UPDATED-
Back on the farm from the city. The kids had an absolute blast with their cousins. It’s this type of thing I miss for them, they don’t miss it because they’ve never had it but I remember my childhood just like that. The huge family gatherings on a pretty regular basis. All the kids running everywhere. It was a lovely way to grow up.
This morning the kids woke up at 8am…. They dressed quickly, had a bite to eat and headed out the door for the country life freedom again. I don’t expect to see them until I go looking. They took some shovels and are planning to dig trenches to play in. What kid voluntarily wants to do manual labour? Apparently mine. The fresh country air will really do them well and I look forward to going and checking on their progress.
It’s so great to have them back here on the farm , they’ve been so excited to get back and I know they are going to have a time they can really remember.
It’s wonderful to see children discover new things, have new experiences that you know they will hold with them for a lifetime. There’s something very special about passing that on and sharing your own childhood experiences with them.
Connecting with the family has been really great for them though, they have grown through the experience and not once asked to watch tv or play with ipods. Let’s see what craziness they can discover this week before we leave to go north to the beach.
Update:
We found them early and had some jobs for them….. They had a taste of mustering sheep.We all had to drove the sheep down the driveway so they could have the nice green grass which was growing under the tree. It was interesting to watch Grand Master D and Miss Gremlin, we had to teach them how to do this stuff, it was a weird feeling as it’s just second nature to me because I’ve been doing it since I was their age.
Then the kids got to spend the rest of the morning exercising their pyro tendencies in the paddock. They did a wonderful job of cleaning up the broken branches, sticks and twigs all around near the front gate. The fire got quite hot and high with all the eucalyptus branches with leaves still on them. The oil burns so hot! I explained about bush fires and they couldn’t imagine how hot it must be trying to fight one.. They were in total awe of the fire.
There was an emergency supply run to town ( We had run out of timtams). Then Grand Master D and I braved the gully…… and it didn’t disappoint. It’s also still as hard as it was the last time I did it probably 20 years ago. The worst part is I forgot the camera so now I have to go do it again to take pictures of the awesome views.
The day was topping off by a cutthroat game of monopoly with the visiting uncle and aunt… I won and everyone hated that 🙂