We are finally home and slowly getting back to some normality - it is great to be back at the mine and getting used to how quiet it is, believe me, it didn't take long. Everything was fine here at the mine and considering it has been 3 months since we left, it was in good order and not a lot of dust this time thank goodness. What a difference a better season in the area makes as it can be a painstaking job cleaning it all up when it has been a dry summer. We cover all the furniture and beds with old sheets before we leave and that makes a heck of a difference.

So, what has been happening since late Feb. - the camp at Diamond Beach got a face lift for one thing. Lyn picked out the colours to match the pavers - I was a bit dubious at first, but past experience told me to go with it, and yes, it does look great - we certainly think so anyway. We are not happy painters and after 4 days and an aching arm, I was certainly over it. You can see from the photos who had the easy painting jobs. Once it was finished we were able to relax and enjoy the beach even though the weather was against us a little for that ,but we were sorry to have to pack up and leave mid March as we always enjoy it there. We were lucky enough to meet a few more people who also have vans in the park near ours and the weekends were very social. Two couples in particular come up most weekends from Newcastle - Mick an Gail are only two vans down from us and Mal and Jo are just behind them and are ex opal miners from Lightning Ridge, so there was plenty of opal mining discussed over too many bottles of red. Thank goodness they were only there for the weekends and not the whole three weeks - we would have been wanting to come home for a holiday! Anyway, it was all great fun and we are both looking forward to seeing them again next time we are down there.

We stayed a few days with Larry in Tamworth on the way home - as I mentioned in the last post , he and his wife Julie have split the sheets and Larry is finding things pretty tough. He was a lot better than when we first saw him a month before - getting on with life and trying to keep himself busy. The settlement is going to drag on and be pretty messy by the looks of things and Lyn and I feel for them both as they have been good friends for a long time.

After leaving Tamworth, we stayed a night with Pete and Claudia in Moree on the way home to Cunnamulla. Pete and Claude we have known since before we were married and even though we only see them very occasionally, it is like it was only last week we were there. Pete is the senior partner in a law firm in Moree and Claude is on the local shire council, their daughter Sarah also works with Pete, so with grandchildren around as well, they both go at a hundred mile an hour. They have always been the same for as long as we have known them so nothing has changed.

Finally, it was back to Cunnamulla, voted in the state election early, and headed out to peace and tranquility. I spent a few days doing maintenance on all the machines including putting the now leak - free quick hitch ram back on the Cat. It was then back to work - at the end of last year I was focused on finishing a small area and consequently dumped dirt anywhere and everywhere telling myself that I would fix it all up when I got back for the new season - well, that time had arrived and it took me nearly three days of moving dirt before I was satisfied that I could start digging again. I had divined another small area close by last year and decided to dig that area up - it only took a few days but I did find some reasonable opal there so I was quite happy about that. I did have one hairy moment when I nearly put the machine sideways in the hole but with a bit of shovelling - about 3 hours worth - it came out ok. I have to admit it gave me a hell of a fright and was a good lesson learnt when moving around newly moved mulloch heaps. Because I am working there on my own it also reminded me that I have to be more careful, it showed me that things can turn sour in a split second and with nobody else working on the field - well, it would be a long wait if an accident was to happen. Lyn rings me every night to make sure I am still around to annoy her and we have a plan set in place if I don't answer, so eventually somebody would come looking. Anyway, enough of that - nothing did happen and so it was business as usual. I have been spending more time processing the material I have found and intend to continue that trend. There is no doubt that taking the time to value add the material rather than just sell in the rough will be better for the bank account. It means less time mining but that won't matter as expenses of running the machines will be less over the year and that will be a good thing. Setting up our website will be the major project over the next month or so and hopefully that will help subject our unique material to a much wider audience and help on the sales side of the business.

We are heading off to Toowoomba again as Lyn has lost a crown on a front tooth, so, it is off to the dentist. The kids are camping over the Easter weekend and have somehow persuaded us to join them so I will finish this post over the weekend and report on the big camping trip next time - knowing my luck it will probably rain.

The images are - painting the van and annexe at Diamond Beach and a before and after - a terrific sunrise over the beach - moving mulloch and sunrise over how it finished up - nearly in the hole and me cutting some nice matrix pendants.