Reflections

Here it is, the last day of October 2013.  I find myself reflecting on a year that has held many surprising twists and turns.  During the first half of the year, I underwent my third and final chemo treatment.  Then was faced with the decision on when to go for the tests to find out if it had worked.  I procrastinated for quite some time on this and will come back to this part of the post later.  As the chemo ended, of course I had the blitz, a post chemo BBQ and many interesting adventures.  I hosted Magnus and Lucinda as WWOOFers,  then had a few months with nobody around.  The winter came and work on the property slowed down,  I don't do cold weather very well, must be an age thing.  As spring approached, preparations for the Elmore Field Days ramped up and I had the lovely opportunity of hosting Thomas from China.  He was a gentle and endearing young man who was quick to smile and easy to talk with.  He had never had much contact with animals back home, so his first full day gave him ample opportunity to make up for that.  Thomas and I went to a friend's small farm to feed up the horses, chooks, cats, dogs and fish.  He handled it all with such grace and made friends with the 2 small horses easily.

Not long after Thomas had departed I got an email from Magnus, my most frequent WWOOFer, asking could he return a little earlier than planned.  Of course that was no hard decision to make, a big yes from me and then busied myself preparing his room.  He is an amazing young man who has journeyed so far.  He had just done a trip around Australia in his little Toyota Seca hatchback, a total of 23,000 km.  Has seen so much of our wonderful country, had the opportunity to do a great number of new things and met (I am sure) many interesting folk.  Since he arrived back, we tackled a number of jobs (yet again),  made an alteration to the sandpad by taking out one section of timber and turning it into the sandpad and making a ramp for easy access with a wheelbarrow to the hothouse. Removed a noxious bush and some fence posts, restrung the wire on an old fence and removed part of another.

removing fence post

new garden edge and restrung wire, corner where the noxious bush was

remodelled sandpad

 

Magnus is due to head home to Germany in December, I have to say that day will be very hard for me.  He has made a big impact on my life and also become a good friend am blessed to know.  No matter where his life takes him, he will do very well indeed.  With Christmas fast approaching, I hope to have the aviary set up on the end of the sandpad you can see in the photo, where I will house the coturnix quail I am now breeding for food and to sell.  I have also bought 2 meat rabbits, that I had hoped to breed.  As luck would have it, I got two males.  So a swap is in order and I will trade one of them for a doe.  Just my luck really and as I type this I do have a smile of irony on my face.

Coming full circle on this post,  yesterday was the day I got my chemo test results.  It was a moment of an astounding moment really.  I am finally clear of malignancy, I can now breathe a sigh of relief and plan for the future.