Here it is the end of Feb already and the trouble with being on holidays is that you tend to put off the things you are meant to keep up with - well I do anyway, but the pressure is on me again so here is an update of what we have been doing since spending Xmas with the kids.

Lyn and I spent New Year with Mum and Dad and brother Michael and his family at Noosa which is a great spot to have a few days. It was great to catch up with the family as we only see them a couple of times a year. Both Mum and Dad are looking very well as they head into their 80's and are both very energetic for their ages - Dad playing golf at least 3 times a week and Mum going for her walks every morning with her mates, ending with the usual coffee break at their favorite spot. Dad had a hip replacement 17 years ago but is still going strong at 83 years of age and still hits a very good golf ball - only hope I am doing the same at his age.

After New Year, Lyn headed back to Toowoomba to see the kids again before Tammy and Trent moved to Canberra then went back to Cunnamulla to continue her work. I stayed with Michael through until the end of the first week in Feb, doing what I have done the last few years for him on his macadamia nut farms. I have put a photo in again to show the process of cleaning under the trees to allow the easier harvesting of the nuts once they start falling. We had pretty good weather for most of the time this year so I had a good run and got nearly all 4 farms completed. It did rain right at the end but the boys soon finished off what I couldn't complete, so Mick was very pleased as the nuts seem to be maturing earlier this year and harvesting will be starting sooner than normal - usually the beginning of March, so they are probably into it as I am doing this post.

It was great to see Lyn back and we headed off down the coast for our usual stint at Diamond Beach near Foster. We called in and saw Graham Paul at the Gold Coast and stayed the night there, spending the time making a few plans for this years mining. It was then off down the coast - me wanting to get to Diamond Beach and Lyn wanting to call into every little place along the way looking for markets and old shops. We got to Iluka that night - about 100 kms down so obviously I lost - nothing changes much no matter how long you are together! The next day was my turn though and we hit Diamond Beach just after lunch on the 15th Feb. It was great to be there again as we both enjoy our stays there a lot - everything had survived ok since last years visit and our big paint job still looks terrific. We had nearly a week there then we hit the road again on Friday 19th as Lyn had got tickets to a Cliff Richard concert in the Hunter Valley at Hope Estate winery on Sat night. We got accommodation in a B&B at Lochinvar not far away and had a great weekend in all with the concert and having a look around the wineries as well as meeting some lovely couples at the B&B. The concert was fantastic to see and Cliff Richard at nearly 70 years of age was truly amazing. I even sold some opal at a shop at one of the many tourist places so that was a bonus and will be a new contact for the future.

We are now at Gosford at Lyn's older sister Jan and her hubby, Peter and will be here for a few days before heading to Sydney to visit more family - Lyn's brother Graham and family and my other brother Andrew and family. It is then off to Canberra to see Tammy and Trent and grandkids - we are both looking forward to this time as neither of us has been to our nations capital. I certainly want to see the War Museum - I have been told it is a fantastic visit.

While we are in Canberra Tammy and I have lots to do as she is going to take over my selling on the internet. Tam want to go back to work but child care for Noah is very difficult to get with the smallest waiting list being 280 - unbelievable but true. She is going to stay home and concentrate on her studies to be a naturopath and offered to do my selling on auction sites for me. I most certainly agreed as Tammy is much more up to speed with the internet than an old miner like me so we are going to give it a go. All I have to do is keep the material up to her but we will give it a good go as many people are selling opal on the web and doing quite well so there is no reason why we can't do the same.

For anyone that has checked out the website, there are quite a few SOLD signs especially on the rough page - yes I have finally been selling some material mainly to Germany and America, which has been terrific. I was intending to have had material for sale on Ebay by now but that hasn't happened, but once Tammy gets going that will change very quickly. I know that once I start mining again it would be difficult to do the internet selling properly as it does take a considerable amount of time. If this works well with Tammy it will save me a lot of time and I can concentrate on producing material for sale.

Graham and I have decided to attack one of the deeper areas on Gernot's lease this year - I was going to concentrate on my own lease but Gernot has put the pressure on me to continue there and so Graham and I will team up as it is certainly easier with 2 machines where the opal level is deeper, we are looking at levels at 35ft and deeper, so a lot of dirt has to be moved. Anyway, we will give it a go and see what happens.

That is about it for now - next post will probably be when I am back at Koroit and hard at it.

I only have a few photos and they are -

- the New Years dinner with Mum and Dad, Mick, Louise and Ali

- Lyn relaxing at Diamond Beach once again

- cleaning out under the trees on Mick's macadamia farms, and

- some great views of one of the Glasshouse Mountains down the rows on one of the farms.