The Old Homestead

Hi,

Just as a blast from the past, thought I would put some pictures up of the old house. This is the view from the backyard. When we bought the land this whole thing was covered with long grass and bull rushes. Jase, my husband spent many weekends, for many years "reclaiming" the land. We had a lot of fun discovering it.

I spent many hours for the next 7 years mowing this. The most fun was when doing it sideways (across the slope). The rule was, if the engine stops (deadman switch), dial 000 first, then come see if I'm okay. Seriously, it was a lot of fun to mow on the ride on (and I like the thrill of nearly rolling). The block extended to a flat part (where I am standing), where we had lots of kids parties.

The set up for the "farewell" party (35 friends over for a final goodbye).

This is the view from the front yard. Yes, it was very dry, we had water restrictions, but that didn't matter. We used bath water to water the roses (on wire attached to poles holding up the house), other than that we didn't water anything. Lazy, not water concience. The best thing about this house is that from the front it looked like an unassuming house. I loved it because it was very private (we built it when Jason had been doing nightshift for a year (and he did it for another 3 years)).

Occassionally, when swimming in the pool, we would have a little visitor. They may look cute, but they eat your garden when you aren't looking (my vegie patch looked like a prison, not to keep things in, but to keep kangaroos out).

This shows the backyard pool, but not it's 45 m of retaining wall that we built ourselves (see below). By that I mean, Jason built it, but the kids and I did most of the dirt that when in behind it (40 cubic meters) and we did the concrete for inside the besar blocks ourselves (Baby asleep, 2 year old helping Daddy make the concrete, me placing it carefully in the blocks, 5 year old taking out the air and smoothing it out.

Yes, this photo is pre pool fence (we had a temporary one for 2 years).

The lounge room (well you can see some of the lounge room). Looks neater than I remember.

The old kitchen. I loved this kitchen. For the 9 years we lived in this house, I don't think the kitchen ever looked this clean. I think this is the photo the real estate people took when selling the house.

Bears room.

This was the mural I painted on my sons wall. He was sick one day and I had a meeting on (as usual), so I drove him to work with me and had the meeting. On the way there, there had been an accident and the westpac helicopter (ambulance) was on the road, along with an ambulance, police car and firetruck. I happened to have my camera anyway (why? it must have been left in car, I'm not that organised) - so I took a photo of each. When I got to work, I went to my meeting, but had to go out into the pit (I'm a mining engineer - that's what we do). So he was strapped in a car seat in the back and off we went. He wasn't allowed out of the car (very large trucks travelling 60km/hr carrying 80 cubic meters (about 160 tonne) do not brake quickly. So he looked out the window at the all the trucks and dozers and thought it was fantastic.

I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I do believe I can do anything (super mum? - not). So when I got home I sketched up a penciled drawing of what we had seen, including a few of his toys (the red and white plane, the blue and white bus). After a few weeks of doing an hour a day, I was finished (well enough anyway). I should have done shading, I should have done a lot more effort - but I got to that place where he was thrilled, and lets face it - if we were still there I would have had to paint over it by now with a lego city (or used another wall I guess). Anyway - he loved it. Enough energy was put in to not annoy me, but not too much as to take away from really important tasks (like folding washing).

Last photo, the old 'us'. Don't I look stressed. Don't my husband and son look like they are bursting with excitement. This is at the airport. Happy husband and son were about to get on a plane to go to the 2006 world cup (soccer, football, whatever) in Germany. They had 2 1/2 weeks of beer (for my husband) and sightseeing and soccer (not sure what the order was). Except for the first 4 days when there was no contact (his phone ran out of batteries, he didn't have a recharger......., he kept trying to withdraw too much money from the bank and was denied, therefore no money (just enough for our son to eat)....you know, good excuses). From when he left on Sat, the first I heard from him was on the radio (yes the radio), the Newcastle radio station had him as there roving reporter. Australia had just won (Tuesday morning).

Anyway, it's my second post. I am still trying to work out what to call the kids. The youngest childrens nicknames from their dad are Bear (son) and Munchkin (baby girl - who's 5 now) which suits them down to the ground. My oldest daughter's nickname is sweetie, but she is so not sweet, she is a tomboy, soccer playing, rough but georgeous girl, so until I come up with a name I will call her C. So, does that sound fair - C, Bear and Munchkin. What do you think?