Boys and Fire!

Lachlan had some mates around for a fire and a bbq to celebrate his birthday. Boys never change, they just love playing with fire. They had great fun putting 200 sparklers into a tin can with a wick and watching it flare up, then another 30 sparklers in a glass bottle practically disintegrated before their eyes much to their delight! Then they went through two bags of homebrand flour - it kept them occupied for about an hour- a total of $5 kept them thoroughly entertained. Amy joined in as well and had a great time- the only one that was scared was Benji- our big, ferocious wolfhound!

Clancy Takes on a Kangaroo - Guess Who Wins!

Clancy decided to take on a kangaroo that was injured and just hopping around, couldn't really escape. However he could still fight back and Clancy came off second best. After an overnight stay at the vets, some stiches, $700 he is confined to the house for 10 days and has to wear a collar around his neck to stop him from licking his stitches. He whinges every time Benji gets taken for his walk in the morning. However I still don't think he will have learnt his lesson! Amy and I were away in Sydney for the weekend and Lachlan was working, so Bill took Clancy out to bike racing, it was very cold so Bill put his blanket over him to keep him warm.

The Little Boy Turns 19!

Lachlan turned 19 on Saturday! He had an exam at 9:30am to celebrate his birthday - wasn't he lucky! He also has another one on Monday, so was not in the mood for too much celebrating, so we had Chinese takeaway and a black forest cake - which I must say was pretty yummy. He didn't want us to sing happy birthday but we did anyway. Hopefully he got enough lollies, chips and chocolates that he will not come out for the next week at least and say - 'have you got any food!'

My Winter Garden

For the first time this year I planted a winter garden and have been very pleased with our progress. We are currently picking beetroot and spinach and pak choi, and have broccoli, leeks and snow peas growing as well!

New Bike Finally Gets to Race!

I have had my new bike since the beginning of the year and apart from one or two criteriums in March it hasn't really had the chance to get out and do a road race. Yesterday I finally ran out of excuses and had to take it out for a race! The Vet's cycling winter season which is on Saturday afternoons starts in April - it is now June and I have only just managed to get out there. When you have had a break from racing the first few races you usually suffer as the only way to get your race fitness is race - so I have been putting of that 'getting back into it'. I have had some genuine excuses - like Amy has netball and netball umpiring on Saturday afternoons and now that Lachlan is working on Saturdays I have had to do the taxi run, but yesterday Bill was able to do that, the race was close to home so I had to try and come up with a few other excuses - like the weather was looking too windy, too cold. It seems on Saturdays I have multipile voices going on in my head! I even went out to check my bike at 11:30am and discovered I had a puncture - I started to walk back into the house and was going to pretend I hadn't seen it and then go out at 12:30pm when it would be too late to fix it and go "oh dear - I have a puncture - drats I cannot race!" However I talked myself out of that excuse, fixed the puncture and rode out to the race, hoping it would go flat and then I wouldn't have to race- it stayed up. Well I did race, I survived, I managed to stay with the main bunch up all the hills and was still there at the finish! Only problem was I had no legs to sprint at the end, but I was happy I had more that fulfilled my expectactions, so it shouldn't be as hard to race next time. Mm - better start thinking of my excuses for next week- ah yes - I have one- have to go to Sydney next weekend! But I actually did enjoy my day of racing believe it or not- I think the mind games are as exhausting as the racing.

Minus 3 Degrees! Very Cold!

Winter has arrived - we had our first serious frost of the winter season on Friday morning - it got down to minus 3. Everthing was covered in the white frost, windscreens were iced over, the dog water had frozen, but it did clear to a beautiful, sunny day which is very typical of Canberra winters. Behind glass it was lovely and warm and to see the sunshine and blue sky was wonderful. Only problem was I was out riding my bike at 5:30am in the cold before the sun came up!

Poor Clancy

Poor Clancy certainly puts up with a lot, Amy put a box on him the other day and had the poor dog walking around with a box on - told me that Clancy doesn't mind - I am sure if Clancy could speak he would say otherwise!

Just Finished Reading

I have just finished reading this book - When to Really Worry- Mental health problems in teenagers and what to do about them. It is written by Michael Carr-Gregg and is a very easy to read, informative book and I certainly got a lot out of it. When I read the last chapter of the book on Youth Suicide and read a letter that a 17 year old girl had left for her mother, I cried, I really cried, something that I rarely do when reading a book. I wept for the mother, for the girl, for the family. Later I felt so grateful that we had a GP that picked up on Amy's depression so quickly, and that we had the means to support her and pay for the help that we needed.

I was amazed to read that for many teenagers with mental health problems that it can take 5 to 15 years before it is picked up on and diagnosed and treatment begun and that the longer it takes to pick it up the more complex and involved the mental health issues become and harder to treat. So I am very grateful for the support that we have had over the last couple of years and what a tremendous job Amy has done in dealing with her depression and getting through the last few years!

Our Chooks

I was wondering what I could blog on this week - nothing too exciting has happened, the highlight of my Saturday was sweeping the back path of all the chook poo so decided I could blog on our chooks!

We have had chooks for about 8 years now and the only time I buy store eggs is at Easter each year when I hard boil and decorate eggs for our Easter egg rolling competition, as I cannot face the prospect of wasting those lovely free range eggs our chooks lay for us.

In the early years of chook ownership our chooks always had names, there was Chicken Nugget, Lindt, Cadbury, Jabba, Luke Skywalker, Peanut Butter, a wide selection of names, nowadays they are nameless but still much appreciated! Amy used to earn money selling the excess eggs, but we took that right off her when she got slacker and slacker at doing her jobs. She still helps out occasionally and helps with cleaning out the chook house and clipping their wings, but it is mainly Bill and I these days. They are not much work and it is a comforting sound to hear them clucking away.

Over the years we have had roosters and as a result baby chickens- it was wonderful to see the process of chooks sitting on eggs and baby chickens hatching - all very exciting. We were so worried the first time about looking after these baby chickens and how they would survive - fortunatley their mothers knew exactly what they were doing and we did not have to worry!

One of our chooks has looked very funny for a few weeks, at first we thought it had been pecked by the other chooks but we would never see it happening, we think it has just maulted in a very funny way this year, it is slowly growing back it's feathers but it did look quite weird for a while.

We love the fresh eggs and could never go back to cage eggs after seeing the difference in eggs. We love our chooks!