If you would like your book to be signed, then please email me with your name and address and I will send you a signed bookplate to stick inside your book.
Make sure to include whom you would like it made out, too. Then after a week (or more….mail is slow from the bush) is should arrive. You can find my email address on the right side of the website.
By Lorna Madson
It started to rain on the 9th of March,
Far too early for the season to break,
It rained all day and all that night,
It rained for the rest of that week.
The creeks all came up and flooded the paddocks,
The dams burst their banks and let go,
Hundreds of sheep were swept away,
Too strong was the water’s flow.
We surrounded the house with sandbags and such,
As the water cam threateningly close,
We were always worse off, when it rained like this,
For our house was much lower than most.
All our sheep were mixed up with the neighbour’s,
For the fences had finally let go,
All that money we’d spent on super,
And now we had nothing to show.
All the main roads were completely awash,
And a lot of old trees just gave way,
As the rain slowly eased off during the night,
Dawn brought with it a brand new day.
The sheep were all starving and had to be fed,
To get on paddocks would be quite a problem,
For apart from the water, there were tangled up fences,
We’d take them to high ground and just mob them.
The fence posts and wire were strewn out for miles,
Most of it no good fro re-use,
Even the rain gauge had floated away,
It could no longer handle the abuse.
The stubble and straw that was gathered on trees,
Would soon start to mould and go rotten,
The picking of stumps on the new land block,
Would for a while at least be forgotten.
There was weeks of fencing that lay ahead,
And sheep to be drafted and fed,
The mopping up would take many hours,
And the whole thought, was one of dread.
A flood is sand and it leaves its scar’s,
For many months after it’s passed,
But this hasn’t been the first one,
And I doubt it’ll be the last.
Yay, it’s seeding time again. Where the mornings are crisp and the freshly turned earth smells amazing.
I had a call from a local farmer saying he was about to rip up the back paddock behind our house, why? Because my hubby likes to hit his golf balls out there and it was full of them and he didn’t want to bury them all (Such thoughtful folk out here!)
Being a good wife, I went out and began to collect them up as the farmer begun his first lap! It was hard going as the paddock had just been sprayed and the little white blobs of foam marker looked like white golf balls. So as I’m walking around like a fella who’s had too much scotch, collecting up balls with the pickup doovalackie, I waved to the passing farmer in his tractor who I’m sure was laughing.
My goodness were there some balls to collect….the farmer had finished his lap before I had them all picked up!!! Surely I gained some brownie points with the husband for that!
Anyway, as I left the paddock on this cool overcast day, with my full bag of balls, I paused over the turned dirt and breathed deeply. I even sat down and played with the dirt like one of my kids. Freshly turned dirt is one of my top smells along with rain, wildflowers and eucalyptus in the air, fresh baked bread, babies…..etc etc.
If you ever get out into the country, go and kick up some soil a day after it’s rained – when it’s still moist- and see what you think of the scent.
Here is book two. Still unnamed, but I’ve been calling it Clean Cut for want of a better name. I have just finished putting all these changes onto the computer! Easier said than done. But it’s a huge weight off my mind now its done. I then had a house cleaning frenzy…believe me it was well overdue!!
I went off to Lake Grace on Friday to do a talk for the Volunteers at the Visitors Centre. Beautiful spot there, if you’re ever in Lake Grace you must drop in and have a look around! Next week I will be off to Newdegate to catch up with the local bookclubs at the library for a chat. Not looking forward to the night time driving along the back gravel roads, will have to take the ute and watch for roo’s.
Next on my list of things to do is collect pictures on shearing for the website and start making the book trailer! (Hopefully we will pick a name for the book soon lol)
We had our annual Mothers Day at our local golf club last week to help raise money for our babysitter. It was a brilliant day with 70 people who came to enjoy a three course meal, stalls, free entertainment by the Hyden Choir and lots of door prizes and raffles.
It was a big day and wouldn’t have been possible without the hard working members of the club (there are only about six of us – less who actually play golf) and the other special people who came and helped even though they don’t have anything to do with the club. Lets just say one lady made all the chocalate cakes and sticky dates for the dessert…and what fab desserts they were! Where else could you go for $25 a head…yes just $25 for a three course meal, punch and entertainment etc. On top of this we all made extra cakes, slices and goodies for our cake stall. (which is always a big hit with seeding around the corner) We raised the much needed funds to keep our little golf club going and from all reports everyone loved the day.
Well done ladies, and I hope you all enjoyed your Mothers Day!
I got lots of little hand made gifts from my darling kids, who had to wake me up at 6.30 so I could open my pressies. Then my daughter said she’d make me a cuppa and my son came running in, saying he’d make my breakfast and he was shaking a box of Cornflakes (I was hoping for pancakes!) They are so sweet!
Monday was such a glorious day and I had finished the second draft on the book so it was time to spend some quality time with my family. My hubby and I packed a picnic and headed up the rock with the kids. We lay back like lizards soaking up the warm sun whilst the kids climbed all over the rock and through the holes. We ate our lunch in the cave, which was nice and cool.
You can see the town of Pingaring, with the three white bins and our number three and seven fairways of the golf club. We couldn’t have asked for a better day to enjoy together, and the kids wore themselves out – bonus! We also threw some nets in for a feed of gilgies but they were all too small.
Not that the kids cared, they were too busy running through the bush following all the little track the sheep had made.
A perfect day.
