Renovations part 1

We've bought a 130 year old house...it's a beautiful home, but there is a lot of work that can be done to get things more liveable.

Project number 1: Curtains.

There were only see through curtains in the girls room (designed so they could see out but you can't see in). So since we came from Queensland, our dear children all thought they were being put to bed in the middle of the day. 7pm is rather bright during daylight savings!

I worked hard on this project, and sewed curtains for the boys room and then the girls room and then our room and finally worked out some curtains for the study/baby room. All the curtains for the bedrooms are made with triple weave fabric that is thermal and also 95% block out. The result was just what I wanted. I've also sewed some curtains for the two bathrooms (so we can see out but you can't see in). My favourite curtains would be in our room...they look heritage. Or are they in the kids bathroom, where the curtain has little animal shapes all over it...cute!


Project number 2: Pantry






I wanted to have more storage in the house in general, but here the storage was poorly worked out, and food being central to our life and entertaining guests...this was an urgent project.

My wonderful father took on the task. Tiger was faithfully by his side, and quickly showed his grandfather that he is indispensable! Tiger worked as hard as his grandfather, not shirking when the other kids were playing. It was a hard job, and whilst not beyond my amazing Dad...it was a little harder than we both thought. The pantry is just over 3 metres long and over a metre and a half wide. It's a great size for a growing family. I just need to order an extra shelf for each section up the top.

I think the result is wonderful! Thanks Tiger and Dad.

Harvest 2014

I've never been a farmer...but I've always admired them from afar.

It's a menacing look on a photo, and I wouldn't want to get
in his way, but still beautiful...and amazing that I got a shot.

Sure we owned 6 acres in the Snowy mountains for a few years, but we never tried to run anything other than a horse on it, and it was not arable land.

But here, in Burrumbuttock (gotta love the name)...it's harvest time.

It's nearly 10pm and I can still hear the header whirring. It's a high pitched sound, with the low drone of motors from the harvester under toning it. Ordinarily, it's the kind of sound that would have annoyed me in the city...annoyed me a lot. But here, it's a sound that makes me feel excited.

A full paddock of ripe wheat (which is what our neighbours all had this afternoon) is a beautiful sight. Even more beautiful, after 20ml or more of rain in the past week, is hearing the headers take the wheat, knowing that it's now safe. Over and over since I heard the headers this afternoon I've been singing in my head "Bringing in the Sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, we shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves!" It's an old song, but it matches the excitement.

The Seven Silos tonight.

Our front verandah looks out on a large paddock with seven silos. Tonight there were multiple vehicles there with their lights on as they delivered their wheat. As I was walking and watching and feeling the excitement of the night, I heard one of them whoop. I know this can be a great time for farmers, the culmination of the best part of the year of planning, working and praying that the weather goes their way. It's good to be able to share in their excitement as we see our lonely lane become a bustling road of trucks, utes, tractors, headers, harvesters and chaser bins.

Tomorrow, Christian is installed as Pastor here in the Burrumbuttock parish, with 4 congregations and 5 preaching points. They have been vacant for three years. But they have not been idle, there has been much activity going on in the absence of a pastor. We pray there will be much to harvest here...and many good plantings and harvests in the future too.

Burrumbuttock

What a strange name!

Well we have moved here and have been in our new home all of a week. There is SO much to do with  all the unpacking, but there is also the exciting outdoors. We have bought a 13 acre property that used to be the West Burrumbuttock school (for a very short time 100 years ago). And with our property we have inherited a horse, Lorien (yes that's a Lord of the Rings name in honour of my horse rearing Grandma), 20 or so Dorper sheep (they naturally lose their own wool, so no shearing required), two ducks named Mopsey and Flopsey (who started to lay when we arrived), and three guinea fowl (whom the children named) Bash, Dash and Crash (apparently they will help keep away the snakes because they are so territorial).

The house we are living in is 130 years old, and used to be the Principal teacher's house for the school. So we are returning the property to it's original use after a long time. Look forward to more reports of our exploits. We are looking forward to finding some artefacts from the time this place was a school. Already this week we have found a glass bottle that was clearly a small cordial drink bottle from some time ago.

We are surrounded by paddocks and no houses are in view...it is quite blissful!


About-Australia.com says of our little town:
Burrumbuttock is a small village 32 kilometres north west of Albury onthe Albury-Urana Road. The early settlement began in 1839 at the "Burrumbuttock Station" which was at that time 30,000 acres on both sides of an unfenced track stretching from Jindera Gap towards Walbundrie. The present town has a number of buildings including a General Store and Post Office, Primary School, Farmers Inn Hotel established in 1880 and the Holy Cross Lutheran Church dedicated in 1877. It has a population of 150 people. The Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre is a four hectare area featuring a large dam constructed in 1902

Homeschool Heart Studies

A while back I bought a quarter of a beast and was asked if I would like any of the offal. I asked for the heart thinking that we would dissect it with the kids. I loved dissection in school! And the kids don't seem to be that different.

Daddy being a doctor knows all about the heart, so today was his lesson. He really got into it and so did the kids. We didn't ask them to get out their pencils, but they couldn't help themselves. Tiger and Princess were taking notes and asking for the spelling of different parts. Tank was drawing his own diagram of the heart, and he had it looking pretty good too.

Daddy talked about the four chambers of the heart, how the blood is oxygenated and how the heart has valves to keep it going back the wrong way. He cut out a valve to show the children and they talked about how this is a life saving operation for some people where they replace the valve with a pig's heart valve.

Each of the kids got a chance to feel the scalpel in their hand. Daddy was concerned that they understand just how very sharp a scalpel is, and nervously we watched on.

All of our kids were deeply engrossed in what they were seeing. They asked fantastic questions.

This is one of the reasons we homeschool. Our kids getting expert information, no holes barred, all questions thoughtfully answered.

Sister's Beach, Tasmania

Looking into Bass Strait

On Tuesday we woke at 3am to get to Brisbane. But our plane was late leaving. We arrived in Hobart and had lunch there. On the way to Sister's Beach we stopped at Campbelltown and played at a park there. But we had no idea just how far it was to Sister's Beach (North West Tasmania) and so we had to stay in Devonport.

The next day we went to the beach at Devonport and played at the rock pools and got wet, and then played on the awesome play equipment. The park was close to the beach and we saw a ship come in. By late afternoon we arrived at Sister's Beach and went down to play the beach before dinner.

On Thursday we had planned to walk around Dove Lake at Cradle Mountain, but we were all really tired from our big first day. So we went to Rocky Cape Cave. Before visiting the cave we went to the little beach there. The water there was gorgeous and again we got wet! We couldn't go into the cave because of the Aboriginal significance. They used to feast on shell fish there and we could see the midden (left over shells) everywhere. In the afternoon, after a good sleep by all, we took a walk to see the local caves. We left rather late, and on our way home Princess, Joybug, Mummy and Baby were a bit slow in walking. By the time the girls reached the car the sun was down, but there was still enough light for us to see the way to the car.

On Friday morning, whilst Mummy and Daddy finished the clean up of our lovely little holiday house the kids went for a wander down to the creek. Tank came back all excited. He had seen a platypus! Tiger saw it too! We all walked down and stood around quietly watching for another 15 minutes, but the platypus was too shy. It's known that a platypus lives there.

Tasmania Spring 2014

Cascade Female Factory (Hobart) ...our only entire family photo.

We have just returned from our annual holidays. This year we took 2 and a half weeks together. Just as we were deciding where to go for our holidays a wedding invitation arrived from a dear friend in Tasmania...so our destination and timing were chosen for us.

We had a fantastic time! We carefully chose an itinerary, and wrote it down in our family holiday journal.

Our journal is now an amazing record of a wonderful holiday, from which we will share our adventures.

Tiger Saves The Day

TIGER SAVES THE DAY

Tiger saved the day by putting out a fire in some straw. The kids were having a fire when suddenly one of the kids (we don't know who) started a fire in some straw, Daddy was in the kitchen when one of the kids came in saying that there was a fire in the straw. Luckily by the time Daddy came out Tiger had already got the hose out and was putting out the fire. After that Daddy heavily interrogated the kids but of course no one admitted to it.

By Tiger

David Livingstone

David Livingstone 

David was born in Lanarkshire AD 1813. As a child, David Livingstone worked in a mill in Lanarkshire 14 hours every day, for six days a week. That meant that it left David little time to go to school. David loved science. In those days many people believed that science and Christianity did not go together, which meant that David could not study science. But one Sunday morning a book sent by a Dr Dick was read in the Congregational Church that the Livingstone family attended. The church was captivated by this book that said science and Christianity could  go together! David was relieved that he could now become a Christian and still study Science.

David believed that God was calling him to be a medical missionary, and the more he prayed about it the more he felt he should become a missionary.

David decided to go to college. After he made some quick calculations he discovered that if he saved every spare penny he earned at the mill for three years he could go to Anderson College for a term, which was the cheapest College in Glasgow that he could find.

When he got to college he started studying right away. His main goal was to become a missionary in China and to also become a doctor. He finished term one in Anderson College and headed back home. When the time came for term two he did not have enough money to go back to College, so his older brother gave him enough money as was the custom in those days. After finishing his terms in Anderson College he was sent for further training at the London Missionary Society offices in London. After training some more and having occasional mishaps, like forgetting a sermon, David was ordained as a pastor and a missionary. But the problem was that he could not go to China because of the Opium Wars. So after talking to another missionary who was stationed at Kuruman in Africa he decided to go to Africa.

David Livingstone mapped most of the unexplored places in Africa. And he learned there languages but he had a few mishaps with some of the languages. When he was preaching a sermon about sin he discovered later that he was preaching against cow dung. Many of the tribes he visited had problems with lions  eating their livestock. Once at Kuruman David got attacked by a lion  when he helped the tribesman protect their livestock. The lion had pinned him to the ground and made a huge gash in his arm, he also broke a few bones. He was rescued by his African interpreter.

He went back to England and wrote a book describing his adventures and explorations and became famous. He met with Queen Victoria and talked with her about his explorations. He told her that when he was in Africa some of the Africans had asked him how many cows she had, and that why had he never met his big Chief. She laughed and was amused.

He married Mary Moffat, daughter of the director of the Kuruman mission station and had six children and didn’t spend much time with them. Once one of his daughters did not recognise him. 

David went back to Africa and soon people thought that he was dead. So an American newspaper the New York Herald sent Henry Stanley an explorer to find David. He found him in Ujiji on the coast of lake Tanganyika, and greeted him with the famous line “Doctor Livingstone I presume”.

David also hated the slavery that was going on around the area he was traveling in. 

     

He died in a village on the coast of lake Tanganyika in 1873. His attendants wrapped his body in bark and tar and the took it to England were it was buried in Westminster Abbey.

I like David Livingstone because he was an explorer who never gave up and also because he found unknown places such as “The smoke that thunders” (Victoria falls) and Lake Tanganyika. 

Essay by Tiger 

Creepy Crawlies at Ravensbourne

We went out for lunch today because it was Tank's birthday yesterday. We then decided to go bushwalking at Ravensbourne National Park. Mummy warned us that we needed to watch for leaches and ticks.

We had fun walking until Joybug found a leach on her and from then on everyone was worried that they had leaches or ticks on them. When we got back to the car park Mummy checked us for tick and leaches, two on Tiger, two on Joybug, one on Princess and one on The Man. Mummy was surprised that Tank managed to get nothing.

When we got home, after baths and during devotions Tank started to itch. Mummy found a tiny tick on Tank. It was no bigger than a pin head and Daddy got out our digital microscope to take pictures. Tank was really brave and enjoyed having a good look before we got the tweezers and pulled it out. It was still alive crawling about on some paper, so Daddy killed it and we made sure that it was dead.  

By Tiger

Our Best News for 2014!!

Checking monitors and helping Noah remember to breath

As a family, we would like to introduce you to the newest member of our little clan.

Noah Wesley Fandrich

Born on April 24th at Toowoomba Base Hospital by emergency caesarean at 1:37am because Sarah Joy went into labour. He weighed in at 9lbs or 4070 grams.

We had planned to have the caesarean on April 24th, at 8:30 or 9am. But during the afternoon of Wednesday 23rd I started having some very strong contractions (I had these on and off throughout the pregnancy, causing one hospital stay at 26weeks). After the kids were in bed I had time to sit down and notice the timing, and we realised we had to forego a good sleep and head to the hospital.

Happy to have him to ourselves on rooming in night.

Our fine young men.

It turned out we did a good thing. Noah inhaled merconium that was in the waters, and this meant he had trouble breathing. He was taken fairly quickly to the Special Care Nursery, put on CPAP to assist his breathing for two days. But was kept in hospital for 7 days until his breathing was completely back to normal. This was a very difficult time for Sarah Joy as she had to be present for all feeds (you get out of hospital quicker when feeding is established), and it's hard communicating and asserting your needs, wants and desires to others regarding your baby when you are tired and unwell and they have their own plan for your baby that they don't want to divert from.

Noah is now back to almost full health, a wee bit of jaundice and a few feeding issues due to having to give him expressed milk via bottle to get him out of hospital (needed all suck feeds and he wasn't up to that just yet). Sarah Joy has quite a few weeks of recovery to go, but needs to be constantly reminded to go and lie down. It's hard to sit still when you feel that your brain is functioning properly (which really it isn't because I am so tired and change from third person to first person in one sentence!).

Noah means rest or comfort. Noah in the Bible was a godly man who trusted and obeyed God, building an ark to save not just his family but a pair of each kind of animal on earth. Saving creation through water of the great flood, where all the world was covered. Through the water of baptism, we too are saved. We pray that Noah, who is already our rest and comfort will be a godly man, following Christ even when all turn away.

Home at last!!

The name Wesley comes from the great hymn writer Charles Wesley. One of 19 children, homeschooled by his mother, Charles was a leader of the Methodist movement with his brother John, and wrote over 6000 hymns, many of which are our favourites. Christian really likes: "Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending", and my all time favourite hymn is: "And Can It Be That I Should Gain". Other great Hymns are:

• Christ the Lord is Risen Today
• Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
• Hark! the Herald Angels Sing
• Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
• O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
• Rejoice, the Lord is King
• Ye Servants of God

Our first family photo, with Granny