John Fraser back "home" for a bit

Fishing at Channel Island with Paul and Tim Cowen

Paul went into the airport early this morning to pick up his good old mate John Fraser.  They went to school together and were good mates as young adults also.  John's younger brother Graham is also best mates with Uncle Craig.   John is going to camp at the block and get a bit of work in Darwin to save some money.  He plans to stay for roughly a year.

He initially used the camper trailer and roughed it for a while but now he's in a caravan and set up pretty well down behind the shed.  Hopefully the area he is in is ok come the wet season!

Apart from missing his wife and son he seems be enjoying be back at his old hunting ground as he has a real love for the territory.

John's brother Graham and wife Denise and their girls were up for a week around July 15th

Lily has her puppies

Not great timing as we're due to go to New Zealand in a little over 2 weeks but Lily had her 2nd litter today.   4 beautiful puppies were born - 2 boys and 2 girls.   The father was a terrier looking playboy from "down the road" whilst we were in Palmerston still.

Paul was stuck with some midwife duties for some time as Gwenny was busy when it all started happening.  The first pup was stuck half way out for quite some time (perhaps 30 minutes) and when it was born Paul was pretty sure it was dead.   However when he tried to take it away Lily being quite anxious and when it was returned she vigorously licked it etc for some time when Paul noticed it started moving and breathing!   The little puppy ended up being fine.

Paul's mum was super helpful again in looking after the puppies whilst we were in New Zealand - with some help from Nadine too.  One of the girls has a bit of a problem with her back legs - she can still run around but they don't quite move like they should - although she does seem to be improving.

We gave 3 of the puppies away to family (Mark and Kathryn Pattemore took a boy and a girl, Tahlia took a girl) and we sold the remaining brown boy (the rest were black and white) on gumtree very quickly.  We kept Tahlia's little girl puppy until mid September as she was setting off on holidays to the US before then.

We're finally rural!

Gwenny stole my hat to look the part

Well after much hassles with finance (our bank declined us on a silly technicality just a few days before settlement and we had to start the finance all over again!) and other challenges we finally got the keys to our new rural home - 5 acres at Virginia on Lowther Road.

Its Gwenny's birthday today so she got a pretty good present!   We are doing the big move on the weekend but we celebrated tonight at the block just eating takeaway with a few family members.

Paul took tomorrow and Friday off this week as well as next week to help settle in and do some work on the Palmerston house so we can rent it.  We're very fortunate to have our nephew Sam's fiance rent it from early June - they are due to be married in August and then Sam will move in also.

The container from the back of our Palmerston house is being lifted and moved here on Friday (the boys computer cave) so Paul has a bit of work getting the area ready for the footings etc.   We ended up having a house warming party on Saturday the 31st and heaps of family and friends came - the outdoor covered area was flowing over!

Putting the container in position at Virginia

The housewarming

Monica and Toby buy a house

Its a nice house but its not this one

Monica and Toby have bought a lovely 3 bedroom house in Bellamack, Palmerston - a dream come true for them!   They'll be moving in over the weekend.

Rosanna and Shannon in town

Great to have Rosanna and Shannon in town visiting as we miss them a lot.   We'll get to see them on our NZ holiday in the middle of the year.  We had a nice day at Litchfield today swimming etc.  We swam at Buley - Wangi was closed but we had a look anyways.

They are still hoping to move up this way towards the end of the year.

Moving rural maybe!

Our offer on a block in Virginia has been accepted and we're just waiting on finance now.  This means we'll rent out our house in Bagshaw Crescent in Gray once we move so lots of work to do!   Our Palmerston house needs lots of work done - for instance the bathrooms probably need to be totally redone as water is leaking through the tiles and walls etc.

The block is on Lowther Road and is a fairly basic but practical metal clad dwelling with 2 bedrooms with ensuites.  A third bedroom is outside and an outside bathroom.  There's also a large outdoor living area that we really like.

Fishing with Graham and Tim on the South Alligator

Paul did a day trip with Graham Pattemore and Tim Cowen to the South Alligator.   We didn't catch much (Graham caught one Barra) but was a good day although pretty hot at times.  Was good to go up to the bird rookery and Paul was able to get a few pics of chicks etc.  He also got a series of photos of a large croc taking a sick or injured egret on the bank.

Baby egrets at the rookery

Paul's photo makes the front page