Ella and Buddy
Rob's 40th!
Since we arrived in Australia, our friends, the Tongas, have been going on about this farmstay called "Lucieville". 2 weeks after we arrived in Australia their family was heading down there, with several others, and invited us to join them. Unfortunately, it had been all booked-up at the time. This past weekend we finally got to go with the Tongas for 3 nights! Lucieville chalets are located 3 hours south in the town of Bridgetown which is inland and east of Margaret River. We all shared a cabin that sleeps 12 people very comfortably. We had arrived at night when we couldn't see anything except a roaming cow (which actually had scared me to death when I unexpectedly came face to face with it!). So, of course, the kids were up, dressed in their farm clothes and "gumboots" (rain boots) at the first glimpse of light. By 8 am they had been canoeing and seen all the animals mentioned above. They came back for a quick breakfast and left our garden gate open by accident. Pieter was at the kitchen window and said "Piggy Back (a sheep that likes to jump on you) is knocking at the front door". Next we heard a huge thump against the door from the sheep ramming into it! The kids all ran off screaming saying "run for your life!" We opened the door and sure enough, there was Piggy Back and there were 2 kangaroos in our yard! We got the sheep out of there, but had a great time petting the kangaroos.
At 9 am we met Farmer Michael (who I kept calling "Father Michael" by accident) to do animal and farm chores. The kids got to feed the pigs, goats, emus, kangaroos (who put their paws on your hands when you have a handful of food), chooks, sheep, and turkeys. There was also a farm cat, Fluffy, with no ears because he had had ear cancer, but we called him "What?" We all got to hold baby bunnies (soooo cute), chicks (Amelie's favorite was one she named "Snowball"), guinea pigs (Pieter named his "Ben". He names everyone Ben!), and we got to feel a baby joey in the Mama kangaroos pouch! The joey was unbelievable. The joey didn't have any fur yet and was probably the size of my fist. It was very warm in there and a bit slimy. His little paw went on my fingers and I could feel his long tail and body! It was absolutely amazing (and slightly gross, if you let yourself go there)! Apparently, it's very uncommon to be able to feel a joey in a pouch because most mamas won't let you touch their pouch. Next we all got a chance to milk "Rosie", the cow. This has been Ella's dream to be able to spend some time milking a cow. Some of us tried the milk (not me). Then we hopped on the back of the Ute and brought a big round hay bale over to the cows. The kids got to unroll it down a hill. They loved it. Then all the cows came over in a line, lowing away! Then we got back into the Ute and drove over to the paddock where the horses were and we rounded them (about 20) up using the Ute. It was a beautiful sight to see all the horses cantering, all in the same direction, over the rolling hills. I felt like I was in a western movie.
The rest of the day was spent running around, canoeing, holding the animals and returning the horses to the paddock. Ella and Samantha got to ride in the tractor with Farmer Michael! The kids just loved the incredible amount of independence that they could have on this nice safe farm.
That night we had a barbie and got ready to go spotlighting for nocturnal animals. A neighbor, Michael, would drive the Ute and Joe Tonga would do the spotlighting. We were all bundled up and started to walk down to the meeting point. On the way, Joe spotted some yabbies (fresh water shrimp) and frogs. We went to check them out and Pieter slipped on an exposed log, tried to break his fall with his hand but arm went right into a ditch that had a concrete block on the edge of it and broke his fall with the bone just above his eye instead! Yikes! It was really bleeding so we ran him up to the house as fast as possible. Thankfully, Pieter was VERY brave and it stopped bleeding very quickly. His cut may have warranted a stitch or 2, but seeing that the bleeding stopped so quickly and we were nowhere near a hospital, we decided that every boy needs a good facial scar and that forever he could tell how he got it in Australia when he was a boy. Needless to say, Pieter, Lindy and I stayed behind and didn't go spotlighting, but everyone else did. Pieter was fine and laughing to Alvin and the Chipmunks within 15 minutes. The spotlighters had a great time and saw an endangered red-tailed phascogale! This is one of the few Australian marsupials without a pouch. They only live in this particular part of Western Australia. It was an amazingly clear night so Rob and I checked out the stars once the kids were snuggled down in bed. They were incredible, though not quite as incredible as they had been in Exmouth.
Sunday morning started similarly to the day before with us all participating in the farm chores and running around the farm. It was hard to peel Amelie away from her love, Snowball. At 2:30 we hopped in Farmer Michael's Ute to round up the horses so that the kids could go horseback riding. Then we brushed them and saddled them up. We were heading across the farm and road to where they have a fire pit. Ella rode on Buddy, Natasha rode Boss, Samantha rode Danny Boy and Chantelle (Michael's 4 year old granddaughter) rode her Shetland, Inka. I led Ella and she did a bit of trotting. She would say every once in a while, "Let's just walk to give Buddy a break" and I would say, "You mean, to give ME a break." "Oh yeah." When we arrived to our destination Kristy (daughter-in-law) and the rest had started the fire. Then the kids got to make "damper" which is a mixture of flour, salt and water that they mixed together with their hands and rolled into little balls. Then, once the fire was in good shape, we molded the damper around the end of a long stick and roasted them over the fire! We ate the roasted bread with butter and jam and drank "billy tea". This was a total Australian Outback bush experience! It was so fun. I got to ride Buddy back to the farm. Fun to be up on a horse again.
The Tongas had to head back to Fremantle on Sunday night because Joe had to be back to work Monday morning. The Tongas treated us to an amazing 40th birthday dinner for Rob in Bridgetown before they left! We had a delicious and fun meal. The kids were a bit sleepy (which isn't always a bad thing) and unfortunately Natasha had a really bad headache. The waitress brought Rob a piece of cake with a sparkler in it and we sang happy birthday.
The next morning, May 17th, was Rob's 40th! I had decorated the cabin in balloons and streamers the night before (and killed a massive fly with a towel). We had our traditional rusks and strawberries and Rob had a fun time opening all his presents and cards. His most unique gift was 4 weeks of didgeridoo lessons which he will start next week! He can't wait and Pieter is going to join him for the first lesson. Then, while I packed and cleaned up, Rob went to do the farm chores with the kids one last time. The kids were devastated when it was time to leave! Ella said that if we could live on that farm then she would want to live in Australia for the rest of her life. Just to help you understand how much kids love Lucieville, Samantha started crying happy tears when they drove into Bridgetown on Friday and our friends, the Leemings, were in Switzerland last year and their girls said that they would much rather be in Lucieville. It's an incredible place (and completely affordable!)!
We drove home, stopping at the enormous Donnybrook playground on the way. I told Rob that we had dinner reservations and needed to leave our house by 5:10 when in all actuality I had a few families coming over for pizza and cake at 5:00pm. We got home at 3:45 and eventually banished Rob to the bedroom to read emails so that we could set up. I told him that he could just relax and I'd get the kids showered and ready, but he couldn't come out. The kids were almost too good at keeping this secret:) When the Duncans arrived and we let Rob out he was so surprised! The Duncans, Leemings and Vandersteens came over (with their 9 kids in total) and we had a great time. Janelle made Rob a really cool cake with the outline of Australia and some key landmarks and types of foods made out of icing.
Now it's the next day and I have about 6 loads of farm laundry to do and gumboots to clean, but it's all worth it!
Posted by Marileen
