The Blogger Who Doesn’t Blog!

Hello everyone!  So, I’m feeling like a total fraud at the moment – doing lots of blogging stuff like taking on the volunteer role of ‘Country to Canberra Blogging Team Director’ which I’ve already told you about in this post, but there is not a lot of blogging going on here, on the actual “Are We There Yet?” blog!  Aaaaargh, I know, I know – I have to make time for the stuff that matters most – the important things – which this blog is – but there just seems to be sooooooo much important stuff going on in the Fealy Family these days.

Anyway – I thought an update post was loooooooong overdue, so time to fill you in on what’s been happening in the Fealy Family/Blue Sky Produce world.

To start with, the kids are back at school – here’s the back to school shot I took only yesterday – 3 weeks after the fact – better late than never!  I took this pic at the end of our driveway while waiting for the bus with the kids – can you tell how happy they are to be back at school and to be having a picture of them taken??

Fealy Kids 2016. Jack Gr 5, Toby Gr3, Lexi Gr2, Kipp 21mths

Other than that, honestly, our lives have just been all about mango season for the last couple of months – we pretty much rule out December and January for anything else.  So here’s a few pics from mango madness this year, we’ve now picked all of our Kensington Pride, R2E2 and Keitt mango varieties – only the Brooke’s left to go – yahoo – a light at the end of the mango tunnel – now it’s time to move into avocado season!  Oh, and we’ve had a bit of lime picking in there too!

The ‘Picking’ Photos

Mango Tree supervisor

Hot air ballons out over Blue Sky

The ‘Packing’ Photos

Just before Christmas we sold most of our ‘seconds’ mangoes to locals via our Facebook page.  It was a bit of extra effort which required Matt and I and the kids to sort and pack the seconds ‘after hours’ ie after a full work day had finished in the shed, but it was a very satisfying feeling not dumping the fruit!  We had quite a bit of fruit with some ‘wind rub’ this year due to a few very windy days before picking which was a bit disappointing, but that’s farming for you!

Seconds mangoes which we sold locally via Facebook

Wind rub on our mangoes

Kids at work in the packing shed helping to sort out the seconds

Car loaded for deliveries

Dad babysitting while Mum does the wages during mango season!

Kipp hard at work!

It’s exhausting being a farm kid during mango season!

We even got sent a pic of some of our mangoes on the floor in a Brisbane woolworths – pretty cool!

We also had a bit of fun during mango season taste tasting some of the new varieties against the hard to beat KP.  It was a unanimous vote that the KP (or Bowen mango) was still king!

Just another mango season morning in our house – taste testing mango varieties

It’s also been hot, hot, hot up here over summer – so lots of trying to stay cool happening too!

Who needs a summer holiday – living the dream in our backyard pool surrounded by mango trees and four screaming kids 😉

Charlie and Captain (farm hands) trying to stay cool and have a nap during mango season lunch break!

Oh – and I’ve started an actual paid job too – one where I earn real money!  At the beginning of November I took a job as Bookkeeper/Office Manager/Quality Assurance Manager for Beattie Produce – a potato, sweet potato, onion and pumpkin packing/distribution shed.  It is just two days a week, school hours which is perfect for me and lets me earn some holiday money for us, keep my brain ticking over a little and not fight with the boss like I do at Blue Sky hehehehe! I’m enjoying the work and am very fortunate that my Mum looks after Kipp at my Great Grandparents house while I work.  Kipp loves his Grammy and Ma and Pa, and I think it is pretty special that he gets so much time with them!

Where I spend 2 days a week working.

Kipp hanging out with his Great Grandfather ‘Pa’ while I am at work.

Last week Matt headed to Brisbane to check out our fruit on arrival at the Brisbane markets, something we like to do every year – just to see the whole process our fruit takes – how it looks on arrival, have a chat to our agents at the markets about how things are going etc.  He was only gone 36 hours, but wouldn’t you know it – we all came down with gastro while he was away – aaaaaaaargh.  Totally not fun!  But check out the awesome delivery that arrived on my back patio the day I was home alone with all my vomitting kids – how cool is my town?!?!  Definitely going to pay my ‘random act of kindness’ gift forward!

Matt with all our mangoes at the Brisbane Markets

My “Random Act of Kindness” Delivery could not have been better timed!

This week is all about stripping our Lime trees and getting them packed out, as well as getting ready for avocado season.

So that’s about us in a nutshell!  Not terribly exciting but that’s our life at this time of year!  Fingers crossed that our crazy season is all done and dusted by Easter, just gotta keep going, one foot in front of the other ……………… just keep going, just keep going …………………………..

Hope everybody else is well!

Love The Fealy Family xoxo