Epiphany

At 2am this morning I put 2 & 2 together. Skye is not an impatient night owl...she has lactose overload due to my Jersy Cow breasts.  I simply produce way too much milk so she never gets to the proper fatty stuff at the end of the feed - she's just loading up on sugary lactose. Bugger...it's taken me two weeks to figure it out, I hope I can fix this problem. The good thing is at least I understand the problem now and I don't resent the hours of sleep I'm losing.

A rhino beetle...

...inside a frog. This is also the reason we don't bother spraying cockroaches.

Sorry I keep mucking around with the blog layout but I don't have the time to make one from scratch so I'm trying one at a time until I find something satisfactory.

Home schooling is GO

I can't see the point in sending Kirk to school this year because he's just too young to cope with 5 days a week. So we will spend this year participating in the School of Life :-)   I understand the government has changed prep. in order to bring Qld into line with the other states' 13 years of schooling but 30% of boys are failing to reach the grade 2 benchmarks so why set him up for failure? I fear the early age of enrolment has more to do with babysitting and getting mums into "gainful employment" than lifting standards. Anyone interested?

Little Fatty: Skye, has put on a kilo and grown 2cm since birth. She is now capable of wiggling her way around the bed, rolling front to back and has a good degree of head control.  She is a night owl with an impatient  personality. Hopefully that will change.

Swim School: Kirk had a great time and is starting to swim the length of the pool (approx 12m). He has a lot of confidence but swimming club is a long way off yet.

NAPLAN: Finally I'm close to finishing the NAPLAN math preparation materials for the teachers who will instruct this year (YAY for Jo &  Barb!)  I spent terms 3 & 4 last year teaching students how to do better in their national exam. Why are we spending money on teaching kids how to score well in an exam? Because our funding is linked to it. Qld came 7th of the states and although the authorities say they make allowance for Qld students being a year younger and with a year less schooling there is little evidence of this and they are not forthcoming on exactly how they do this. My best wishes to Jo and Barb as they try to bring our year 8s up to scratch.

Good things happen

YAY!!!  We've been accepted as campground hosts for Lady Musgrave Island in November. We camped there in 2008 and enjoyed it so much we wanted to become regulars.  The job is basically about keeping things clean and safe. The benefit is being able to go there in the high season when the turtles are mating and laying and possibly being able to take part in the various studies on seabirds and turtles.

She has the body of a god...Buddah.

HISSS HISSS HISSSS

Tonight we have about 30 rhino beetles on the verandah  hissing, fighting, scrabbling and looking disoriented...and 5 very satisfied treefrogs :-) 
I really like rhino beetles - I can chase Kirk around the house with them.

Avarice

Oh Lord won't you buy me a Scandinavian Cruiser,
My friends all have tinnies, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, WITH help from my friends,
So Lord, won't you buy me a Scandinavian Cruiser ?




Groan..it is so suave and sexy.
I can FEEL what sailing it would be like.
It's like an Etchel without the burden of a crew.
But narrow channels, reefs and rocky beaches make this yacht unsuitable for Bundy.
So I'll just keep dreaming.

Sustainabundy meet

There were almost as many Gin Gin people at the Sustainabundy meet as there were Bundy people and it appears we are primarily interested in Transition Culture. Where to start?!

This little piggy...

...guzzles like a billionaire's motor yacht. At 3 weeks her belly is growing quite fat and already she can worm her way across the bed towards dinner.

Tim Hay arrived yesterday with 100 bales of mulch to plant the 1000 trees. Now I need fencing and gates to exclude the cows who would greatly enjoy an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Swim school starts tomorrow so Kirk will be delighted.

Land For Wildlife

Rachel from the Burnett Mary Regional Group arrived today to perform the Land for Wildlife assessment. We intend to revegetate and lock away the whole creek and dam area. Once it is established I hope to encourage my neighbours to do the same and thus on down the creek until the whole creek is a wildlife corridor.  Ahhh...idealism is such a luxury.

Like mother like son?

My mum was amused by Kirk trying to keep the dummy in Skye's mouth to prevent her crying because I did the same thing. The first picture is me pulling Michelle's dummy out just to hear her cry. The second is stuffing the dummy back in her mouth for obvious reasons. What fun! I'm not sure if Mum agreed.

Today Skye had her first check up at the Gin Gin hospital. She was born 2.650kg, on leaving the hospital she weighed 2.425kg and today she is 2.888kg. That's almost a couple of steaks. Mmm...maybe I DID score as least one thing in genetic roulette.

Weather-wise, the dams have never been so full which in one way is great. In another it means there is no vegetation slowing and soaking up the run off.