Fishing and Roos at Tom Groggin Station

And two months have passed again which means my visa is up in PNG and it's off to Australia again.

Bags are almost packed.

Can't forget Bongo.

I landed in Sydney at about 9:00pm on Friday night and Mel and Bee were waiting to pick me up.  Wahoo!!  The next morning we were off to Tom Groggins Station, which is about 2 hours south of Canberra (and about 4-ish hours south of Sydney).  Before heading out though, we had to make a very important stop.  Krispy Kreme!  Two dozen donuts later and we were officially on our way.  You'd think I would have been satisfied with two dozen donuts (by this time four of which were in my belly), but I wasn't.  A pit stop was required about halfway to get gummy snakes.  A road trip just isn't a road trip unless you have a pack of gummy something… gummy worms, gummy bears, gummy snakes… all are acceptable.


 

Mel (left) and Bee (right) stoked for donuts.

And a very happy me!

So apparently there are giant things all around Australia and
people do a tour to see them all.  We came across the giant
sheep along our way to Tom Groggin.

Donuts and gummy snakes and my life was complete.  

The drive down to Tom Groggins was stunning.  I absolutely love southeastern Australia.  It has some of the most beautiful scenery.  I kept sticking my camera out the window to capture the beauty.  Not so sure Mel and Bee appreciated the window going up and down and up and down… and up and down, but they were good sports and humored me.

I love seeing road signs that say 110 (kilometers per hour so about 70 mph).

The clouds look abnormally close to the Earth here. Amazes me.

I thought the random rocks with trees were intriguing and insisted
on taking 700 photos of them out of the car window as we drove by.

After arriving at the beautiful farm that is Tom Groggins Station I met Mel and Bee's family including Pop Pop who insisted we go feed kangaroos.  I most certainly was not opposed to this idea.

The farm.  Insanely beautiful!

A smidgin of snow on the mountains.

Roos!

The one brave roo having a snack.

Hopefully this video plays. (To my Deaf friends
there is no talking so no need for captions.)

Again no talking so no captions needed.

Such a sweet guy.

So many mommas.  It seemed like every
3rd roo had a joey in its pouch.

Also, I learned that there can be a big joey and a teeny tiny joey
in a momma's pouch at the same time and the big joey doesn't hurt
the little joey even when it dive bombs into momma's pouch.

A fun Christmas tree.

The following day it was time for my first fly fishing lesson.  Belinda and Pop Pop Morrison showed me how it was done then insisted I practice in the yard.  Only after I was able to repeatedly hit a target (Belinda's shoe) while casting did I graduate casting school.  Then it was time to go fishing!  And by fishing I mean casting because I didn't catch any fish.  Didn't even get a nibble, but my casting was pretty good.  Pop Pop Morrison told me so. :)

Belinda showing me what's up.

Then the pro Pop Pop Morrison stepped in and took over the lesson.

Momma Mel getting me dressed in waiters
to go for my first fish.

She even let me borrow her hat.
She's a keeper.

My first attempt.

Annnnnd I got my fly stuck.  Good thing
the 90 year-old Pop Pop Morrison was there
to retrieve it.

Then demonstrate what to do… again.

Mel's turn for a fish.

Belinda enjoying some sushi.

You can't tell from this picture but the bridge in the background
is made from an old train car (I think it was a train car).

I'm a big fan of drift wood.

There's something beautiful about
fallen, dead trees.

I didn't have my zoom lens so it's hard to see
but these are wild brumby horses.

How stinking cute is this cow!?  I want to scratch his head.

Going for a run with the moo cows.

Emus!

I was put on gate duty… too bad I couldn't figure out how to open the
gate.  After much studying I finally figured out the locking mechanism.

This cat migrated from lap to lap for cuddles.

After 5 days of fishing and relaxing (I mostly stuck to the later) it was time to head out.  It was a wonderful "Welcome to Australia (again)" and I'm so very luck I have friends who know of little gems like this place and are willing to share them.  Tom Groggin Station is by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Goodbye Tom Groggins.

Guard Dogs Guarding The Garden

I’ve always wanted a garden but have always had some excuse not to start one… I don’t have the time… I live in an apartment and have no space… I haven’t got a clue where to even start… and whatever else I could think of not to do it.  Since coming to PNG I said I wanted to start a garden and I finally did.  I went in the backyard (a coconut grove which is the coconut plantation we live on) and picked what looked like as good a spot as any.

My future garden... well half of it anyway.

Step 1 – Research gardens

Where do you want your garden to be?  Behind my house.  How big do you want your garden to be?  Ummm, this big.  What do you want to plant?  Veggies.

Well that was easy.

Step 2 – Burn the plot of land

This step seems really easy, right?  There’s a bunch of dried leaves and bush.  I can just burn it.  Hold on, what if I start a forest fire?  What if the forest fire spreads?  What if it takes over the entire island?  Oh my god, what if there’s a drought when I do this?  I can see newspaper headlines “White Lady Burns Down All of New Ireland During First Ever Drought”.  Hmmm maybe I should think twice before I light this match.  In this moment I reverted back to my 10 year-old self and got the "parental units" to monitor my fire starting.  Bruce, Monica, and I went out to the “garden” each with a box of matches to start a small fire to burn the plot of land.  Not a single one of us could get more than a slight smolder going.  I guess I wont be starting any forest fires, no worries there. Can’t even get a single flame.

Pre-burning photo.

Mid-burning photo.

Post-burning photo... hmmm me thinks me needs to rethink this.

The first of many "guard dog guarding the garden" photos.

Step 2 (revised) – Wait for land to dry out a bit so you can burn it

Step 3 – Burn the plot of land

After waiting a week we finally had a day of no rain (we’re now moving from the “dry” season were it rains almost everyday to the rainy season where it rains basically everyday but a bit more than it does during the “dry” season).  I successfully lit a fire and this time there were no newspaper headlines scrolling through my head.

Not much, but at least there are visible flames.

Step 4 – Clear the land

You’d think this would be relatively simple now that all the land is burned.  Not so my friends.  I originally scattered dried leaves all over the plot with the intention of burning them but it rained and only the top layer dried to be burned.  Patience is not one of my strongest qualities. I could wait for the leaves to dry out then burn again.  Or I could move all those leaves that I’d just put down.  More work and less patience, but instant gratification.  I chose the latter of the two options and thus the shoveling of leaves commenced.

Once the leaves were removed it was time to “weed” and by that I mean pull up all the bush.  One Saturday I went out in the afternoon and started hacking away with a bush knife.  After two solid hours of work I was beat and there wasn’t much to show for all the hard work I’d done.  Enter stage right PNG woman.  “Hello there, are you working on a garden?”… “Yes I am.” … “How long have you been working?”… “Well, I’ve been doing a little bit here and there for the last 3 weeks.”… “A PNG person would have had this cleared in a day.  I will help you.”… “(I’m going to ignore your insult and gladly accept any help you’re willing to give) Well, gee, thanks!”  Rose and I spent the next 2 hours hacking away clearing about 75% of the plot.  The following day I finished clearing the remaining 25% and what a relief.

Rose doing her thang.

Me doing mine.

Guard dogs guarding the garden

I applied sunscreen on all parts of my body not covered by clothes.
This worked out great until I spent 4 hours in the sun bent over
causing my shirt to pull up exposing my very sensitive, pale skin to
the sun resulting in a blistered burn.  Lesson learned - apply sunscreen
ALL over body before getting dressed.  Just because you think the sun
can't see it doesn't mean it wont.  Sneaky, sneaky sun.

This patch has now healed into a nice leathery scar.  Brings a 
whole new meaning to the term "leather back".

Gardening is rough work.

Or maybe I'm just whiney.

Step 5 – Plant seedling in Dixie Cups

Even though the land is cleared there is still a bit more work to do before I can plant anything such as lay down logs to create a fence separating my garden from the bush, transfer soil from a plot across the street to my garden, and mix the new soil with the old soil that was previously there.  Then after all that I can finally start to plant.  Back to the whole I’m not patient thing.  I want this garden going as soon as possible so while I’m still working on that I decided to get some seeds going in Dixie cups and once they’re big enough then I'll transplant them.  Fortunately, tomatoes and pumpkin sprouted within a couple days.  Unfortunately, the capsicum and cucumbers never sprouted.

All my babies in Dixie cups.  Unfortunately, Davos thought
these were really fun chew toys so I had to cover them with
an old mattress to prevent him from getting to them.

The first tomato sprouts

Kiss Kiss (aka Nick Danger Private Eye) napping on the mattress
covering the seedling cups.

Davos joining Kiss Kiss and smashing all my seedlings... fail.

"Hey mom, just guarding the garden."

The seedlings/sprouts had to find a new home
where neither the cat nor the puppy could get to them.

Flower bed or cat bed?

Kiss Kiss not so happy about my conclusion that it is a flower bed
and is peeing on my garlic in this photo.  Look at that scowl.
Rest assured, the scowl was returned along with a shove to get
him out of my garlic/ginger bed.

Joshua the strong man retrieving logs from the beach to put as a
boarder around my garden.

Guard dogs guarding the garden.  They take their job very seriously.

The first of 3 loads across the street to get soil.

Step 6 – Transplant seedlings and plant new seedlings

Back to being impatient, I could have started seedlings in Dixie cups again, but I decided to try a different approach and put the seeds directly in the ground.  Now that that’s all done it’s time to sit back and watch the garden come to life and by that I do mean board a plane headed to Australia 2 days later where I’ll be staying for at least 2 months, possibly longer.  Sadly, I will not get to see this garden come to life… or not come to life.  But hey, I started a garden!

Annnnd I'm done!  Yay!

Such a handsome guard dog!