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.

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

Yes, I am still around so thought it was about time to put pen to paper - nothing to do with a few people letting me know that they have been waiting for the next post!

All went well with the changes to our beach shack at Diamond Beach - we got the old van out with little fuss, it took longer to clean up all the old rubbish stacked underneath it than anything else - I didn't think so much rubbish could be put in such a small area. The new van went in without a hitch and looks terrific - it was in very good order inside, plenty of space and storage and will suit us for a long time to come. We were a little concerned as to the condition of the van as I purchased it off the net, but we are very pleased with it and it is great to have that island bed. At the same time our paving man was there to put pavers down under the carport and across the front of the block. He did a great job and was very patient with the boss - he was obviously very used to things wanting to be changed along the way. Anyway, Lyn was very happy with the job he did so we are all happy!

After everything going to plan with the van we were really looking forward to the China trip. We got down to Jan and Pete at Gosford on the Thursday and were to fly out on Saturday morning early. Our plan was to stay in Sydney near the airport Friday night to make things easier for Sat. morning. Luckily for us, we were still in Gosford on Friday morning when the bad news came. Jan, who had a lot to do with organising the tour, got a phonecall from the boss of Golf China, our travel agent, to say he had gone into liquidation the afternoon before and the tour was cancelled. There was a mad panic to contact all 30 odd people as most were getting themselves to Sydney that day - Dad had actually just ordered the taxi in Noosa to take him to the airport for his flight to Sydney, so I just caught him in time. We were all bitterly disappointed with the cancellation and it turned out that the boss of Golf China was a big noter amongst the golfing fraternity and had spent our money sponsoring golf tournaments here there and everwhere. The worst part was that because of the liquidation we are having big trouble getting our money back - our travel insurance won't cover it, but, we do have one more avenue and hopefully we will recoup some of it. We have certainly learnt a couple of valuable lessons from it - pay with a credit card and don't stint on travel insurance. Jan has started organising a tour for next year so Lyn will still get to see China.

We had two weeks to kill so it was easy for us, after a few days with Jan and Pete getting over the shock, it was back up to Diamond Beach to enjoy our new camp. Jan and Pete and two of their friends, George and Tosca, hired a cabin at the park and came up for a week. It was most enjoyable, catching a few fish off the beach and a couple of games of golf as well. There was a pod of whales off the beach every day which was great to see. It wasn't quite the holiday we had been looking forward to but all in all, we made the most of it and enjoyed the break.

The last six weeks have been flat out looking for the elusive gem, moving plenty of dirt and digging myself further down. I have been keen to go back to an area where I had drilled up some trace last year, it was at 30 ft and a little out of my reach for a while but I have finally moved enough dirt in that area to get a look at it. The bottom of the hole at present is at about 15 ft or 5 metres, so to reach the level with my small machine, I had to first make a bench to sit the machine on, so first job was to shift about 2 metres of dirt out and then make a ramp down to that level. There was not a lot of room as the photo shows but it was worth the effort - there was a small area where I got some quite nice colour. It didn't last long but I will cut about 70 nice stones from it as well as selling some in the rough - a good finish to what has been a pretty lean year. I have now finished the mining for the year and am at present just filling in deep holes and putting a bank around the main holes to keep the water out. I will not be back until March next year so the few days left before Xmas will be spent finishing the cutting left to do and closing the camp down.

We are going to Toowoomba to spend Xmas with the kids then up to Noosa for New Year with Mum and Dad and Mick and Louise. Mick wants me to help him for a month or so on his macadamia nut farms at Caboolture, then Lyn and I will head for Diamond Beach to enjoy the beach for a few weeks before heading back to work. We really enjoy Diamond Beach in Feb as school holidays are over and we nearly have the park to ourselves, we have tried staying there in Jan but it was packed out and not that enjoyable for us oldies.

I hope everyone has a good Xmas and all the best for 2009 - it is going to be an interesting year.

Images show the changes at Diamond Beach, enjoying good company with Jan, Pete, Tosca and George, the areas I have been mining, some nice stones we have for sale at present and one of our great sunsets to finish the year.

Summer has arrived early with a few pretty hot days and warm nights over the last few weeks - the temperature getting up to 37 during the days. I love the hot weather and am enjoying the mining, nearly all the other miners on the field have ended their mining season and have gone home. The majority only have basic camps with no electricity on the field at all - it is easy to keep warm with a fire, so once the first couple of warm days arrive, they are all packing up and heading home. I have set this camp up as a home with good insulation and air conditioning so summer is not a problem - I will be staying until Xmas time as usual and end up being the only miner here for a couple of months.

On the mining front I have been working both sites with some success on Gernot's lease. I have had the drill over there again and got good results from two of the six holes put down so have been busy opening up one of those areas. The levels are strong and are all over the place which is a good sign, there has been lots of trace and good potch ( clear opal ) showing, so I am feeling pretty confident that some nice material is not far away - it is a matter of moving the dirt.

The mining will be closed down for a while though as Lyn and I are off on holidays this weekend. As I mentioned in the last post, we are off to China for two weeks on a golf tour and, after having such a great time last year, I am looking forward to it immensely. We don't fly out until the 18th so are heading down to our beach shack to do a few days work with some major renovations to be done. We have a site in a big holiday park at Diamond Beach near Foster - Tuncurry right on the beach and spend as much of Jan - March each year there as possible. Lyn actually bought it on Ebay a few years ago and it is a pretty old camp as the images show. We have bought another van to replace the present one and we are also getting the outside area under the roof paved to make it more comfortable. The old fence is coming down and something a bit more modern and weatherproof going in so, we are looking forward to the change. We probably won't have time to repaint it but that will be a project for next January. The site has been a bit of an eyesore for a while and I know the park owners are pleased that we are finally doing some improvements, not that anything has been said, but when I contacted them to let them know, I could sense the relief that finally we were going to tidy the place up. I will have some photos for the next post after we return from China.

We have both been swinging a golf club on weekends to get in a bit of practise before the big trip. Most of the people on the tour are golfers so I don't worry to much about the competition, it is just a great experience to play on some of the best courses in Asia. Lyn has been showing her usual golfing style by smashing the tops in on some plastic balls she has been hitting in town. I am going to organise a lesson for us both during next week so hopefully that might help her a bit, or get Pete, our brother in law, to give her a few pointers. Knowing Lyn, her poor golf will stand her in good stead to have the perfect excuse to go shopping, especially if some of the other women are non golfers, as there was last year.

The next post will be after we return so will give an update then on the trip. Images this time show where I am mining at the present time showing the levels of stone, Lyn's style with a golf club, our beach shack in its present state, also caught a frill necked lizard on camera but I am not sure whether he was sun baking his tummy or with spring in the air and no mates about, the stick was the next best thing - I will leave it to your imagination.

It is into spring already and we have had some very welcome rain over the last three weeks. The falls have been spread out and it has been good soaking rain and with the weather starting to warm up, the ground has responded very quickly - it is a welcome change to the dry years we have had to endure lately. On the home front, the tanks are full which means no carting water for a couple of months, and, it has settled the dust around the mine for a while which is a real bonus as the next few months are always windy in this area.

Rain always has some drawbacks in the outback and it has meant that I have been able to do only a small amount of mining during this time. I have been looking for a small excavator for a while and was able to get onto a 12 ton Cat for the right price. The machine has finally arrived and is just what I wanted - being a small machine, it will be very economical on fuel which is a major consideration these days. I have been surprised at how strong it is and it is handling the digging here with ease, so hopefully, with a bit of tender loving Cooper care, it will do the job for a long while to come. It now means I can leave the old Sumo down at the other mine full time and work either as I want to which suits fine.

I have been continuing to get some lower grade material out from the other site which hopefully I will be selling shortly. There are only a limited number of buyers that handle this type of material and they like it in bulk to make it worthwhile to pick up - I have a couple of 200 ltr drums of it now, so time to move it on. It is used mainly for carving and is shipped to China for processing in most cases - the work they do over there is amazing and of course labour is very cheap. The material hasn't been improving to much so I might move to another spot I have been looking at - one thing with not being able to work, I have had time to have a good look around the mine and have targeted a couple of areas that look pretty good - not that I am any expert but it will give me a chance to test the divining ability.

Lyn has been out most weekends as usual, even though she missed one due to the rain but worked through, and came out on the Thursday, so had a long weekend which was great. We are going to China next month on a golf tour, so we spent time organising for that. I am looking forward to this trip, I went on the same trip last year and had a fantastic time. Dad, who is now 82, came last year as well and he is lining up again, as well as my brother, Michael. The trip is organised by Lyn's sister, Jan, so it will be a real family affair this year. Lyn has never been overseas before so is pretty nervous about the whole thing. The only thing I am worried about is getting some practise in as I haven't swung a stick since Xmas, so we both better start soon as the rest of the family are all keen golfers and play very regularly. Dad has been going great guns with his golf lately, he is still very fit for 82 - he and I won one of the rounds on the tour in China last year and he wants to repeat it again, so I better get out and start hitting some balls. I have painted a heap of old balls with luminous green paint and hit them up against the wall down in the hole so I don't have to chase them far and they are easy to find. Lyn hasn't played a lot of golf before so she will be down in the hole hitting them each weekend from now on as well - she hits a pretty good ball if she puts her mind to it.

We had a visitor over the last weekend - my other brother Andrew called in on his way home from Longreach. He lives in Sydney and is an events organiser, he was involved in organising the RM Williams muster held in Longreach last week and it was terrific of him to make a detour and call in for a couple of nights. We don't see each other too often so it was great to catch up - we will see him and his family in Sydney when we fly out to China next month but this was a welcome bonus. He was pretty tired after a full week and still had to drive back to Sydney in one day - a 12 hour trip, so a day off here was what he needed. He has owed me a carton of red wine for nearly two years and it was finally delivered and tested of course - it has had some compulsory aging and wasn't a bad drop either so we will probably share a bottle or two over Xmas as well.

Images show the new Cat excavator arriving and at work, a big boulder found, brother Andrew visiting, and Dad and I playing golf in China last year. I have also added image of a nice matrix nut I found today.