Two months gone in 2009 already so it is certainly time to update what we have been up to since December.

I spent the last week or so before Xmas putting a bank around the holes and closing the camp down for the next 3 months. This takes a bit of mucking around as all the machinery has to be parked and batteries taken out, also, all the saws, pumps, generators and anything else that could be taken has to be put away in the containers and locked up. We have not had any problems in the past with things being lifted but it is better to be safe than sorry. The quick hitch ram on the Cat has been leaking , so took it off and dropped it into Tuckey to be fixed over the break.

We headed off to Toowoomba a couple of days before Xmas in separate vehicles as Lyn would be returning to Cunnamulla in Jan whilst I would be helping Mick on his nut farms. We stayed at Trent and Tammy's over Xmas while they headed up to Trent's parents at Hervey Bay, but saw them for a day before they left. We had Xmas plus a couple of days with Mitch and Kriszara and Kriszara's little sister, Kim, who was visiting for a few days. ( see images ). It was then up to Noosa to Mum and Dad for New Year. We dropped the ute in at the main farm and just took Lyn's car to Noosa - it is a bit hard parking the six wheeler in a units complex. I have had it in there before but am not very popular with a few of the other residents - the ones that need to get a life. Mick and Louise are renting a unit in the same complex now, so it was great to spend time with all of them over New Year. It was great to catch up with Hayden and Joan Jacka, good friends who have been out to the mine a number of times to help out with a number of building projects. Hayden is a real handyman who can do just about anything and has been a fantastic help at times at the mine. They live at Noosa Waters and are thoroughly enjoying retirement, and it was great to see them both looking so well. Hopefully, they will come out again some time this year, because their is always plenty of little jobs for Hayden to attack.

With the holiday festivities over, it was time for work so Lyn headed back to the kids at Toowoomba for a week before going back to Cunnamulla and work. I started with Mick at the macadamia nut farms he part owns and manages at Elimbah just out of Caboolture. There are 4 farms with a total of 35,000 trees and it keeps he and 3 employees very busy. I give them a hand each year with one job which takes about 5 weeks to do with good weather. The harvest starts early March and with macadamias, the nuts fall naturally from the tree over a period of about 6 months. The harvesting is done about once every two months with a machine that picks the nuts up from under the trees. My job is to clean out the old nut, leaves and sticks from under the trees ready for the first drop of nuts. This is done on a tractor with a broom out the front that sweeps the rubbish from under the trees and a mulcher on the back which then turns the rubbish into mulch. It is a very slow job , done at an average of about 2.5 km per hour, so the days were pretty long. I wanted to have it done in the 5 weeks so spent 10 to 12 hours every day, weather permitting. The first 3 weeks were dry so it was very dusty with the broom going in the front and mulcher thrashing everything to sawdust behind. The last couple of weeks were interrupted at times with rain and that made things much worse with it being dry under the trees and water falling from the trees onto the windscreen - just turned everything to mud so was driving blind half the time.Anyway, it all turned out ok as I finished right on the day I wanted too and Mick was happy to have the job done. The images show the tractor and before and after shots of the trees - it certainly does a good job.

On the Aust. Day weekend the kids all came to the Sunshine Coast for a camping weekend, so I organised them all to come to Mick's unit for dinner.Mick and Louise's daughter, Alex, also came down and it was a good opportunity for them all to see their grandparents, and Bailey, his great Nan and Pop - probably all a bit daunting for him, but it was terrific for Mum and Dad as well and a great night was had by all.

Back on the mining front, Barry had given me the opportunity to peg a lease on an EP he had west of Yowah that looks very promising. He had decided to leave it as he wanted to concentrate on his other leases further north - it was very good of him to let me peg this area as it certainly does look like a good one. I got back to Cunnamulla early Feb and we went out and pegged the lease on the 10th. We pegged an area of about 8 hectares , taking in a hill where the levels are coming out of ( see images ). It was then off to Quilpie to the Mines Department for Lyn and I to put in the application and then back to the lease to write the lease no. on the pegs to make it all legal. It was a chance for Lyn to see the area as well and we wandered around for an hour or so before heading back to Cunnamulla. The lease will take the best part of this year to be approved especially with an election coming up but we have it in the plans for next year anyway, so it won't matter if it is held up a bit. It was interesting that we couldn't submit the application at the Mines Department until Friday which was the 13th , and that has always been a lucky day for us - Lyn was born on Friday 13th and we took over the business at Wanaaring on that day and were there for twenty years. It has made us feel very confident for the future of this lease which we called " Coopers Hill ".

Over the past ten days we have visited old friends at Moree, Peter and Claudia Gall, then off to Tamworth for a few days to stay with my old mate Larry Overton. This was not an easy time as Larry's wife Julie walked out a couple of weeks ago after 39 years of marriage. Larry is devastated and after selling his very successful farms recently and retiring , their is one hell of a lot of sorting out to be done. It is very difficult when we have known them both for so long and I hope we helped them both while we were there. We also got to see Peter and Leanne Grinter one night for dinner, Peter was the cop at Wanaaring for a few years and we became great friends out there and always catch up when we are in Tamworth. They both are going great and how the kids have grown - Taylor wasn't born when they left Wanaaring and she has now all but finished school - how time gets away. It was then off to Gosford to see Jan and Pete for the weekend. We haven't seen them since the China fiasco, and it was great to see them again. They have headed off to New Zealand today so it was great to catch up as they are away for a couple of weeks and we will be off home before they get back

We are now finally at the camp at Diamond Beach and plan to have at least 2 weeks here, doing some painting and mainly relaxing on the beach before heading back to work. I also want to organise a website for the business, so this will be a good opportunity to look into that. More about that in future posts.

Images are - the Cat put away for 3 months break,

- with Mitchell, Kriszara, and Kim for Xmas,

- New Year with Mum, Dad, Mick and Louise,

- the kids visit - Mum, Dad and Bailey - Dad and Tammy

- my mate for 5 weeks and the before and after cleaning under the trees

- Coopers Hill - looking up the hill and from the top