Farm Life

I’ve officially been a Queenslander for four and a half days now…and it’s pretty great!

We’ve moved into the donga and (mostly) unpacked. It’s AWESOME! So much better than I was expecting. It’s actually pretty big and there is a surprising amount of storage space for a tiny metal box. It’s been stumped about a metre off the ground and we haven’t got any steps yet, so it’s a bit of a workout getting in and out, but once we have a deck sorted it’s going to be great.

We’ve also bought a second hand ride on mower! Definitely our best purchase so far. The few rows of trees that we’ve mowed in between this afternoon look SO much better than it was this morning – the whole place is starting to look a little more loved.

We still need to prune back virtually all of the fruit trees to make them a bit more manageable and easier to navigate through, but it’s slowly coming together.

Tropical Cyclone Marcia was kind to us and we didn’t cop any damage at all. There was only a little wind and rain, but nothing more than a regular summer storm.

We’ve made a few friends in town so far. A couple who used to live in Perth have retired to Childers, and they invited us over for dinner our first night in town. It was SO great not having to worry about cooking on that first night. The brother of the electrician we used is another tourism operator in town and he’s invited us out for a beer tonight. Another couple who’s going to take some scrap metal off the property for us came around with some afternoon tea yesterday. Everyone has been really friendly and welcoming so far.

Queensland is starting to feel like home!

Josh getting some love from Sarge

Our makeshift donga stairs

Our first snake! 

Josh getting some love from the puppy at the bamboo nursery

Me, working hard on the new mower

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

Josh and I have been trying to prepare for everything.

Budgets? Check.
Licences? Check.
New signage? Check.

Cyclone Marcia? F**K NO!!!

At around 9am QLD time tomorrow, Cyclone Marcia will smash into the Queensland coast, a few hours north of where our farm is. It's a category 5 cyclone, the fifth ever to hit the Queensland coastline.

We've been nervously hitting 'refresh' on the Bureau of Meteorology website all day. We've seen it upgraded to a Cat 5, but then weakening to a Cat 1 as it makes its way inland. They're still predicting winds of 35km/h - 45km/h which is windy, but ok...but they also say they could reach 90km/h if the cyclone changes its direction. So basically, it will still hit us, and it could still hit us hard.

I'm crossing every single finger and toe that we make it through ok. It will absolutely gut wrenching to see the trees uprooted, or all the avocados off the trees, or worse still our little cabin swept off it's legs.

Only four more sleeps til the big move...what a lovely welcome to Queensland! :(

Moving day!

It's a strange feeling for two people to pack 26 years worth of belongings into four boxes.

While Josh may not agree with me, I've found it hard to part with a lot of my sentimental items (yeah, I'm a big softie). I condensed my huge bookshelf to about 20 books, and then had to cull it again to only pack two to go to Childers. Hundreds of photos and albums became the one framed photo of my gorgeous niece as a chubby baby. 20 pairs of shoes whittled down to just three.

Josh has had a far more stoic stance. "It's pointless. It takes up space. Where are you going to PUT this stuff?" is pretty much all I've heard for the past week. Heartbreaking for me, but ultimately true.

Anyway, there isn't much point dwelling on it - the truck will be here tomorrow afternoon and it'll be all over with. All we are taking is a fridge, bed, tv, cabinet, couch, washing machine and the four boxes - and with any luck it will arrive in Childers just in time for when we fly across on the 23rd.

At least it won't take long to unpack...