrs + of daylight is a big negative in my plannings - lol

Life, and its entails

I suppose that I have been a bit slack/ negative over the last couple of weeks, there were a few inputs into that happening, including being played for a dupe by a threetiming cyber friend, but that is now history. Was going through downers last post in that I couldnt achieve the goals that I was striving towards in the timeframe that I had set initially - those goals mainly being to repaint the interior of the house, and make it a place that I was not ashamed to have as a home for my children and for friends to visit - still got a way to go but Im slowly getting there.

One big upset was last Thursday (13th) coming home to a series of phonecalls from nieghbours that a young man in similar circumstances to me had hung himself in the park adjacent to my property- the ultimate form of self harm - turns out that his ex had made it that he could not go near his children through legal channels : Dont the mothers of children realise that at least 99% of the fathers of these children have deep feelings for them - its NOT just a mother thing Girls, us blokes do have feelings/ love/ affection/ etc towards our children, and to create a situation that leads to this result ultimately is a losing situation for the children - they now have NO father.

Out of sorts

The last few weeks have been a bit of turmoil in my life -have had a workplace situation finally come to boiling point ( a result of "Workchoices") that has seen me and a few of my workmates dudded for making the effort to work when we were not 100% ok- seems that we have lost our entitlements to untaken sick pay, so now if we are not feeling ok, off to the quacks and a couple of days sickies. ( given that this amounted to $800 in the Xmas pay packet, not getting it, and not being told that it was not being included led to some stuffed budgets at the least) but the chickens are going to come home to roost in the next few days - 1 bloke takes a " sickie" - and the whole place stops - noone else can do his job - rofl

Also been doing some floor sanding and painting - which has meant a lot of time just trying to clean up the mess (and loads of washing) before the kids fortnightly weekend with me.

Throw into the mix a series of (large) bills all at once, and the dreaded tax time as well, it has been an eventfull 6 weeks or so.

Waste (of natural resources)

One of the things that has interrupted my blogging access this last week was the failure of the alternator in my ute. This led to some rather drastic measures to actually being able to get to and from work (with the subsequent time involved - :-) )

There were a few possible causes of this problem, starting with a blown fuse as the first check - none blown - but the worst case scenario was a blown diode pack, which was a real possibility as the ruggies had used the ute to jumpstart the tractor last weekend.

Come Saturday morning, I stripped the alternator and did the necessary tests to find (happily) that it was no more than a worn out set of brushes that was causing the problem , so off to the auto electricians for a new set of brushes, bearings and an oil seal (max $50.00). whilst they had the brushes etc in stock, they were most insistant that the only thing to do was to throw the old one away and buy a new (aftermarket) unit for $600 - $800. Funnily enough, I had been repairing these items when the people trying to tell me what I should do were still in primary school, and have decided that there will be no more dealings by me with that firm - I may not hve the tickets but I DO have the qualifications in this field.

It struck me most tho, that in this age of greenhouse effects, climate change etc, that to just trash a whole assembly for the sake of a small handfull of parts and an hours labour was a negative way of looking at things.

Flying Foxes

Hope that this might show the general idea of a "Flying Fox". This one is a bit more elaborate than most, but was a part of a commercial operation.

It is also the common name for the fruit bat, a small bat that is native to Australia, and lives on fruit and poses quite a few problems to orchards.

Billycarts

For the American readers _ this is a couple of comic strips that should show what we in Australia call a "Billy cart".

"Ginger Meggs" is the basic "Ocker" kid,always in trouble at school for wagging to go fishing, being a bit entrepreneurial at times, getting bashed regularly by the local bully ,not understanding his girlfriend, etc.
This comicstrip has been a part of Australian life for a long time,nearly as long as the "Phantom" and a few others that are still going, it has changed a little bit over the last few years following the retirement and death of its founder, but to the best of my knowledge, the tradition is being maintained by one of his grandsons.

If you are interested , there is a website , and if you are on a reasonably fast connection, you should be able to access the archives (I cant, keep getting timed out

Nostalgic Saturday

,
(May also be called Gumbos "Booking Sunday" as it is the result of his first purchase online - lol)


Whilst it may not seem to be an item of great significance to many, this particular book has a place in my families memories for a couple of reasons.

The one reason that relates to nostalgia is memories of the author and my mother exchanging numerous letters over a period of 2-3 years in the late 60's- early 70's passing on information , then confirming the information ( The author was sourcing info from a lot of others as well)

The other reason that this is special to me is that it gives a detailled history of my ancestors back to their Irish times, but also goes back to the actually Scot origins of this line of my forebears, and I do even get a mention.

It was a self published, limited edition (750 copies, numbered and signed by the author) , and I have had the good fortune to get na copy in very good condition.

Friday Foto Challenge - Green

Friday Foto Challenge - Timeless

(very late) Friday foto Challenge -Time

Billycarts and Flying Foxes

For the Americans who read, I was hoping to put up a cartoon strip and a pic to show what they are, but my scanner is still buried under a dropsheet - so will try and have it ready for the weekend, plus a few missed friday fotos -

Nostalgic Saturday

"Down the (Old) back paddock" - This is a photo of an oil painting done of the back paddock of my childhood. It was painted by Mrs E Winkell, a friend of my grandparents following a visit to our place.I remember that she sat on a log near the woodheap and daubed and dabbled on a piece of masonite, and what left that day looked nothing like the finished product - it was her way of placing the colours. She did 2 of these paintings, a larger one that she exhibited at Epping art show, and got a major prize for, and this smaller one that she gave to my parents.

The painting is slightly smaller than a sheet of A4 paper, and she got a very close image of the reality ( with the exception of the water - there wasnt that much in the creek, and the fences - they were originally post and rail, but by this time had been replaced with posts and wire.) The creek was actually a billabong which was nearly the full length of the property.

I must have been in my early/ mid teens when this was painted as can remember that she had 2 daughters, but girls were not a point of interest til a little while later - lol

Friday

Sorry folks, but mine will be late this week - need the old comp for part of it and it is currently buried under a dropsheet :-)

Nostalgic Saturday

Christmas holidays, early 1960's. My cousin David spent his holidays with us for a few years as his parents ran a milk bar- takeaway at Dee Why beach, and were fullon at this time of the year.We used to do a lot of things that kids did then - build billycarts, flying foxes, and the like.
Photo - me, cousin David with Ginger the cat, my sister.

Humour

Nostalgic Saturday

Just going back to the "Golf" theme of a couple of weeks ago - this is my (maternal) Grandfather doing one of the things he loved. This photo would have been taken late 30's to late 40's

I never knew my maternal grandparents, other than what my mother told me and my sister about them, but the memories of looking through the various photos, newspaper clippings (my grandfather was in charge of the Sydney Cricket Ground from late 20's till after WW11, and was mentioned in a lot of the articles that were on cricket tests etc at that venue) and other memorabilia from that time, which was kept in an old Gladstone bag with my mother remain.

Sadly, there are a lot of the old photos that we now have no way of putting names to the faces - which nurse out of a group of nurses was my grandmother ? or is it one of her sisters who is the family connection in that particular photo etc . a lot we know, but equally, there are a lot we dont as well

Friday Foto Challenge - Texture

Late again - had a camera (operator) malfunction on Thurs night, and had to go back after work Friday and try again. :-)

My Paternal Grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary (1964)

First pic ; Norman and Hilda (with A- youngest g/child{adopted})

Second pic;Uncle R, my father S, Aunt H, Uncle N, Hilda (Grandmother) Norman (Grandfather) , Uncle L. There was a natural daughter who died at age 3 - Aunt H was an adopted child.

Third pic; All the grandchildren (+a ring in - the girl standing between my grandparents was being fostered at the time, and was in the process of being adopted , but something happened and it never eventuated)

I do remember these times as one where you had to be dressed up ( including a tie - yuk), that there were certain formalities that were followed (starting with the Royal toast and Grace), and that you could do a function such as this on a limited budget with help from nieghbours. The only pic that was missed out on was all of the sons and daughters by marraige (ie my mother, my aunts and uncle who married into the family.

Nostalgic Saturday

This is a photo of my Uncle 'Paddy' and my cousins on holidays at Budgewoi on the central coast.
They used to come up from Wagga every year, and was the only time that we got to see them, us travelling to Wagga back then was just not practible. The car is a Standard 8, that he had owned from new - about this time, he was looking into upgrading, but when he was offered 10 pounds ($20) trade in - kept it and "drove it into the ground" for another 8 years or so.

He was an avid golfer and part of the reason for this trip was to participate in the country week of golf around the Sydney courses. I always remember him as a laconic, cigar smoking (it wasnt frowned on then!!) contact lens wearing ( glasses werent much good in the rain playing golf :) )
and competent person.

He was my Godfather and my mothers only brother, and these visits to the central coast meant that we got to go to the beach - which was a novelty back then other than to my grandparents.

Work - Stress and Tension

In my workplace , there is an ongoing problem with stress and tension.

The industry has a band of doctors who are specialists in resolving these issues, and for the smaller firms, there are doctors on call who are employed by one of the major suppliers of the specialist equipment that we use. they are located in areas across the state and might be responsible for an area covering 400 kilometres or more.

They are usually needed every 3 - 6 months, tho if things go wrong, may be neeed in a lot less time than that.

The specialised nature of their work, and the ease that a good one can achieve the desired results with, has led to a smattering of "wannabes" who can often achieve the results, but with a lot shorter durability - or some who simply are taking money under false pretences. Also, there is a couple of newer methods that are available, tho the results are dependent on the skill of the doctor, even with these, as we have found at work this week.

Pictures are
Top : The operating table(anvil), instruments (hammers -he has 6 more, some heavier - they have specially shaped faces to enable him to stretch or shrink the metal to get the right tension into the saw -if the tension is in the wrong place, or the tension is lost from overheating, then the saw will not "stand up" and it is nearly impossible to cut straight and true timber)
He uses a series of 'straight edges' to check the results and to do his diagnosis

Center; A cured patient, the marks are from the heavier blows to achieve the tension, there are a lot of lighter blows used to get the saw back to a flat surface

Bottom: The next patient -the ring marks are from the rolling method that was used when making the saw -these saws have only been used once as the tension was in the wrong area, and wouldnt "stand up"

Friday Foto Challenge - Nature

Magic Moments

My magic moments consist of time with the kids - limited to 2 days/ fortnight with 4 at the moment, and had very little with No 1 till the last week or so since the New year.
He offered and then came out to help with the cattle work ( but the kickers were 1he eats a lot- lol and 2 he wanted to introduce a mate to the blood and guts side of cattlework)
So here he is , knife in hand, doing what he is good at,and Im cursing flat batteries - cause i couldnt get any more pics - but hes a bit bigger than the cream covered urchin a few blogs back now :-) {Big J in orange shirt, his mate L watching}

Now I have to work for a fortnight to replenish the larder - lol

Nostalgic Saturday

This is a picture of my Grandfather and Mary, the lamb.It was taken about 3 months after my Grandmother died, and his next door neighbour gave him this lamb as a newborn orphan. He raised her on powdered milk, and she used to go everywhere with him, including shopping at Ettalong, so he always had people stopping and talking to him.

After a couple of years, she got too big for him to handle ( he was in his 70's ) so went to my uncle and aunt's place in Dora Creek, where she was popular around the neighbours as a cheap lawnmower.

Friday Foto Challenge - Manmade

Friday foto

Silly me forgot the bloody camera yesterday, so wont get a pic and post it till this evening (Cameras going in ute as soon as I finish this - lol)

Nostalgic Saturday

Footy Days - South Lakes Junior Rugby League (Under 10's) about 1964

This was a club that was based at Dora Creek (Central Coast, NSW) . We played in St George colours (the "V" is red ) so have usually tended to favour them as an NRL team to follow.

This is how we played, no boots (not everyone could afford them) and the only padding was 2 squares of foam that were in an internal pocket on each hip.

The coach is my Uncle L , Im second left back row, and my cousin G is 3rd right front row (with Bandaids on knee). He went on to play in the Newcastle league for a while and would have most likely played with or against "Joey" Johns when Joey was starting his career in footy.

My father was the coach of this team when we were Under 8's , and can remember the away games usually involved fitting most (if not all ) of the team into a 1937 Pontiac (no seatbelts those days - lol ) and away we would go.

Friday Foto Challenge - Taste

Cordon Bleu cooking - Batchelor style ?? lol

Nostalgic Saturday

"The cats got the cream??" - Nah -



This is No1 son (Big J) at about 15 mths after tipping 1/2 liter (about 1 pint) of cream over himself - jug on right was full before he managed to do this. He was not a happy chappy - think the cream was stinging his eyes - but we were all so busy laughing at him,its a wonder that these pics were even taken.



He was a bit of a bugger for this type of exploit, got pink primer in his hair on another memorable occassion, and had 2 goes at burning the house down - lol - but still, he is my firstborn and gave an indication of what was to come with the next 4 (and they have all followed his lead in one way or another)

Friday Foto Challenge - Number

The back paddock -seeing that that is the blog title bestowed .

Managed to get these pics out of sequence - lol -thi 1st pic is supposed to be last !


One in 100 year flood (they evacuated the local hospital!!)

Near back boundary
Back boundary (southern)

Back boundary (Eastern) -This stretch of the river is approx 300 mtrs wide (1oooft) and is considered by some skiers to be the best section of skiing water between Sydney and the Queensland border.

"The Jungle paddock" -Scrub in middle foreground is approx 15 acres -and 100 cows can hide in there

House etc in background is over the southern boundary

More of same - Dead tree is an old River Red Gum- and has at least 4 separate bee hives in it -

And another - All the country in the last 3 pics goes under in a major flood - tho that generally only lasts for 2 - 3 days , but have had repeated floods in the past

Nostalgic Saturday

This photo was taken in late Spring, 1954 of a crop of oats my father and a sharefarmer grew for chaff to use in the dairy that we had then. I cant actually remember the crop, but remember playing in the temporary storage that they used for the chaff in later years, and the hustle that was involved in chaffing and storing it. This crop was a bit remarkable in its height, Westy (the sharefarmer) was 6 foot 2 - and another photo taken on the same day shows the crop above his raised hand - far different to the crops nowadays that only grow to waist height. My parents closed the dairy down when I was 8, and went into beef cattle - a decision forced in part by the requirements of the dairy inspector to spend more money every visit -the last one that he wanted to see done would have cost more than a years income, and this was on top of a string of requirements that had already been fulfilled.

The girl in the photo is my sister (at nearly 3 yo) , the man is Westy, the baby is ...................................................................................................................................................... yes youve guessed it - its yours truly - Me :-)

Friday Foto Challenge - Angle

A bit about me

Hi Blogger viewers.

Since I have now been dragged (kicking and screaming - lol) into the world of blogging in the first part {and not just commenting on Random, MG's Musings or She dreams in colours blogs} here is a little about me.

"Down the back paddock" is Abbeys (very artistic) interpretation of me as a farmer/ grazier, which I am ( tho not always as good as I would like to be), but I am also the father of 5 (4 boys and 1 girl[tomboy who is supposed to be a lady :) ], ranging from 16 to 6.

I also work in a sawmill to get the money to survive from week to week, and also used to work as a mechanic and "goffer" with a trucking company.

I am a member of the Rural Fire Service, and was captain of the local brigade till the arrival of my last 2 children (twins) which event meant that there was not enough time for work, family and brigade - something had to go to a lesser priority, tho I always wonder if I made the right choices - the current situation seems to indicate otherwise at times :-).

Computerwise, it is all a big learning curve for me, there has been a computer here for about 8 years, but "you are doing it all wrong, let me do it "prevailled till about 18 mths ago when the (original) comp, the kids, and the missus changed address, and I had to start from scratch ( didnt help that the it bloke that could explain things to me in plain English died just after all the above events).

So I started looking around the web and ran into a very special person there, and from that (cyber ) meeting (and 2 computers later -lol) I have ended up here in Blogland (with a few more friends) - thanks Abbey

More flowers -(for Indigo Daisy)- Blue Ginger Lily

This is the rest of the photos I took for the friday foto (blue) -I'm not the greatest photographer in the world tho.(Disregard the date -I was running out of daylight and didnt reset it)

Had one of those --

-but the wheel fell off !!

That time of the year -rego fast approaching and some bushes had to be replaced, so am going to do the lot, as the extra cost was minimal and could see me having to do them next year anyway.

Bit hard getting back into a mechanical frame of mind, it seems to be a long time since I did any,though it is a hobby (and trade) of mine. Still, there have been other things to be done, so there hasnt been much time for hobbies through the day.

Nostalgic Saturday

This is a photo I took of my (paternal) Grandparents on the front steps of their house at Ettalong Beach. It was a place where all of the grandchildren had enjoyable times when there on holidays -it was a 1 block walk to the beach, and an easy walk along the beach to Ettalong. The beach was protected, being in Brisbane Waters, and was very safe for youngsters. We used to hire canoes (based on the American Indian type of canoe) for 6pence/ hour (5 cents) and have a glorious time, catch whitebait and just swim and enjoy ourselves as only children can.

The novice blogger

Since I have now been dragged kicking and screaming into the world of blogging by the lovely Abbey from 'Random', I had better let you all know that what you see is actually her creation - and a very nice creation she has produced for me.

I'm not as good at writing "in depth" types of things such as she or MG do - I dont have the gift of the gab (despite my 1/4 Irish origins lol) so there wont be much in he way of deep and meaningful posts here unless i steal them from somewhere else.

So with many thanks to Abbey, Ill finish this, my 1st post.

Original 'Mudmap'!