Queensland Whipcracking titles 2012

Things have been pretty flat out around here lately, with 2 weekends away(and the resulting laundry and catch up) and the return to work after almost 8 weeks holidays!

The local flooding has left a lot of the people I come in contact with in a sort of state of shock and they have been quite traumatised. Time(and insurance support) will help fix this.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Clifton (just south of Toowoomba) to allow the kids to compete in the 2012 Queensland Whipcracking titles. It was a far cry from the tricks they performed last year.

Last Feb was our first state title competition and where it all really started for our daughter.

Here is her One minute freestyle routine, which is done at the end of her 10 tricks in the competition. During this one they just try to get in as many cracks and degree of difficulty as they can.

Our youngest son is a bit of an older hand at this whipcracking game.

He is 3 years younger and works hard at it!

He has just moved up into his sister's age division and is finding the competition harder. 

Here is his One minute freestyle routine which is at the end of his 10 tricks too.

All 3 children also competed in the Bullock whip part of the competition which is always an amazing display.

The Bullock whip is a really long whip on a long handle. They used to be the whip the bullockies cracked over the heads of bullock teams, the main method of transporting things around this country.

There is s song/ chant that they used to sing at the same time as they walked the teams. We have it somewhere.

I can't get the thing to crack at all!

Our eldest son has done quite well in a few other states in the Bullock whip.

This time there were a lot of men competing in this section, so no place getting.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Daughter G came first in the Juvenile division.

ityy bitty son H came 3rd in the Juvenile Division.

Big son C came 2nd in the novice division.

 

Smashed IPad and spiders in the paper.

I am sitting here posting on a smashed and bent IPad, my god they are tough.

Hubby ran over it, well actually my whole handbag as we were leaving for a whipcracking trip away yesterday.
I asked him to put it inthe car while I put one of my little dogs in to her dog yard.


He forgot, mind on other horrendous things and stepped over it then backed the Landcruiser over the top of it.
I sat in stunned silence for the first 10 mins of our trip with the kids rubbing my arm.

I snapped out of it and realized that everything was replaceable in the bag and we had just had our 13 year old Labrador put to sleep and everyone was feeling like crap.

She is not replaceable.

Today I'm off to buy a new one and when I get home tomorrow I'll just sync it straight away. Apple make it so easy.

Insurance will cover the cost of the damaged stuff in the bag. I was surprised the iPhone was Ok. It is in an ivyskin wrangler case and only had the protective glass smashed on the front. I can highly recommend that one.

So I now need to replace Ipad, Roberto cavalli sunnies, Prada progressive lens prescription glasses, a camera, a spencer and Rutherford handbag, an ivyskin glass screen a few hair Clips, luckily the Chanel perfume is ok and funny other things survived the wheel trying to get over it and pushing it along the driveway.

Don't feel sorry for me. I have the benefit of being good at power shopping, and my god it could have been irreplaceable stuff like the kid's whips or god forbid one of my pets.
The children were always safe, one was with me and one was in the car. Plus they are big and loud enough to be seen and heard!



In other exciting news my spiders photos have made it into The Land a national newspaper, on page 4 too! They will also appear with a story in a regional paper.
Have a read (I've fixed the link now!)

http://theland.farmonline.com.au/news/state/agribusiness-and-general/general/downbeat-came-the-rain-and-washed-the-spiders-out/2448729.aspx


http://theland.farmonline.com.au/news/state/agribusiness-and-general/general/downbeat-came-the-rain-and-washed-the-spiders-out/2448729.aspx

Exciting

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Spiders, spiders everywhere!

We went driving around yesterday afternoon with the camera.

I'm a bit tired of taking photos of brown flood water!

This is what we found.

Amazing!

Spiders' webs.

They are hanging off the fences all along about a kilometre of road.

They're probably all over the place, but I only have a range of about a kilometre up the road.

While we were standing there they strung all over us and the car.

It was pretty awe inspiring.

They were thick on top of the fence posts.

And they billowed in the wind a bit.

Millions of tiny little spiders.

Probably billions.

When we drove along the road our tyres made tracks in the webs that stretched across.

and here's my favourite.

A guidepost on the road.

They blanketed the grass.

it was a bit sticky too.

And really obvious on the old train line.

Later in the afternoon our neighbours had to have an injured child airlifted out.

Now that was a sight to see.

A chopper landing in their back paddock.

Nature does some pretty amazing stuff to ensure survival.



Flood photo essay

We went for a little looksie this morning, which was just after the expected Flood Peak.

Don't mind the skewiff horizon, I was taking them out of the car window.

We came across a few of these guys in a narrow bit of dry land near the road.

 We didn't push them too hard.

Being pretty shy creatures they take off at the first sign of any human.

It got too narrow and they hopped into the edge of the water.
There was a little fellow at the back.

He struggled a bit with the hopping, so.....

Swam

 Quite a way in the flood water.
It would have been pretty hard work.

 Especially where the culvet runs into the flow.

There must have been a bit of a high bit.

Then deep again.

Finally he got his feet in solid ground.

And hopped out.

And met up with his family again.

Then took off again towards the flood water.

These bully boys were not phased by any of the goings on.

just a bit bunched up, but had plenty of space to get around.

And off they went!!

To be followed by the ducks.

These big boys got themselves up on the disused railway line.

They were pretty happy with plenty of feed to munch on.

And the view out the front of our house looking towards town.

Highest flood levels since 1955.

And this afternoon, this, which deserves a post all of its own.

 Tomorrow.

Can you tell what it is? It is amazing!



Floods- 2nd Feb

Thursday morning we woke up to plenty of water all around.

We are now completely isolated.

But completely dry.

Nothing is stopping these guys from munching out on all the lush new growth. 

Then we got the SMS from the state emergency service to evacuate.

Yeah right through this!

 This is the water view from the driveway in to our house.

The water is roaring through there and sounds like a vehicle on the wet road.

We are not far from town and the water has now spread out to cover almost the whole 5 Km distance.

And through this.

The puppy was a bit naughty and followed us down the road towards the turnoff.

She had a lovely time puddling about, chasing frogs.

This is just rising water, there is no flow to it.

But is a bit too deep for a car to get through.

We had a neighbour arrive for a visit.

And another, who had just finished a mustering job in the JCB.

A good quick little tractor party was had by all.

It will be interesting to see what the flood peak will bring in the morning.

Water, water everywhere. Floods again

We had our road closed again yesterday morning.

It has been raining pretty heavily. Again.

We had flooding in this area last late November.

It has rained regularly since. Many falls of more than an inch.

We haven't really had a real dry out.

The last few days have had about 4-5 inches on top of saturated soil.

We went for a bit of a look around and to check on the flow.

The water will flow right through our country.

A few creeks have burst to the south.

They are now flowing back into our country.

We have plenty of high ground for the stock, so we don't tend to worry about them.

when we drove down the road we noticed on the neighbours, this lone beast standing on a little mound with the water running all around him.

It can be a bit daunting when you see this width of water to cross in front of you.

It was only 40cm deep though and not too fast flowing!

Further down we started to see the bank of water which had already passed through our place.

The Roos were absolutely sodden.

The water was running across the road from some high plains.

On the way back we could see the water entering our place.

That is the brand new fence.

Redone in just the last few weeks.

It's been done a little bit differently with 2 strainer posts either side of the bad bit.

It won't pull the whole fence down, just the bit between the strainers, they have droppers not posts driven in.

Well that's how it has been explained to me.

I just suggested that it be built so that it could break at the stress point and not pull the whole lot away.

On the way back home the water had risen 10 cm in 10 mins. Fast.

We like to open the doors to see how close it is to coming in.

It was pretty high.

It's a really dirty workhorse this Landcruiser! Does anyone else use those fabric softener sachets to act as an air freshener in their car.

You should!

We put more in today!

Cuddly 'fresh linen' is my favourite.

They last forever. I steered hubby away from the lavender ones, they're not a good idea -to relax you while driving!

Yes I think that looks like a dog biscuit!

You may often hear an agent's car called a mobile dog kennel!

The neighbours boys were high and dry.

And their mates had a deep plod to get to them.

My back lawn is pretty wet!
The house is up another metre from the lawn, and this is not floodwater, just rain on the lawn.

And there is a kid running and singing in the rain. and jumping on a slippery wet trampoline.

He's having a great old time!

I hope when it gets into town it doesn't do too much damage.

There are some very nervous people in there.

It just will not stop raining!

It'll all be good here as long as the power stays OK.