McGrory Farm

Hello all! Yes it's been a little while since the last post but a lot has been happening in that time! I'm currently on a farm near a place called Kenilworth which is a little bit inland from the coast, its run by Terry who is just ace and Stef and Barry live in two cabins on the property. They have so many different farm animals including sheep, goats (one is now called charlotte!), ponies, horses, cows, ducks, chickens and dogs! I've been learning so much its amazing and the animals like me quite a bit! I milk the cow Daisy twice a day now, got it down to a fine art and because she is a jersey the milk is just super and the cream you get off it is about an inch thick! Stef has been wonderful, teaching me a lot about farm life and animals...such a steep learning curve! It's very relaxed here as well, beer o'clock is about 5pm and its so perfect sitting outside chatting with a stubbie, god its a good life! Terrys two sons are great fun to, Daen lives on the next property over with probably the best view in the world, piece of heaven right there when you wake up! No big spiders yet but I do have frogs in the toilet!!!! Also I may bring a dog back with me...god he's just the best! Cattle dog breed and so smart, just knows how you are feeling and wants to learn! Here are the pictures and there will be more to come!!! (tried to upload but playing funny buggers so will try again soon!!!))

WWOOFing

Now for those of you who think I might be mad WWOOFing is Willing Workers on Organic Farms and basically means that you work for a few hours a day n exchange for food and accommodation!

At the moment I am on an ALPACA farm (Dandaloo Alpacas google it!) and wow I am loving farm life! I have hoovered up poo, literally with a big hoover...made chutney for the Cassies Country Kitchen company which is here as well...weeded...and chilled out!! Alpacas are gorgeous, I could definitely have a couple! Will post some pictures soon to! Next week I am going to a dairy farm where they actually butcher their own meat so I'm really looking forward to learning a new skill!

Oil Spill

Bloody stupid big tankers. You would think that in a cyclone you wouldn't go out but oh no...now 37 containers have been lost and the oil spill is hitting the sunshine coast. We went to check it out and the oil is so thick and sticky it just gets everywhere...disgusting....bearing in mind the beach in the pictures was clean a couple of days ago...

Cyclone Update

Don't know if you guys have seen any of the weather reports for Oz but theres a cyclone just a little bit north of us...bit scary!!! Wind is getting up quite high and watching the sea from the apartment is amazing, waves are getting pretty big!

Shouldn't hit where I am to badly but it coincides with the highest tide of the month so there could be a 2 metre storm surge...glad I'm up high!

Having a lovely time and will be lots more happening this week to to chat about!

Planning a little more now to...hopefully doing some WWOOFing (look it up :P) and maybe even getting some work on a boat to get me to the Whitsundays...anything to not fly up north!

Write soon x

Ruth and Davids Farm and other Adventures!

Well Wednesday although being a sad day because Kyel left it was also very cultural as myself and Ruth went to the Brisbane Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art, don't laugh everyone I will be a super cultured person when I get home! Some of the work was superb especially the exhibition showing contempory indidgenous art, so not your traditional dot paintings, very political...

The art theme continued on Thursday when Ruth took me to her life drawing class...first time I have every drawn a naked lady before! Was a brilliant night! Wine flowed freely and I met some amazing artists all with different styles and who actually complimented me on my work even though in my opinion it was shocking, since my models shoulder seemed to be near her stomach!

The pictures I'm posting are from Ruth and David's lovely farm. They only go down there a couple of times a week and sometimes stay there, they have converted this tin shed into a little cabin and its just brilliant! There is a macadamia nut tree which is what the bags of nuts are and there farm is 500 acres, and no thats not a typo...so it's pretty huge! They allow someone to graze cattle on the grass but most of it is forest with some of the most stunning trees I have seen, though apparently the ones I thought looked pretty were actually weeds! I spend most of the day in a hammock reading which is defnitely the best way to farm, and then Ruth took me round a little bit of the farm following cattle tracks and showing me where they planned to do certain things. I can't imagine having land that big, the maintinance is just enormous but it's so quiet there I could easily live there! We had dinner there and then were visited by Hamish the tree frog who just clung to Ruths finger and was super cute! No spiders or snakes thank GOD!

Today was Saturday and Ruth and David have enrolled on a forestry course which I went along to. Basically you learn how to manage the trees on your property, what to do with them etc etc and you go round on field trips to the "classmates" farms. Lovely group of people all with very interesting lives. I learnt how to plant tree seeds and how to measure the volume of a tree so when you cut it for timber you can get the price for the volume of wood and other things to. Some trees are worth more than $800 dollars each and they are just huge! One guy called Dean knew everything about seeds, had long hair and beard and walked bare foot even through gravel and long grass! Most of the people had such a diverse farm so doing cattle and fruit or plantation trees...super interesting and even got a contact out of it for some possible work!

Hope you like the pics and will post sometime next week...

Sunshine Coast!

Sorry it's been a while, been difficult getting to computers and finding the time to upload, I have been very "snappy happy" at the moment. Since the last poast we have worked our way from the Gold Coast up to the Sunshine Coast, I definitely prefer it up here as its a lot less commercial and the beaches are just amazing!

Before we got here we stayed just outside Brisbane at Manly in possibly the worst hostel yet, its the picture with the random painting of Beethoven on the wall...not very clean and the oddest thing was seeing a double bed amoung all of the bunk beds...bit weird! Manly was really nice, very much a harbour town.

The house and pictures of the garden are of my Auntie Lynne and Uncle Ricks place near Mooloolaba, completely stunning. They own a lychee farm which has about 2000 trees and it's out of this world, you don't get lychee like theirs in the UK! They were great at taking us places to, the aquarium pictures are from underwater world which has a brilliant selection of fish, a seal show and an underwater tunnel. The next day we went to a massive market which had loads of local food and crafts as well as lots of imported stuff and it was heaving! I went to the beach with my cousin Erin on Friday morning before she left, great surf and got knocked around quite a bit.

On Saturday they took us to Australia Zoo which you have all probably heard of! The tortoise Kyel is sat on isnt really real so don't worry :P We watched the main croc show which also had birds and snakes in it as well. Got a chance to see the tiger show as well where they play with the tigers as they are hand reared from cubs. They were so playful and was brilliant to watch them swimming! Another highlight was touching the Koala though we didn't get to hold him which was a shame! They kinda felt like wooly sheep, and didn't really do much until Kyel went to stroke it and then it got an itch!

Now we are right on the coast at a place called Point Cartwright, we have the sea on one side and the harbour on the other, it's perfect and as you can see stunning views...sitting outside for breakfast is going to be the best!

Unfortunately Kyel will be coming home this week so from now on it will just be me on the trip, just keep reading got loads more to come!