Iam fat. Iam humungous. I am obese. This baby is going to be big! 

Hmmm, what a difference 30mls maketh. 

Joey at the fence. "I see fields of green..." 

Evan and Joey... "Nope, I dont want that paste stuff... you can shove it up your own mouth..." 

Part of the de-sensitizing process with Caramel has been getting her used to the things that have frightened her... the lead, the halter, the clips... she has certainly come a long, long way. 

Caramel after being worked this morning... very slowly she is coming together 

HERE IAM!!

BOO!

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce the newest resident to Massie Lodge, Nanna's colt (who I call Billy). He is the sweetest, gentlest young man and I can now say is suckling well off mama.

While Nanna was overdue, he came out a few days too early and Nanna wasnt ready for him, hence the problem with the early milk supply.

Many thanks must go to Lyndhurst and Jeff Kruger who helped us out with an emergency supply of Colostrum to get him over the initial hump. It seems though, Nanna's supply has come down and the young man can't get enough!!

Both Evan and I are very taken with the youngster and he has certainly become the apply of Evan's eye. We are still wondering about the Chestnut with the baldy face appearance, however, Nanna's sire, Luskin Star was a chestnut with a white star. Perhaps that is where he has thrown to? Lets hope has some of the ability of his Grandaddy. On Billy's dad side, you have Canadian Silver, by Geiger Counter out of Cheerily. Speed, speed and more speed. We are just happy that he is healthy and is very bright.

What a way to welcome the youngster to Massie Lodge with 30mls of rain. Mind you, its not a complaint! The whole property has turned from Brown to lush Green in a matter of days. The way this land rejuvenates is amazing. In fact, the whole of Warwick has turned green. A really great site and hopefully there will be more of that wet stuff today as it is very humid and sticky today with flies aplenty!

Hopefully today sees some R&R with it being Cox Plate day (go the girl!), so after a quick Martha Stewart display this morning, it has been taking some time out to watch the Melbourne races - no not on TVN (hah!), but on Channel 7 who have a broadcast till 5 this afternoon.

Sue Black and girls are down for a quick stay at Massie Lodge overnight so, we will have a few drinkies (and a few more?) and some nibblees to relax with.

*Sigh* You know, I did have a few issues to raise today with you... (yes, another SOD of the week!), but, quite frankly, I'm too mellow to get agro, if you know what I mean. Iam relieved that Nanna and her boy are both doing well after a bit of a rocky start. Now, we just have to wait for the President of Broodmares Inc. to have hers.... whenever that might be!!

Oh, before I go, I do have a quicky for you..... which transport company is now charging an extra $15 per trip as a fuel levy???? Booo His Booo

LOL

Helen.

P.S. Yes, more photos to follow!

Miss Caramel. 

Sweet Air, President of Broodmares Inc. 

Maddie and Mad Maxie 

Me and my mum - can you see the resemblance? 

Um, I seem to have these huge legs... that Iam still coming to terms with... but Iam really cute though! 

Its me!!! Son of Canadian Silver and Grandson of Luskin Star. But you can call me Billy. 

A Mate For Max..

4.30am Tuesday Morning - 20th October, 2005.

Nanna "Splendid Feeling" decided to give birth to a very lanky Chestnut Colt, 3.5 white socks and a big white star on his forehead.

Hang on a minute, a grey mare and a grey stallion = a Chestnut Colt?

Both mum and son are doing well.. watch this space for some photos!

Helen.

Today

I was sitting on a very comfortable lounge chair, under the shade of a pergola. The spray from the ocean was occasionally sprinkling on my face and I could hear the roar of the waves in the distance. Beside me I had a very appealing Strawberry Daiquiri in a very odd shaped glass, with a Cointreu soaked Strawberry arranged on the rim. It wasnt too hot and there would be just enough shade to allow my pale features to be covered. I had the latest Patricia Cornwell novel drapped over my body, opened at the second page and I was dozing to some nice background music until ....

Matilda jumped on the bed and licked me on the face. AArgh!

*sigh* I could of been anywhere ... in fact I dont care where I was... it was heaven!

I quickly pushed Matilda off the bed and tried to close my eyes and tried to drift back to where ever I was...

Evan's mobile rang. Maybe it belonged to the drinks waiter? No?

Evan's mobile continued to ring.... ok, ok .. I get the hint. I was not supposed to have a quiet day today.

I rushed to find the phone, answered it.... "I want to buy a horse that will run in Group 1's in Spring Carnival time in Melbourne. I have $2,000". He exclaimed.

"A-huh" I say... and continue on with the best pre-caffeine spiel that I can manage half asleep about what sort of quality horse you are going to buy for $2,000.

"... I want to send this horse to Hong Kong too........"

"A-huh" I manage to get out again...

It's funny, you can tell people something until you are absolutely blue in the face, but they will not hear what you are saying. This bloke was not going to listen because he had an idea and no one else could tell him any different.

"How about I get Evan to give you a call back... he's just down with the horses??"

"Do you think he might have something on his books?" he asked

"Um, possibly." Was all that I could manage.

And the day pretty much went on from that...

Bass Statements, feeding horses, mucking out stables, checking waters, trying to give obstreperous 2 & 4 year olds worming pastes... not to mention the canine activites... washing beds etc. and clipping Miss Millie. Oh, and dont forget cleaning out bird cages!!

I think Iam going to have an early night tonight... hopefully I have a reservation at my favourite dream resort. Do you think I should order ahead for my drink?

Helen

P.S. I received a very charming email from Nigel, my contact at Ergon Energy today. Apparently yesterday was "another" weather episode... and he hopes that Warwick will get over them soon.

AAArgh - Give me a break!

BOG City...

This is the scene in Rosie's Paddock... mud everywhere... it doesnt matter what colour the horses are, they are all mud brown. Not that we are complaining at all, its just that there is alot of it around at the moment!

In fact its most unusual to have to worry about mud at this time of the year... Nanna thinks its wonderful... as she thinks that there is nothing like a mud bath when you are 16 days overdue delivering a baby...

No, we are very grateful for the rain that we have received, with the hope of some more... (this is where you cross your fingers, ok?). It hasnt actually been dam filling stuff, but it has already started turning the paddocks green. The rate of recovery of the paddocks still amazes me.

What also amazes me is the efficiency that Ergon Energy continues to deliver our electricity!

That statement was delivered covered in sarcasm, oozing in contempt and sprinkled with malice!

Without going back further than last Wednesday, we have been off the grid for at least a good 9-10 hours. Last Thursday being the biggest when we were off the grid for 6 hours (I missed al my favourite TV Shows... it was a real disaster at Massie Lodge that night!!). Today we had a surprise outage and were off the grid for over an hour at midday. Sunday am the power had also been off because the alarm clock light was flashing. I have been very fortunate in finding a customer service contact at Ergon Energy (not so lucky for him!) in Warwick and I email him quaint little emails when the power goes off! He in turn sends me long wordy emails giving me the full history of the outage and what they had to do to get us up back up on the grid.

God help us when we are in the middle of summer.... AAArgh! It is a real problem here when the power goes out... no running water (there is no electricity for the pumps to run), the toilet wont work (heaven forbid if either of us have a dire emergency in that department!), cant wash our hands, cant get water to the horses, not even mentioning the fact that the bar fridge goes off and Evan's beer becomes tepid ale. I also need to mention that Iam unable to post on my blog. AAAAArgh!!!

Surely in this day of ever evolving technology, Ergon Energy can keep an essential item like Electricity up and running to the rural properties of South East Queensland?

Obviously not. (Oh of course, they need to have planned outages and will forget to tell you about it. OR, they will hand the notices over to our other favourite Government Agency, Australia Post, and they will forget to give them out to the ratepayers!!!).

Sorry, but its bloody annoying. Actually Im not sorry at all... there are real issues here that need to be dealt with at a State Government level, however, Iam sure that they will continue to deal with this issue with the high priority that it deserves...

Yeah right.

It sort of reminds me of the TVN / Sky Racing debacle. Each Government Department from each state involved has basically said, "Sorry, its not us... why dont you try....??" We have had full support from our local member on this issue.

Sorry, thats a blatent lie. He told us to get Satellite Broadband and then there wouldnt be a problem.

I throw my hands up in the air in complete disgust at these people.

(Deep Breath).... How they (meaning, EE and the Politicians) seem to get away with this ongoing lack of performance astounds me.

Must be time for a Cognac.

Helen.

(hic)

"Can you scratch me a little lower please....... awww luuverly" 

Evan with Caramel... she is certainly growing up and responding to work. 

Mad Max and his mum Maddie. Straight after I took this photo, he bolted away from mum, bucked, reared and had him self a gay-ole-time. Mother Maddie not impressed! 

Joey in the middle of the mud, having a drink