Lovin' Thee Adventures!

Well, after arriving just two and a half short weeks ago, Paul and Judy (Nana and Papa - Wade's Folks) left yesterday to make their way back to their Saskatchewan home. I hope they enjoyed their visit because we certainly enjoyed having them visit. With their awesome help, we certainly did manage to finish off a bit of that "to do" list too! (Thanks so much!!)

Look at that grass fly!! Go Zed Go!

During their stay we managed to get Wade's tool shed unpacked and on the road to being organized on shelves, we bought a lawn mower that Zed helped Papa assemble then use on both the front and back paddocks.  Even the neighbour kids enjoyed having a go with this mower; who knew a simple machine could rally together the neighbourhood children to doing their chores?
Anyway, we also got the garden plots dug up, weeded and YES, Judy retaught me how to plant a garden.We planted corn, onions, carrots, spinach, lettuce, cucumber, rockmelon (cantaloupe), peas and strawberries; potatoes and tomatoes will be added but at a later date as we don't have all that we need to do them just yet. I am very excited to announce that our family garden is seeded and we are eagerly expecting to see those first signs of success on it's way... I will surely keep you posted on how that is going as well.It was certainly a joint, or rather family, effort to prepare the garden as well all worked very hard. Besides Paul's and Wade's strong-arm tactics to overturn the rock hard garden, the kids, Paul and myself had to use strong back tactics to haul back several loads of garden bricks I had discovered a ways up in the bush. Someone and just dumped a fair lot way up yonder and being a... resourceful sort, I gathered up the troops, provided them carrying sacks (backpacks) and led them into the bush. We ventured across sections of sticky mud, through hip thigh high grass, over ponds, up hills and the pounding sun and back again. I admit that it may seem over the top just to have some bricks that were purely for esthetics reasons, but I'll tell you - my garden sure looks nice! And hey, we got to see some kangaroos hop across our path along the way....
In truth the whole lot of us have been seeing those animals, and several others on a more regular basis. I was beginning to get worried that Judy wouldn't have her chance to see them before she left because it seemed that every time we went out without her, the group of us would seem them up close and personal. It became my mission to have her at least see one closer than across a farmers field, even if she didn't capture it on camera. So one morning, a couple days before she was to be leaving, I drove her to the spot we'd seen the kangaroos just about every morning that I take the kids and the dog on their bike ride. We arrived and... you guessed it, no kangaroos sitting around. So we headed off in the direction we usually see them head off in, and wouldn't you know it, not only did we see a kangaroo but she sat their with her joey in her pouch as though she were posing for the cameras! YES!!! 

After a time she finally hopped off into the nearby brush and we turned around and headed in the other direction. Since we hadn't been out all that long we made our way down toward the other end of the path and there we saw three more kangaroos just through the trees.

 On the way back to the van, down another path we saw yet another group of three kangaroos lounging around under some trees.
It didn't stop their though, the next morning while we were having breakfast, Judy looked up and across the street there were two more kangaroos sitting in the horse fields eating their breakfast too. *smiles*
What a great way to end a trip! (I guess prayer really does work.)

He's sitting just under the log - pic by Judy

 
Besides kangaroos we also saw platypus when we ventured to the rainforest one weekend. We went on an short road trip and ventured into the Enguella rainforest where we saw platypus, turtles, water snakes,  different sorts of birds and some amazing trees.

We followed a path and enjoyed a walk through the trees after we had shared a picnic lunch we'd brought along.

It was a beautiful day because it wasn't overly hot and it was very foggy outside so there was a feeling of reverence and peacefulness there.


We did go other places and saw other animals over the last couple weeks, but that will have to be a later entry as the children are all awake now and breakfast needs to be served. Until next time...