"Oh, Life on the farm is kinda laid back"

Today is a beautiful Autumn day in Western Australia.  It is about 15 degrees, warm in the sun and cool in the shade.  I am sat on the swing on the verandah enjoying the sounds of nature with my pal, Prince, laying beside me.  It has started to cool down with last night hitting a low of 2 degrees.  The average temperature for the past two weeks has been a high of 21 with lows of about 5 degrees at night.  We have been starting the fire in the house for the cool night time (our source of heat).  Yesterday David, Kendra and I took a trip to Lancelin.  David got his hair cut and Kendra and I walked along the beach.  On the way back to the farm we stopped off at Darryl’s and had a quick visit with him and Donna (and watched Jessica Watson (the 16 year old who just finished a solo sail around the world) reach the Sydney Harbour).  Darryl also had a cow who had twins this past week so we went over to his block and had a visit with all of the cattle. I got to pet one of the twins.  Darryl did have to hold it and I had to watch the mom come running from a distance.  Yesterday was the same kind of weather so it was a wonderful day to be out playing with the calves and the mommas. 

For the past two weeks I have been teaching pretty much everyday.  I have taught Pre-primary to grade 7.  I had to ask the teacher what exactly pre-primary was because I assumed it was probably different than back home, which it was.  Kindergarten (or Kindie as they say here) is 4 year olds and pre-primary is 5 year olds.  I have had a wonderful time teaching at Lancelin.  The children are lovely and so are the staff.  They have adopted me as one of their own.  It has been nice to get a break from harvesting olives.  We are on the last weeks of harvesting and I feel like I am going a bit crazy picking olives everyday. 

One cool thing that the school just started doing was a thing called Centra.  There is a main office in Leederville (Suburb of Perth) and they have teachers that sit in rooms at a computer and a tv and teach classes through the tv.  The teacher can see the students and zoom in on them and I was basically there to supervise and make sure all of the students were working.  The language that they learn in school is Indonesian so this is the way they are taught it.  They usually split up the classes so half of them work with the teacher via the tv and the other half interact with a teacher on the computers.  Pretty neat concept.  It works really well. Centra also deals with students who take school via the internet who may be in a remote area, stuff like that.

David has been working hard at the Road House.  He usually has about 3-4 shifts a week there.  He is getting tired from all the working but he is enjoying the experiences and the friends he has made there.  I think he will be deeply missed when he leaves there.  We have another german couple living with us.  They are 30 years old.  They have been with us for a week now.  The germans seem to be all over Australia on Working Holiday Visas. 

Last week we had a bit of excitement.  We invited Darryl and Donna over for dinner because it was the dutchies last night.  David and Darryl were sitting on the veranda when they heard water leaking somewhere.  They were trying to figure out where the leaking water was coming from when they saw all of this white chalky stuff on the ground right next to the door.  They looked up and sure enough there was a carpet python on the wood above the door.  Guess he couldn't hold it until he got further away from the humans.  So Darryl took him down and we played with it for awhile until Donna decided that we had tortured in enough and it was time to let it go.  I EVEN worked up the nerve to let him wrap the snake around me.  I let him keep the head though, and far away from me. 

We have a little less than two months before it is time for us to head on up the coast.  It is sad to have the end so near in sight.  We have fallen in love with living on the farm, the neighbours, Lancelin, Catherine and her girls, and of course Darryl and Donna.  But we must keep on with the travels and see the rest of this beautiful country. 

Well, that is all for now.

Holly x