Author Archives: Are We There Yet?

Sunday Snapshot – Mt Hypipamee National Park

Posted on February 9, 2014 by Are We There Yet?

In an effort to bring a bit more consistency to our little blog, I’m introducing the ‘Sunday Snapshot’. This will just be one photo, or a couple, taken on Sundays to share something about what we have done, where we have been, who we’ve seen, maybe what we’ve eaten, or if we’ve really gone crazy, maybe even something we have created! I’m hoping the Sunday Snapshot will also remind us to take a bit of time out from ‘farm life’ every now and then and perhaps even get to share with you some of the beautiful places that we love to visit here on the Atherton Tablelands!

Today’s Sunday Snapshot was taken at Mount Hypipamee National Park. We were heading to Ravenshoe to have home-made pizza’s for lunch with my Dad (who’s currently ‘baching’ it while Mum helps my sister get settled in Perth) and decided to check out the Crater and Dinner Falls as we went past. Matt and I had visited the area as kids but had never taken our ratbags. This is what we saw …………………………………

A little adventure – it’s been a while!

Dinner Falls – we’ve had lots of rain recently so they are really flowing!

The Crater

80metres up!

Some background information if you’re interested!

The girl loves lizards!

And that was it. A thirty minute stop, a pretty easy 1.5km return walk, some nice scenery, only one leech, we were treated to the kindness of a stranger who gave us a whole bag of Longans (similar to Lychees) in the carpark, and we felt like we had an adventure! Bought back lovely memories of our trip for us all! So, that was a bit of our Sunday, what did you get up to?

Oh, and Mum, this photo is for you. Dad has worked out how to use the washing machine but it seems he may need a few pointers about the fact that hanging washing out to dry in the rain may not work so well, but hey, baby steps! 🙂 🙂

Categories: Atherton Tablelands, Sunday Snapshot | Tags: Atherton Tablelands, Crater, Dinner Falls, Mount Hypipamee National Park | 5 Comments

Ode to Jerry

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Are We There Yet?

Just over two weeks ago now, we had to say goodbye to a very loved member of the Fealy Family, our little dog Jerry. I grew up on a farm so I am no stranger to the fact that animals come and go, having seen many animals killed for meat, humane purposes and pest management. So, I was a little surprised by how hard it was to say goodbye to Jerry. We had to have him put down as he was nearly twelve years old and had become too sick, a result of a disease in his gums (yes – he did have the worst set of teeth and smelliest breath getting around!). We have missed Jerry lots these last few weeks. We keep expecting him to be waiting at the door when we get home, to see him curled up in his bed in our room, or come trotting back home satisfied with himself after scavenging some yummy treat off the worker’s in their camp kitchen!

It has taken me until now to feel like I can write a post about him without having to leave the computer in tears – such a sook I know! But, he really was a big part of our family and deserves to have his own post written to remember him, so here it is!

We sure do miss you Jerry dog!

Jerry (also known as Jezza, Jerry Dog and Stinky) was a supposedly ‘purebred’ (we have our doubts!) maltese terrier, born in July 2002 and came to live with Matt and I when he was just over 8 weeks old, not long after we moved in to our very first place together. Matt bought him as a gift for me, along with an engagement ring, and presented them to me for my 22nd birthday. I had once said to Matt during our early ‘courting’ days that all a girl ever wanted was a puppy, a diamond ring and Prince Charming, so when Matt offered all of those things when he proposed, how could I possibly have said no?!?!

Matt and I with Jerry in 2002

Two young pups!

Nearly 12 years ago!

We even took him to Puppy Preschool!

Jerry was our first baby, he was our practice run at what parenting would be like. Matt and I argued over whether he was allowed to sleep in the house or not, and after 2 nights of puppy Jerry howling outside our bedroom window, upset at being relegated to an old tv box kennel, we ‘compromised’, and Jerry spent the rest of his nights in his dog-bed at the foot of our bed! Matt learnt that while positive reinforcement when obedience training our ‘first child’ is good, if you over-reward with the doggy chocolate, then you will have dog who vomits chocolate bits for days and who then never responds to a doggy treat ever again!

Our first baby, Jerry, road testing the baby carrier before Jack was born!

And road testing the rocking chair with Grunda, again before Jack was born!

We are so sad that Jerry never got to meet Fealy Bub No 4. He was very much a part of the baby years of all the kids! Matt and I distinctly remember lying in bed a few nights before Jack was due to arrive and having a conversation about how on earth we were going to love a child as much as we loved Jerry – little did we know! As our family grew, Jerry was always there! When Jack was born he would get up from his bed and follow me to the nursery for every night feed. When Toby was born, Jerry would wake and look at me from his bed with one eye open as I fumbled off to the nursery. By the time Lexi was born Jerry didn’t even wake, a progression much like a certain Dad!

Jerry was at my feet for every feed when Jack was a baby

Jerry & Toby

Bath time with Lexi

Jerry went everywhere with us. Once we had the kids though, Jerry did get a little neglected. There was the time we nearly left him behind after a BBQ at Cedar Creek and were lucky enough to have another picnicker come running after our car with him. As well as the time that we left him at the park after loading 3 kids, 3 scooters and 3 bikes in the car and we didn’t realise until 9pm that night. We were lucky that he attached himself to another family at the park with a pram who had noticed us and they realised what had happened and handed him in at the vet for us. And the time that we nearly left him behind in the car park at the botanical gardens, we’re not sounding like the best of family for him are we? It was no wonder that every chance he got he would try to jump into someone else’s car!

Despite what it seems, we did love him so. We now miss the looks he used to give us while waiting to be invited to jump on to our laps on the couch, the sleeping ‘nightmare barks’ he used to do which would wake us in the night, the cleaning up of crumbs he would always do for me underneath the kids chairs at the table and the warm cuddles he would give at night lying on your tummy after a hard day at work or with the kids. He didn’t do any fancy tricks, he could not even chase a ball, but he put up with all of us and was a huge part of our family.

He always managed to squeeze into a spot in the car on all of our road trips!

He’s growing!

Family photo in the early days!

This baby stuff was hard work for Jerry!

Jerry loved bubbles!

We’re so glad that he got to join us on the first few weeks of our trip!

Bath time!

Jerry loved being up on the kayak with the kids

Where the kids were, he was!

Just one of the kids!

Family hug!

Jack & Jerry

Rest in Peace Jerry.

Thanks for the memories little mate. xoxoxoxoxox

Categories: About Us | 16 Comments

El Questro Station

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Are We There Yet?

Right, back to the trip! Our last post saw us travelling along the Gibb River Road, where after a long day on the road we eventually arrived at El Questro Station. I had been leaving this post for Matt to write as El Questro Station was his favourite stop on our whole trip, but the Farmer Boy just doesn’t have time at the moment and he is usually asleep in the chair in the lounge by 8pm, so if you want some more ‘blokey’ details about El Questro just yell them out in the comments and Matt will get back to you! Continue reading →

Categories: Camping, WA Camping | Tags: Branco's Lookout, El Questro, El Questro Gorge, El Questro Station, El Questro Wilderness Park, Gibb River Road, Moonshine Gorge, Saddleback Ridge, Zebedee Springs | 8 Comments

Karen Camper is for Sale (sob, sob)

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Are We There Yet?

Sniffle, sniffle, sob.

We have come to the very tough decision that we are selling our faithful ‘home away from home’ Karen Camper’.

It was always a given that when we ended our trip we would have to sell ‘Karen’ and down size back to our tent set up or maybe purchase a camper trailer. We drew down on our home loan to purchase Karen and know now that our trip is over that we should sell her and put some $$$ back on our home loan – financially that is the smartest thing to do.

We just won’t get the time off to do another big trip like that again any time soon. Our camping trips now will be weekends and hopefully a few extended week or 2 week adventures. Added to that 4 children would be a very tight squeeze in Karen.

So, big sigh, she is up for reluctant sale. Here are the details as per Matt’s ad on Gumtree;

“Meet Karen the Kamper

Karen has safely and very comfortably carried our Family of 5 most of the way around Australia for the last 4 months.

If you are looking for the “Hardly used” or “Never been offroad” camper Karen is NOT it.

If you want a camper that has canvas and vinyl that is perishing, hardened tyres that have flat spots and shockies seals that have cracked all due to lack of use, Karen is NOT it.

If you want a camper for your ‘Round Oz trip, that has already been round the block 3 times and had all the little modifications made to it to prepare it for some real adventure then Karen IS it.

We are the third owners of this camper, each owner has taken her around Australia and she is still rock solid. Some people say poor Karen has never had a break and had a chance to sit in a shed under a tarp and get rusty, dusty and lonely. I say she has probably seen more of Australia then Burke and Wills.

She has all the things needed for full on long term camping, for example:

1. 180L of water on board
2. Gas hot water system
3. External shower
4. Dual water/fuel Jerry can holders
5. Dual 9kg gas bottles
6. Dual spare tyre carrier
7. Purpose built Generator Box
8. Upgraded wind up mechanism (heaver grade cable, pulleys and casing)
9. Genuine Vehicle Componants DO35v2 off road hitch.
10. Fully independant, low manitainence and easy to source leaf sprung and shock absorber suspension.
11. 4 x Quality Maxxiss Bravo 771 off road tyres (all less then 6 months old)
11. 3-Way Fridge (with 2 Gas bottles you’re talking almost 2 months of cold beer before having to find civilisation)
12. 120Ah deep cycle battery (With the 3 way fridge on gas the only thing the battery runs is the water pump and the lights. We never got below 70% on the battery and that was during 9 days of rain so no solar)
13. Anderson Plug for charging Battery from the car or solar panels
14. Dual Exhaust fans fitted to the rear of the Fridge to help remove excess heat.

Thousands and Thousands of dollars of modifications have been made that really are required if you are serious about going bush for extended periods.

Of course there is the standard features:

1. Queen bed one end and Double bed at the other, table drops down to a bed and the design of the lounge means that one side of the lounge is even another bed (child)
2. Full Size Oven (used, used a lot in fact, why do people always say their ovens are never used?? How do you know if it works?)
3. Griller and 4 burner stove
4. Microwave (actually that was never used because we we very rarely plugged into 240V)
5. Bagged and zipped bed end flys both ends
6. Fiama F45s wind out awning (if anyone tells you you need an full sized annex ask them how many times they actually got the 48 poles and pegs and ropes out to set it up? 20 seconds and the Fiama is out, you are in the shade and your cold beer is open)
7. Fold down table (perfect for road side lunch stops)
8. Pull out external BBQ (perfect for road side lunch stops)

I could go on forever. Simply put, if you are in the planing phase of quitting your jobs and thowing the kids in the car and heading out around Australia then Karen will get you there and back comfortably and with ease.

If maybe you are just after a serious long term camper, for the yearly Xmas/Easter trips but have a nice clean, dry garage Karen can sleep in in the mean time, I’m sure should would love the rest.

Eitherway, if you are even looking at this ad, you know that the older (pre-blue colour scheme) Goldstreams where the ones “made like they used to” so you already know just how rock solid and amazing these campers are and know that she will serve you very very well. Karen is a 2003 model, the last of the Maroon colour scheme.

Oh, almost forgot, She just had her bearings and brakes done. And dont worry, she does look a bit dirty in all these pictures, but she has had a shampoo, wash and blow dry and she is looking schmick-o again.”

There are plenty of photos of Karen Camper all over our blog, but these posts in particular “The House on Wheels” and “Our Home” give you a good look at the Karen Camper specifics.

This is the link to our ad on GumTree – please feel free to pass on the link or our blog to anyone who is looking for a great camper!

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/mareeba/camper-trailers/round-oz-special-off-road-goldstream-gold-star-camper/1037615506

We can honestly say, hand on heart, that she was the perfect camper for our trip. Very easy to set up and pack down and oh so comfortable. We never felt crowded or even like we were ever really roughing it!! And we are happy to report that after we gave her a very good clean and finally removed the several layers of dust she had been wearing, she is still in very good condition after all her Fealy Family Adventuring!

We will definitely be so, so sad the day someone else drives Karen Camper out the driveway, but we know she could bring lots of enjoyment to another family just like ours!

Categories: About Us, Camping, Modifications, Planning | Tags: Goldstream, Goldstream Camper Van | 4 Comments

Fealy Family Farmer’s First Quarter

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Are We There Yet?

I have so many blog posts I want to write at the moment that I really don’t know which one to start with!! Now that we have all three kids at school (holy moly – how did that happen!?!?!)

Fealy kids first day of school 2014. Lexi in Prep, Toby Grade 1, Jack Grade 3, with ‘Patches’ the farm dog – the newest member of the family

and I have a full school term until Fealy Bub No 4 arrives – I am really hoping to dedicate some time to blogging (and I guess I really should get our nursery and some things ready for Bub No 4!). I’m even thinking about signing up for an online blogging course – I need to make a decision on that today, but decided to do an actual blog post first before I spent any money on a course!!

So, I’m starting with a bit of a summary of what life has been like as farmers for the last few months. It is soooooo hard to believe that we have been here at Blue Sky Produce for five months now. We are currently three quarters of the way through our first mango season, the Kensington Pride and R2E2 varieties have all been picked and packed and we are now just waiting for the Keitts and Brooks mangoes to ripen (who knew there were so many varieties of mangoes!). We are not far off from commencing our first avocado season and we have 17 workers living on site. These last few months have been the most enormous learning curve ever for us all, but especially Matt! He has gone from googling You Tube videos on ‘how to drive a tractor’ on the way here from our trip, to driving tractors, forklifts, operating mulching, spraying and fertilising machines, fixing all sorts of things from pumps to chainsaws and learning about all kinds of orchard insects, diseases and soils!!!

View from the tractor!

Matt fixing the foot valve on the pump in the dam – kids were on snake watch as legend has it a massive water python lives in the dam – kayak still comes in handy!

Getting to know the place!

Plenty of beautiful sunsets!

And sunrises!

The first quarter on the farm was spent trying to do half a year’s worth of ‘off season’ orchard work in three months! With the help of our full time farm hand Charlie (and his dog Captain!), 4 German Backpackers – Sarah, Malte, Sebastian and Julian, we pruned avocado trees, mulched avocado trees, commenced a spraying and fertigation program for the whole orchard, as well as a whole lot of slashing, weed and pest control work!

Mulching – very dusty work!

Bale buster with Zetor tractor behind with spear on it to lift hay bale onto bale buster

Loading hay

Rolling hay bales out

Malte hard at work pulling the string off the bales

Julian spreading hay

Sarah clearing room around the trees for irrigation to come out

Sarah & Malte after a hard day of mulching – not the most fun job!

The kids have taken to farm life like ducks to water!

The ducklings have grown!

They love going out on the four wheeler with Matt before school to turn the irrigation on, or after school on the tractor if Matt is not too busy. It is amazing how much they have learnt about orchard farming already just from the bits and pieces Matt has told them or they overhear us talking about! All three are pro’s at fixing sprinklers and spotting the different varieties of trees around the orchard.

Jack out late one afternoon helping Matt – one of my favourite photos!

Toby out on a morning water run – there are always hot air balloons out in the mornings!

This girl probably loves it the most!

Jerry racing the four wheeler – he loves the farm life!

Hard not to love it some days!

It hasn’t just been all hard work. We did have a few afternoons of quiet family walks around the farm and even squeezed in a lunch with all the workers for the Melbourne Cup in November – we were most disgusted that the electrician who was here working that day cleaned out our inaugural Blue Sky Melbourne Cup sweep!

Afternoon walk around the orchard with the dogs.

Melbourne Cup Lunch

German Backpapers tasting the first ever Blue Sky Produce passion fruit wine!

Matt even found time to build us a chook pen – love getting our fresh eggs!

Oh and nearly forgot! We also planted 210 new lime trees during this time and did some pretty rigorous disease control on the avocado trees! Matt is particularly proud of how straight our lime tree lines are – a little obsessive compulsive for a farmer I say!

Getting the ground ready for the new lime trees.

Matt surveying their handiwork

Injecting the avocado trees to kill disease

Farmer boy after a hard day!

So that was our first 3-ish months of farm life. Not too bad at all. I have been enjoying just being a stay at home mum, making breakfasts, lunches and dinners, baking and doing a bit of office work. Matt does take me out with him from time to time to learn a little about the pump and how all the taps in the orchard work, but with a big pregnant belly growing I am not terribly useful for much more than that at present! The next post on farm life will be all about Mango Madness 2013/2014 with lots of details of what our first mango season was like – it has been full on that is for sure!!

Categories: About Us, Blue Sky Produce, Every Family Needs A Farmer | Tags: Blue Sky Produce, Farm Life, Mango, Orchard Work | 5 Comments

Happy Belated Christmas and New Year!

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Are We There Yet?

Well, this is quite a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our Blog followers!! Welcome to 2014, may it be a great year for us all! One of my New Year’s Resolutions this year is to make the time to blog at least once a week, so, given that it is already the 7th of January, 2014, I had better get a post done today or else I am off to a very rough start!!

I think most of you have heard through the grapevine – aka via Facebook – that the Fealy Family had a very different Christmas this year! The festive season for us started out with so much promise, of being a great period filled with family time and aspirations for all sorts of Christmas craft, baking, decorating and celebrating …………………………………

On Dec 1, we got a kick start to our Chrissy spirit with some pine cone decorating

Fealy & Johnson kids decorating pine cones

The gorgeous agent stockings Grammy made went up

The gorgeous avent stockings Grammy made, went up

Christmas baking got underway with Chrissy cupcakes and reindeer brownies and yum yum balls for the kids class break up parties

Cousin time with the Johnson cousies

And the Campbell cousies came to stay for a week (yes – that is 6 boys and 1 lonesome little girl!)

But then, on Christmas Eve, Jack took a fall off the trampoline (yes – the new trampoline which we had decided to give the kids early so they could use it while all the cousins were visiting, but didn’t get a chance to put the sides up on it yet!) and broke his arm. He did such a good job of the break, breaking it in two places, which meant after a trip in the ambulance and a night in the Mareeba hospital where they tried unsuccessfully to set his arm, we headed to Cairns early on Christmas morning (another ride in the Ambulance) so Jack could have surgery and some wire installed in his arm to help it straighten and hopefully heal with no problems!! Not quite the Christmas we had planned – aaaargh!! Nevertheless, we made the best of it and were very grateful to our extended families who looked after Lexi and Toby for us over Christmas and made sure they were still thoroughly spoilt and filled with Christmas goodies while Matt and I were at the hospitals with Jack!

6:30pm Christmas Eve sees Jack being loaded into an Ambulance in our backyard

Jack & Mum head off to Mareeba hospital in the ambulance while Dad, Lexi and Toby pack a bag for Mum & Jack, have quick showers, pick up some takeaway for dinner and meet Mum & Jack at the hospital

Christmas Eve in the Mareeba Hospital Emergency room – yep – that’s poor old Tobes asleep on the floor again and Lex asleep in my arms

Jacko, very drugged up in Emergency after the Dr’s had a go at trying to set his arm – no luck!

Christmas morning in Mareeba hospital and Santa has been! (Big thank you to the lovely two nurses who wrapped some donated gifts for Jack and put them at the end of his bed!)

Meanwhile back at home Santa had been there too and Dad sent a photo of our Christmas tree to Mum & Jack in hospital

Then Dad, Toby & Lexi arrived at the hospital to open some pressies with Jack before he headed off to Cairns

Opening pressies

I was so disappointed not to be able to enjoy a quiet Christmas Eve of just our little family at home as it had been a very busy few weeks of mango season craziness and visiting cousins. We had been looking forward to cracking open our Christmas ham, listening to Carols and wrapping presents. I was bummed not to see our first ‘real’ Christmas tree which Matt went to so much effort to get for me (the tree is a whole story in itself – but lets just say I may have gone a little ‘crazy, pregnant, hormonal mumma’ over the need to have a real tree this year!) with all the presents underneath it, and I really missed sitting at the table with all the extended family together and eating yummy food. BUT, it wasn’t all bad. Matt and I enjoyed the quiet time we got together at the hospital, Jack enjoyed his one on one time with both mum and dad, and we got to see first hand the kindness of others at Christmas time. Jack received gifts in both hospitals, kindly donated to the children staying there by various community organisations. A Santa and a group of people singing carols also visited the children’s ward on Christmas day delivering gifts, such a lovely thing to do as all the kids loved it! Matt and I were grateful to the nurses who helped track down a meal for us on Christmas day when we were starving, not having had time for breakfast and then getting to lunch time and waiting for Jack in surgery and realising there was nowhere open on Christmas day for us to buy anything to eat! We also saw how very lucky we were that Jack ‘only had a broken arm’ when we saw how many very sick and injured children there were in the hospital over Christmas. In the bed beside Jack was a little boy with two broken arms, so when Jack was feeling sore and sorry for himself we just had to look to the little boy in the other bed! It was a reality check for us to realise just how lucky we really were!

Back in the ambulance Christmas morning and off to Cairns Hospital

Back in the ambulance at 7am Christmas morning and off to Cairns Hospital

Waiting to be seen by the surgeon in the emergency department in Cairns – Jack loved his Christmas present from Aunty Kate which keep him amused with one hand!

Waiting to go into the operating theatre

Christmas lunch 2013 for Matt and I while we waiting in the ward for Jack to be delivered back to us after his surgery

Christmas lunch 2013 for Matt and I while we waited in the ward for Jack to be delivered back to us after his surgery

Jack post surgery

Jack & Matt Christmas night playing with Jack’s lego kit that was delivered by a Santa in hospital

It’s not Christmas until you’ve built some new lego!

Lexi and Toby meanwhile were having a great time! They spent Christmas Lunch with Grammy & Grunda and the Campbells over at Ma & Pa’s house in Malanda and got to have a swim in the Johnson River to cool off after lunch. Then, that evening Grandma and Amy came and picked them up and took them up to Ben Avon Station so they could have Christmas Dinner with all of the Johnson Clan – talk about spoilt! They then spent the next two nights staying at the station and playing with all the cousies up there! I don’t think they missed mum and dad at all – even though we really missed not being able to spend Christmas with them!

Lexi & Madi – Xmas 2013

Jayde helping Toby build his new lego at the station

Swimming at Station Beach

Girl cousins!

Feeding the horses

Jack was finally allowed out of hospital and able to go home at lunch time on Boxing Day. He was granted his request of Chinese for lunch before we left Cairns and then we headed home for a quiet afternoon of opening pressies and an early night to bed for a good sleep in our own beds! The next day we headed off to the Station to pick up Lexi and Toby and say a quick hello to all the family up there before they moved on, a quick stop in to Ravenshoe to see the Campbells and Grammy and Grunda, another quick stop in Atherton to deliver Uncle Jimbo’s presents and then home at last for a small amount of family time before Matt started back in to Mango Madness in the packing shed the next day.

Back home at last to open some pressies

Matt thought it was awesome that he could play with all Jack’s presents without a fight!

Guess who got a ‘gumtree’ new bike for Christmas?

Taking the new bike for a spin!

Yep – Fealy Bub No 4 is definitely growing – no excuses of eating too much Christmas dinner this year!!

So that was our Christmas for 2013. Definitely one we won’t forget, and a crazy way to end what has been a pretty big year!

How was your Festive Season? Hope it was a good one!

Categories: About Us | 5 Comments

Our Trip Time Capsule – 100th Blog Post

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

See you in 25 years or so time capsule!!

This is our 100th Blog Post! I can’t believe we have written that many posts or even more amazing that you are all still reading our rubbish hehehehe!

I really enjoy writing our blog and even though I am so far behind I intend to keep going and finish the adventures of our trip off and then hopefully share our camping escapades up here in Far North Queensland, when mango/avocado packing season finishes and life settles down a little again! We will definitely be well and truly ready for a short camping break away from the farm by then!

To mark our 100th Blog Post, I thought it would be appropriate to use this entry to tell you about our Trip Time Capsule. We decided early on in our trip that before we finished, we would like to bury a time capsule somewhere in the great blue yonder of Oz. There was no set plan for where it should be buried, or when, just that we wanted to plant a treasure box filled with some memories of our trip which had been so long in the planning and would hopefully be a great snapshot of a significant event in the lives of the Fealy Family in 2013. This is how it went down ……………….

The contents of our time capsule – pictures and drawings from the kid’s journals, a ‘Fealy Family Adventure’ t-shirt, a letter to Fealy Bub No 4, shells, small toys the kids enjoyed, a newspaper clipping about the farm we have now moved on to, a fuel receipt, letters from the cousies before we left on our trip, a map

All packed up – I sacrificed one of my very handy plastic kitchen containers for the cause!

There was quite a lot of discussion about where the best place to bury the time capsule would be!

Dig, Dig!

Watching Dad do the hard work, Matt was cursing that we hadn’t chosen somewhere sandy to bury our loot!

Fealy Family Adventure 2013 Time Capsule

We’re hoping that if somebody other than our family find our capsule that they will contact us to let us know!

Ok – in it goes

Who wants to put it in?

Toby did!

Tobes having a go with the shovel to bury it!

It was very hot and hard work in the sun – Dad took over to finish it off!

We used the tape measure to help record exactly where we had buried our box! That along with the GPS co-ordinates, some spray paint and a detailed note with a description has all been saved in the Fealy Family vault to help locate our capsule somewhere in the future!!

We’ve written a post in the past about ‘Why we go camping’ and we hope that even with our change to farm life, we will still continue to get away on some great family camping trips in the coming years – as you know from our previous post, camping is something that is very important to us.

So, the hope then is, that maybe in 25 years time, one of the kids might take their own family away on a camping adventure, or their boyfriend or girlfriend, a sibling adventure, or even just a solo break away, and head off towards where we buried our time capsule. We hope they will remember that we buried it around that area somewhere and ring mum and dad and say “hey Dad, remember that time capsule we buried on our trip around Australia in 2013? What is the exact location for it? We want to have a go at finding it and digging it up!”. Or it may even be that in 10 years time we get a chance to head away and do another big Fealy Family Adventure again and we go searching for it! Or maybe Matt and I will head off as grey nomads in 25 years time when all our babies have left the nest and we will dig it up ourselves!! Who knows, but it is something to look forward to, a little bit of a treaure hunt down the track to locate a small piece of Fealy Family history.

This is the image on one of the shirt’s Matt’s workmate, Hayley, made for us! We loved the shirts Hayley – I’m bummed we never got a photo of all of us wearing them!

Categories: About Us, Camping | 4 Comments

Gibb River Road

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

From Manning Gorge we decided to push for El Questro Station to spend the final two nights of our travels along the Gibb River Road. That turned out to be a very long day on the road! This section of road was the worst stretch we travelled on the Gibb. We blew a tyre on the camper and pretty much averaged between 20 to 60km’s per hour for the whole day. A few photos of this stretch of the road to begin; Continue reading →

Categories: Camping, WA Camping | Tags: Cockburn Range, Ellenbrae Station, Gibb River Road, Home Valley Station, Pentecost River | 5 Comments

Manning Gorge

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

So, getting back to the Gibb River Road now – we are only about half way along it and there are some beautiful places we still want to share with you! After stopping at Bell Gorge, we set up camp for two nights at Manning Gorge. This was a really nice place to camp with heaps of campsites and the campground was quite big so if you didn’t mind a walk to the amenities you could find a campsite away from everybody else. The amenities were generator operated hot water showers – so you could only get hot showers for an hour or so in the morning and two hours at night. The generator was a little noisy but the toilets and showers were nice and clean. It was a little smelly though so I was glad we didn’t camp near the amenities. Most of the sites were quite shady which was nice but they were all very dry and dusty when we were there.

The best thing about the manning gorge campground was the river and sandy river bed right near the campsite which you could swim in – it was lovely! Continue reading →

Categories: Camping, WA Camping | Tags: Gibb River Road, Manning Gorge | 3 Comments

Jack Turns Eight!

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Are We There Yet?

I don’t know how it has happened, but I am behind on the blog posts again! Anyway – just doing a quick post today to share some photos of Jack’s 8th Birthday. How it is possible that we can have an eight year old boy already is beyond us!! We had a birthday party last weekend for Jack, his great grandma and his cousin Nick, who all have birthdays within a few days of each other in November. It was a really nice afternoon, with lots of yummy afternoon tea treats and most of the extended family on both sides who we now live nice and close to! Jack choose the theme of a ‘lego birthday party’ this year, so his birthday cake and some treats were created to look like lego as best we could!

The lego birthday cake – baked by me and decorated by Matt as per usual!

Lego block biscuits, guess the lego in the jar game created by Jack, lego teaspoon holder made by Toby and Jack, and Lego ‘8 year old’ board created by Jack and Toby

I made a frangipani pie for Jack’s great grandma (Matt’s grandma) as I thought she had grown out of her ‘lego faze’! I did actually make two pies but proceeded to drop one on the floor while getting it out of the oven – I was sooooooo cranky!

Frangipani Pie – so yum!

Jack with his three great grandparents – a lucky kid to have them here to celebrate with him!

It was a really nice afternoon with all the family and the rain even held off until after everybody had left in the evening. Jack was spoilt with some great gifts; a remote controlled helicopter, some gemstones from Pa’s collection, the boxed set of the Narnia books, a lego pen case, some lego, a kite, some money and some ‘how to draw’ books.

So spoilt! Opening his presses with the Johnson cousins.

We had lots of birthday cake and even a special surprise for Matt & Ross with a bottle of home-brewed passionfruit wine from Glynis’s dad, Les. Les had brewed the wine with some of the first passionfruit picked from the vines here at Blue Sky and Glynis’s mum was very clever and wrote a poem to go with it! We opened the bottle so everybody could have a taste and it was quite good!!! We’re looking forward to the mango wine next!!

Birthday cake time

Happy Birthday Jack

The 8 year olds! Jack and Nick!

Home-brewed Passionfruit Wine from the first of the Blue Sky passionfruit

The german backpackers tasting the passion fruit wine!

Our new dog Patches got into the birthday party spirit!

Jerry loves this farm life stuff!

We finished off the afternoon with a wander around Blue Sky to check out the hard work Glynis and Ross had done on the backpackers dorm accommodation. Thanks to all the family that came over to help us celebrate – we felt so lucky to be home!!

Having an afternoon wander around Blue Sky.

Jack’s actual birthday was a couple of days later so we saved our present for him until then. He was very surprised and excited when he unwrapped some new undies (essential hehehehe), the first book in the Harry Potter series and his very own archery set. I know, I know – we may live to regret giving him that gift but for now he is being very safe and none of the ducks are yet to be targets!!

Having a go out in the front yard before breakfast and school

All the family had to go and watch!

An archery set for his 8th birthday!

Happy 8th Birthday Jacko! We love you lots kid and are very proud of the serious, responsible, sometimes quite funny joker that you are!!

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