A voting we will go...

Big steps and little steps

Today the local council elections were held, so the village was on the move attending the voting booths in the local Primary school.  In Australia, all voting is compulsory - not voting attracts a $55 fine.
So it is a good excuse for the school's Parents association to sell cakes and have a sausage sizzle, the local village association to sell raffle tickets and for everyone else to go for a walk and meet some of the neighbours.
The sun was shining brightly, but the cold wind dropped the temperature significantly.  Therefore I announced that we were going to walk to the school.  "Get your jackets and hats, we're going for a walk!" I announced and the children scrambled.  Lana rolled her eyes and then shrugged her shoulders, "Why not?" and off we went.
Lana cleverly brought her insulated mug so she could get a hot chocolate from the shop on the way.
Our local elections determine the councillors who are in charge of local services such as maintaining the roadsides, impeding development, waste collection, interfering in local business and so on.  The State government controls schools, police and hospitals.  So the local elections have a direct impact on just living in the area in which you live.
Our local council is famous for having a "development" policy which advocated less development.  This is classic "newspeak" where you call something one thing and then do the complete opposite.  Such as a business committee which makes more red tape to stop business, "Fair Work" Australia which is unfairly run by unions, and the local "Greens" representative who wants to cut down tress he doesn't like.
The general view is that if the ballots had an option "None of the above" that would be the sure-fire winner.
Our ballots are paper based and the system has reasonable checks and balances to ensure fair voting.  We present ourselves to the registration desk and get our names marked off and are given ballot papers to complete.  We then mark down our 1st preference, and then 2nd and so on up to 9 preferences.  When the votes are counted, if my 1st choice doesn't win, then my 2nd choice is counted, and so on, until a candidate gets over 50% of the vote.
It all works reasonably well and gives the local communities a chance to get out and meet their neighbours.

Some days are better than others

Poor Martin.
He was playing on a wheeled office chair and Zach was playing on the back of the chair.  Then it fell with Martin hitting the back of his head and his eye.
This lovely lump developing a deep colourful hue, is on top of the minor illness he has that has been passing through the rest of the family.
Hospital Bruggie is once more back in business for the duration of the action.

Easter Eggs are to hunt

Mine? Eat Egg?

Even Princesses get Easter Eggs.

After we escaped from the shop on Easter Sunday, the men of the household had an important mission.  We were to hide the Chocolate Easter Eggs.  More importantly, we had to remember where they were hidden so no-one missed out.
Everyone involved has 3 eggs on which their name was attached.  All eggs were hidden in the back yard or around the deck.  Only the children get to search, but they can only pick up their own or an adult's eggs.  This year the 3 eggs per person meant hiding 51 eggs.  The difficulty varied depending on the children's ages, but we have found over the years what we thought were easy places when we were placing the eggs sometimes ended up being the last places to be discovered.
Having 3 eggs each allows us to do an audit as the hunt progresses to make sure none are lost.  It also means we don't have a greedy rush and unequal eggs per person.
One year we found a missing egg months later that had been hidden in the roof trusses of our house that had been recently delivered.  When Lana's Dad and brother went to lift the tresses into place, an egg rolled to the ground as a bonus for their fine efforts.
See the costume Clare is wearing? My Mum made this and Clare just couldn't wait to wear it on such a fine day.
Zach has discovered Easter Eggs are pretty yummy and we have had to put them all out of reach as he tries to sneak away with eggs and eat them out of sight.

I love a good Good Friday

Carrying the cross

Every year on Good Friday the local monastery hosts a passion play.  Many actors are involved playing each of the parts from Jesus and the apostles, Pontius Pilate and Caiphas, down to all the Roman and Jewish guards, weeping women and members of the Sanhedrin.  As the weather was so marvellous there were thousands of people from Sydney, Canberra and all points in between.
James was one the apostles and Ariel and Clare were weeping women.  James likes being an apostle as all an apostle other than Peter has to do is eat (at the Last Supper), sleep (in the Garden of Gethsemene and run away (after Jesus is arrested).

Bulk Holy Water

Ariel and Clare started at Palm Sunday waving palms and praising the entry of Jesus, and then were part of the crowd in various scenes. They were also spoken to by Jesus during the Carrying of the Cross when they did their "wailing" thing and finally gathered around the cross during the Crucifixion. You can see from the first photo that Jesus was well costumed.  The "Blood" mixture was a combination of jam, wine and honey which provided just the right texture and consistency.  When a drip ran into Jesus's mouth he was heard to mumble, "That tastes all right."
Our traditional Good Friday involves closing the shop (Yay! A Day off!) and attending the Passion Play followed by the Veneration of the Cross service at 3:00pm.  When we return home, we have some home made Hot Cross buns to break our fast for the day.
Saturday is always an odd, in-between kind of day as we wait for the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday evening.  This Mass goes for around 2.5 hours which sounds like a long time, but so much is happening in the Mass to leave reminders with all your senses that when Mass is over and you check your watch you are surprised.  Mass starts with a procession into the Church carrying candles that have been lit from the specially blessed Paschal candle, lighting a darkened Church with our many small candles.  We hear 7 readings from the old testament, 7 readings from the Psalms, a reading from the New testament and a Gospel reading.  There is even more, but this is the premier Mass for the year.  You should go and be part of it.

Puddles are to jump in

Should I or shouldn't I?

Since the end of the ten year drought we have been blessed with rain.  A lot of rain!
The water tanks catch all the rain from our roof, but as the tanks have been full for so long, the water just goes straight through the tank and out of the overflow. Here is an example of what excess rain is like back from 2006.
But rain eventually stops so we all went for a walk to relieve the cabin fever. Before we travelled 100 metres Zach's boots were already full of water making that lovely squelching sound.
Squelch!  Squelch! Squelch!
"Zach, are you having fun?" I asked, to get a huge grin as he spied another puddle to traverse.
Some way further along we came to the puddle pictured. The photo is worth clicking to get a close up and see Zach's expression as he contemplates a puddle that is so huge.  Notice the toy car in his hand.  This never dropped even during all his running around and puddle playing.
When I printed out the photo for our photo wall I had a quick heart flutter as I thought the photo was all smeared.  Then I realised I had the photo upside down and the smeared part was only the reflection in the puddle!

No Lights, No Problem

Romantic dinner for two

Yesterday we had heavy winds, naturally followed by a power blackout at around 1:30pm. Immediately Ariel and the crew at the shop followed our "Blackout Action Plan".
1. Plug in the old un-powered phone. Now we can field calls from customers.
2. Get out the manual sales book and record sales so we can input them into the system later.
3. Get the generator from home and connect it to the main milk fridge and public freezers and computer.
4. Put a pot on the stove and fill with water so we can provide tea and instant coffee, and
5. Light the open fire to get a fully romantic experience.
As the majority of our cooking is gas we could still run the restaurant. The Energy company confidently told us they would get power back by 4:00pm. We found this impressive considering they had not yet discovered the location of the actual fault. This estimate then moved to 5:00pm, 6:30pm and eventually 10:00pm.
Friday night is our restaurant night at the shop and a little power failure wasn't going to stop us or our regular customers. We had candles romantically set up on all the tables, buckets of water in each bathroom for toilet flushing and washing of hands, camping lights in the kitchen and we were in business.  There were a lot of take-away (eat out) orders from customers who only had electric cooking facilities or as one explained it, "I had the meat but it was frozen and we normally use the microwave to thaw it out.  So I told my husband it was either macaroni and cheese or burgers from the shop.  It was not a difficult decision."

Girls making dolls

The Girls and their dolls

Clare and Rose have been insisting I take a photo of the dolls they entered in the show, so they can start playing with them.  About 2 months ago the girls discovered a sewing book in the mobile library which visits our village every fortnight. So naturally they wanted to start making ALL the projects contained in this book of treasures.
Clare completed a knitted bag, a knitted cat, a few other things and the ultimate project - her own doll!
The outline of the dolls were traced onto quilters muslin/calico. Clare hand sewed hers, and Rose started by hand sewing about a leg and a half and reckoned it "was too hard" so used the sewing machine to finish it off under Lana's guidance.
Grandma helped the girls stuff the dolls using her experience making teddy bears.  The eyes, mouth and hair were sewed using back stitch and running stitch.  Rose used felt for the hair.  Buttons were used for ear-rings. Grandma supplied ribbons and Clare hand sewed, while Rose machine sewed the dress and top.
Clare entered her doll "Lady Daisy Chain" in Hand Sewn Article for children 10 and under.  Rose entered her doll "Daisy" in Machine Made Article for children14 and under.  Rose did well for a 7 year old.

Prizes! Prizes!

Clare's Jewellery Box - for Mum

The last two weekends have been show season in this part of the country.  Once more we entered lots of items in the "Pavilion" which contains all the arts, crafts, vegetables, eggs, photos, cooking and other items of interest produced locally.
Each of us entered a number of item according to their interests. I put in some photos, Lana entered much cooking and cross stitch, the other children entered cross stitch, photos, painted figures, and so on.
For example, Peter entered a zucchini we grew in the backyard and won first prize for the largest zucchini.
We all won prizes, which we will show in the next few posts, but here is Clare with a jewellery box she made for Lana.  On the lid were decorations with Lana's name and a butterfly.  Clare made the box with some tutoring from Opa, then painted the box and lined the interior with felt.  She screwed in each of the hook screws (mostly in a straightish line), and then I had the hardest part.
My mission - which I chose to accept - was to find some appropriate decorations in the department store.  This involved multiple phone conversations with me trying to describe the various decorations and hoping that I had translated the requests correctly.
Clare then applied the decorations in her own artistic fashion with some help from Grandma and Opa (as Lana was not allowed to see it before her birthday).  Initially Clare wanted to use EVERY decoration we had purchased.  But that would have made the box completely "Bling".
Clare wanted to put the words "Lana's Box" on the lid, but she agreed that "Lana" would suffice.

Helping out

Height is no barrier

We try to operate as a family unit as much as possible.  Although Lana takes the lead as Home Maker, the rest of the family pitch in based on their appropriate skills.
"Getting the clothes off the line" some would consider a job for only the taller children or adults as the clothes line is well above the reach of little people.  But this photo shows you how it can be done.  Rose (7) uses a ubiquitous milk crate as a stool and can just each the pegs.  Martin then assists by being a clothes horse.
And if we are really lucky, the clothes make it inside without any dropping on the ground.

Twinkle Toes Times Two

Are you looking at me?

Clare and Rose are having a great time learning some ballet.  A local lady wanted to teach ballet but the insurance costs were too stupid to contemplate.  So we offered the use of the shop shed for her to train Clare and Rose.  No cost all round and the girls and the lady are having a marvellous time.

The girls wanted to give the family a test concert the other day so created tickets ("Ballate Ticick for Dad") which we all had to present to the usher who validated the ticket using a hole punch.
This was a lot of work for a 2 minute concert to a shortened version of The Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy.

(BTW - Later tickets were spelled correctly)

Have you drunk a Spider?

Mmmm - a Creaming Soda Spider

At the shop we have brought in many traditional food and cafe items like milkshakes with 2 scoops of ice cream served in old fashioned tin cups, Sundaes with plenty of topping, cream and real ice cream.  One item we introduced is "Ice Cream Spiders".
Basically, all you do is have 2 generous scoops of vanilla ice cream in a fancy cup and then add your favourite Soft drink (soda pop).  The drink foams up to the top - and if you did this step properly - not go over the edge.
Many of our older customers wanted to recreate a favourite drink of their past and have a Ginger Beer spider.  Cool!

Meet our Evil Overlord

Armed and Dangerous

We have not posted for some time as life has been rather busy.
The shop has developed greatly over the last 3 years and is now profitable (just) for the first time in around 100 years.  Also, my consulting work has kept me away from home many nights each week and I also now lecture on business at one of the major universities (colleges) in Sydney.
While those activities have been happening, the children continue to grow.  Zach is now 2 years old.  He has mastered the art of water guns and loves to use them on hot days, laughing with a great "evil overlord" style laugh as he targets his victims.

Let there be light!

You shall not pass!

We finally have power!
Today was a busy day of organising generators, power cords, working out what the shop could and couldn't provide and all of us wearing lots of clothes.  Brrr!
I went for a short drive and examined the tree which had caused our power issues.  It was quite a large pine trtee and when it came down it pulled down about 500 metres of power line.  You can see at the foreground of my photo the blackened grass.
You may also notice something else about the picture.  No warning signs.
The council - which would take me to court for the most minor infringement of work and safety rules - finished their day without any warning signs that a tree was blocking the road.  The local fire brigade received a call late last night from a truck driver stopped at the tree that the way was blocked and the fire brigade volunteers put up some warning tape and road hazard signs.  Many times today we saw cars drive along the road only to return a short while later and try another way.
We were reasonably busy at the shop providing tea (no coffee machine) and hot food.  The generators powered all our freezers and the milk fridge so my stock was all safe.  Cheers were heard around the village at about 5:00pm when the power returned. 28 hours is a long time without power.

Ariel Update #3

On Tuesday to Thursday we attended talks held by Mons O'Rielly and a different guest speaker every day. On Friday we went to a prayer vigil outside the abortion clinic for 2 hours then wandered home the long way. The time after dinner turned into an impromptu hymn singing session with R, T and some of the girls. G played the violin then M taught some of us the Pride of Erin dance. All of a sudden someone said "We are going in to the city. Want to come?"
Immediately, everyone rushed around, changing clothes, checking hair and so on and so forth. One of the housekeepers had ordered 2 cabs and then an additional 2 cars worth of us suddenly decided to come as well. We had a bit of an issue with cars, but this was good for some of them because they kept running inside to change a shirt or pickup something that was forgotten.
When we got to Times Square we had to walk for ages to get to the first group. By then they had finished and were on their way home - so all that walking for nothing!
Our group of about 8 girls went in to Manhattan to do some shopping and then go to a baseball game. I went along because I was the only one in the group who hadn't planned on going to the baseball game, but I ended up going anyway. I was standing up all day because the baseball was 4 hours long! After the game, most of us went to dinner in Soho but Me, M, H and P sort of got separated from the rest and went to a diner. We wandered around for a while and almost got lost on the way home.
On Sunday after Mass we went to St Patrick's Cathedral. It is so beautiful. Everything is carved with a pattern or an angel or something. There are heaps of side altars to different saints and a gift shop right in the church.
I was sort of in charge of getting J and G to the ferry tour we were doing as a group by 1.30 pm. We got there at 1.45 pm because we got on the Downtown train instead of the Uptown train - twice!
After the tour, which was three hours around the islands, we went to dinner in a stretch limo. There were about thirteen of us. It was really loud and a bit squishy. The dinner was in a fancy restaurant and I sat with the Marionites, L and G. We finished first and then went shopping. It was pretty funny because P actually knew where we were going but TH was impatient and went on ahead. It's a good thing we only had to cross a few streets. And Boy! Can they shop! It was amazing how much TH bought and he is always trying to get a discount. We actually got home at a reasonable time tonight.

Ariel Update #2

A passing Statue of Liberty

On Monday we went on a UN tour. Because we are such a big group the first tour had about 10-15 and the second tour had 20, so we had a guide all to ourselves. There were lots of debates, jokes and questions by the Marionites and K and D mostly, but most of us had a say. Some were a bit embarrassed by the vigorous discussion but I thought it was funny.
The first question the tour guide asked us was, "Where are you from?" One of us said, "We're Catholic, Pro Life and, oh yeah, from Australia."
After the UN we went to Grand Central Station for lunch, then went on the Staten Island Ferry which went past the Statue of Liberty. We left about 5 to 7 of our group on the other side. We recovered them before we left but lost 2 to 3 of the Marionites in the city. We weren't very worried for them. They would be left alone because they are big and tough boys.
How do you think the real Statue of Liberty compares with Rose?

For whom the wind blows ...

Flying Trampolines, Batman!

The morning started with a "lazy" wind - that is, one which goes straight through all your clothes rather than bothering to blow around you.  By 9:00am the wind picked up and blew a gale.
At Midday we had some power flickers, then at 1:45pm the power went out.  (It is still out now (8:00pm) as I write this using laptop power and mobile internet).
Trees have fallen down all over the area.  The main one of concern which knocked out our power was about 5 km along the main road from here.  The huge pine tree fell taking down the high tension power lines all over the road, knocking down about 200 metres of wire.  Luckily the old wooden power poles had recently been replaced with newer concrete ones which held up marvellously.
Current estimates are that power won't be back up until around 6:00am tomorrow.  Power blackouts have affected around 25,000 homes.
This lovely photo is of our trampoline against the side fence.  The trampoline was secured by a number of sandbags but today that wasn't enough.  It travelled over 10 metres (30 feet) before being stopped against the wire fence and small tree.
The temperature today was around 6C (43F) but a windchill of -10C left an effective outside temperature of -4C (25F)!
So here we are enjoying candle light, listening to the howling wind and the gentle rumble of our generator.  The generator is plugged into our refrigerator and freezers.

House Upgrades

Peter Monkeying Around

 After many years, we have finally saved enough money to upgrade the old army barracks in which we started our home owning experience.  It needed upgrading - we will show some before and after shots in a later post.
Part of the plan for the upgraded barracks is for the three older boys to move into one of the rooms, leaving their room for the two younger boys.  Just outside their new bedroom door is a VERY firmly secured metal bar for doing chin ups and other simple bar based exercises.
It did not take long for the bar to be tested.
For strength, the builder lifted himself a few times, then Eric did his share of testing.
Then we had four of the children hang on the bar.
All of this worked without a wiggle from the bar.
We have declared the bar "Secure".
So Peter, our acrobat, set up a chair a short distance away, ran from the end of the hall, leaped onto the chair and onto the bar swinging with one hand.
That is why we lined all the walls with wood.  No more plaster holes in this part of the house!

Just hanging around, doing nothing

When Ariel left the New York, we had only begun the big changes to the Barracks. By the time she returns, it should all be finished. I was away all week, working in Sydney and I certainly was surprised at the change.

A tribute to New York

Statue of Miss Liberty

As part of Ariel's preparations for her New York trip, one of our customers gave her this priceless memory of their trip to New York - a foam Statue of Liberty tiara.
Today Rose thought it would be fun to wear it as we pondered the strangeness of not having Ariel around.
I asked Rose, "What did the Statue of Liberty look like?" and she showed me.  So we went outside to catch her shadow, but she had to squint because of the afternoon sun.
I figured she posed pretty well.  It must be because she is our American child.

Ariel's Update #1

Ariel's a bit taller now.

[Ariel sent her first email update.  She provided no photo I have added one here from when I went to the US with her in 2002. My comments are in italics]
I got here safely and just borrowed some internet.
We got here safely, late and went to bed at about 2 am local time.  We then had to get up at 6 am. It was harsh and here I was thinking it would be a holiday!
The flight was very long and I was next to the same people on both flights. T [a boy in of our group] asked if we were being deliberately put together. K [a girl in our group] and I explored a bit and found the chapel which is beautiful.  We then discovered that we aren't supposed to go upstairs or explore to much. Oops.
The people here are really nice, both the group and the volunteers at the monastery. Mr H [Group Leader] woke everyone up pretty much as soon as they went to sleep on the first flight - the jerk - it took me ages to go back to sleep, but apparently someone woke him up later. Ah, sweet revenge.
We did a vigil this morning in front of a big abortion clinic and there were some protesters and most were gay,  cross dressers or old ladies. They had a brass band and they kept singing and dancing and waving their posters and one guy had cheerleader pompoms. It was an interesting experience. Mr H said to me, "Hey, that was your first vigil wasn't it? Well now you can say that New York was your first vigil." [The protestors were captured on video here.]
On Saturday night we went to see the Brooklyn Bridge but got distracted and didn't leave till 10 pm. We had to take about 3 trains to get to Manhattan and when we finally reached Manhattan we went the wrong way. Once we finally got to the Bridge we took photos and wandered around a bit. When we tried to make our way back to the station we got lost and wandered for ages, and finally found the station. Then we had to go to a different one! We arrived on the right station but got on the wrong train and had to walk all the way up the entire street for what felt like hundreds of blocks. We made it home by about 2 in the morning. I got some really big blisters on both feet and heat rash so it was really painful to walk all that way. I think I prayed at least 3 rosaries worth of prayers! [Wandering around New York after Midnight would encourage prayers]
On Sunday we had Mass at 7 am and then free time till midday. We went to one of the volunteer's family home for BBQ and a quiet afternoon in the suburbs. It was really nice and the people didn't mind that all of a sudden what seemed like hundreds of Aussies pretty much took over their house and yard. Within minutes about 6 of us were shooting hoops, 3 were throwing a footy or two around and 2 or 3 were playing catch with a baseball and mitt.
On our way home we saw a huge cockroach on the zebra stripes and one of the ladies said, "Well, at least it's using the pedestrian crossing."
There is no Internet at the monastery that's why I haven't written till now. I will write later.
Ariel

It's so fluffy!

It's so fluffy!

Lana and I were doing some shopping last night and Lana spotted this very cute pillow.  It folds up and is shaped life a stuffed Pink and white unicorn.
When she saw it, Lana looked at me and said in an excited little girl voice, "It's soooo fluffy!"
How could I resist?
Naturally I had to take a photo.  Eric was seated nearby when I took the photo and he just grinned.
"It's not bad being in a weird family sometimes." he said.

Update:
From Eric - I was laughing my head off thank you.
And it is always a good thing to be in a weird family.  ;)