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'!