One dog, one cat and three chooks

Alice giving big roosty a drink. I know you can buy chooks anywhere but our beloved Roosty has been part of our family for 5years. He has survived various chook attacks(dogs and foxes and eagles). When we were living in Guildford, we would only see him on the weekends, he was struggling, and even once I hugged him and told the kids to say goodbye to him, as I thought it would be his last day. But he hung on, and improved when we moved back to Ballarat.

The chooks travelled in the trailer, we stopped every 2 hours, got them out of their boxes, made an human(child) fence and gave them water and food.
They survived their 15 hour ordeal:)
Scruffy our dog layed at our feet and puss puss took turns sleeping in all the children's laps.

Finally we arrived in Thora.

The long trip

The first stop was to say farewell to Ron, Sarah, Brodie and Luey. Ron had made us a  beautiful Didgeridoo, made from Mallee timber from his country, Ron had engraved six turtles, to represent each of us. Ron is from the Wamba Wamba tribe, he is the best at storytelling.

We miss them already.

It's a 15 hour  trip to Thora, Alice and Jim filling in time.

Can you see the rainbow:)

Dan driving the first leg.

We left at 4am from Corowa, to get some hours under our belt before the children wake. Unfortunately  two b-doubles collided with a ute, near Yass, the fog  was bad, and this part of the Pacific is notorious for accidents. So we waited for four hours, and the kids had breakfast along the freeway edge.
The car behind knew a short cut around so we followed him. The road was closed for most of the day.

The line up. The accident happened only 300meters in front of us. Lordy.

good friends

Jim and his best friend Sven. I think the hardest thing to come to terms with when leaving are friends. I know we can skype, write letters and call. But for my children, they connect through playing, not talking.

The children's friends, my friends, people whom we have shared most of our lives with.

For a while (too long) I couldn't tell my friends or children that we were leaving, I didn't want to see that look of shock on their faces, I felt in some way that I was rejecting our friends, moving on.

Why to people live where they live? is it because of the climate?, community? family? work?
There are a hundred and one reasons to stay in Ballarat.



Good friends had a farewell for us, it's was a beautiful warm Autumn day.

If I'm honest, i would rather leave without goodbyes, it's the flight or fight reflex, I choose flight every time:).  But I've learn't that for the people left behind, goodbyes are necessary.
Teary, hard and confronting though.....

The first step taken

So, my children were happy, loving being home, loving being back out at the school, with their friends. I was happy back in my home, enjoying the quiet,

But Dan, Dan wasn't, the seed was sown back in September, of another life, a life that he/we only had dreamed of, and once you step on that different path, it's hard to step off.

Dan went to work for his father age the age of 15, only 3 years older than my Jim, He did his apprenticeship, as a printer, like his Dad, and took over the family business 'Kings the printer"when his father retired, 16 years later.

When I was engaged to Dan I knew our life would be in Ballarat, He loved his work and it was his family's business. Of all the places I dreamed to live, Ballarat was never one of them. But I was in love, and so it never matters then.

We built a home on family land, whilst dreaming of having children, and made some dear friends, and so life continues, in this place I never though I would ever live, getting on with life.

And I was happy.

For Dan, the pace of print had changed, and he decided to step out and look up, after 33years, all his working life in one place. It's time for Dan to find his own way, without the security of the family business, and so we put our beloved house up for sale and I started to pack for Thora.