April 24th 2015

Hi All,
Well, where has the last three weeks gone!!
The older I get the faster the days seem to fly by.
We have got most of the maintenance of upstairs completed.  YAY!!
All the window frames and door frames have been sanded back and re-stained and look great.
The louvre doors on the wardrobes and linen press have been given a coat of furniture oil and have come up a treat.
Most of you will remember from previous blog entries that we have had an issue with a very strong room freshener smell coming from the upstairs loo.  WELL it is finally gone!!  No longer do we have visitors asking where the room freshener is hidden in the toilet - as the smell was so powerful.  Don't know what finally caused it to go away - but it has, so that is a relief to the nose :D.

Just when you think you are getting ahead things seem to make you stop and re-think :(
We had friends staying from Townsville and the washing machine decided that it didn't want to pump the water out.  We tried many things but in the end the machine mechanic was called and a new pump was installed.
The rear tyres on the car went for a slide in the rain and the tyre man told us that they needed replacing.  We had been keeping an eye on the tread as the tyres have travelled about 65,000 km and we thought the amount of tread left was still good, but with a slide in the rain - had them checked.
The fridge in the back of the car was not holding the cold when ever we had it on and we weren't sure whether it was the fridge or the battery.  So got it checked by our good friend Shane and it turned out to be the battery.  Even though the volt metre was showing a charge in the battery, when you blocked the DCDC charger the residual voltage in the battery disappeared rather quickly.  So when the car was running it showed a good voltage but as soon as the car was turned off - all the power disappeared and there was nothing to power the fridge. :C  So a new battery has been installed.

I have been doing a bit of sewing over the past couple of weeks.  I have joined a ladies group and they are planning a raffle and street stall, so I have been helping them sew up the items they are putting onto the stand - scrunchies and little bags for little girls and I will also contribute some of the items that I have personally made.  They are planning the stall for July, so we have some time to get merchandise together.
I have also been doing some more of the weaving that I was taught whilst in Wagga last year.  It is a very relaxing thing to do whilst sitting in the evening.  You can lose track of time though and sometimes I find it is 11.30 pm and have to put it down until the morrow :D  I have completed  two small baskets and started a third.

We had our number one grandson here for about a week during the school holidays.  He was very pleasant company and helped his granddad by mowing the lawns.  The other children came for a day visit and went to the beach for the afternoon and had a ball.  On the drive home the two younger boys were asleep before Beck got 5 mins down the road. :D

The weather conditions down in NSW have had worried about our relatives BUT all have come through unscathed.  Our dear friends Doreen and Ken travelled home from Inverell in the terrible weather, as their daughter Melissa, had had a tree fall onto her home and wrecked two rooms.  A trying time for them all BUT thankfully no one was hurt.
We hope to do a couple of little weekends away in the van over the coming months whilst we plan our travel itinerary for the next year.  No definite plans on when or where for any of the trips but making plans anyway :D :D :D

We celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary this week and my sister Jenny and her hubby Peter celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on the same day.  We had a busy day but a good one.

Tomorrow we are going to be up nice and early and attend the Dawn service, either in Redland Bay or Cleveland, haven't really decided past that.  so hope all that attend a Service or March have a pleasant day.

Yallakool near Murgon Qld

Darryl and I had a great weekend away with our Caravanning friends.  We went to Bjelke-Petersen Dam near Murgon and stayed at the Yallakool camp area.  Right on the banks of the dam. 

  Sunset over the Dam on Friday night.

  Buster’s first trip away!

There are to be 26 vans and about 6 guests vehicles here as well.  Our friends from Inverell are coming also.

 View of the dam from the van

The weather was VERY hot and humid.  Those with boats really enjoyed getting out on the water.  A couple of fish were caught, some yabbies and 1 red-claw.  Saturday night we had a storm which lasted about an hour.

 Playing Klop at Happy Hour – this game can take ages to work through and gives lots of enjoyment to all.

 Our setup and our ‘watch-dog’

We had rain again on Sunday night.  Not as heavy as Saturday night but nice to listen to as we went to bed J

 The dam on Monday morning.

Whilst camping we tried the CPAP machine with just the inverted 12V power as we had been having problems with it cutting in and out when we were free camping. We had it at the 12V specialists and it did not miss a beat the whole day – no matter what we connected to the inverted powerpoint. Unfortunately it did the same thing this time.  Within a couple of minutes of Darryl putting the CPAP on – it started cutting out.  We got it on video in the afternoon when he went to try it and again that night.

On our way home from Murgon we called into Caloundra and left the inverter with them so they could send it off to be inspected and – hopefully – repaired.  We just have to wait for them to tell us it is back – and that had better be before we head off on the trip.

Busy weekend and busy week ahead :)

Well this weekend we have mowed the lawns, whipper-snipped the edges, and today we washed the van AND the car and then karcher'd the stamped driveway.  It is lovely and bright and hopefully we have gotten rid of the mould :D
We now have a severe storm warning all the way from Toowoomba across to the Redlands coast.  Just looked at BOM and there is an awful lot of red and yellow and some black in the storm on such a huge front.
Tomorrow we are heading out to Jimboomba to see our Doctor - and hopefully he will give us a clean bill of health .  Waiting to see what has to happen with my knee though.  IT has not been too bad - wearing the brace everyday and taking panadol osteo.  During the night is when it seems to give me the most grief :(
So will wait until Dr Rod has a chance to look at it and give me his expert opinion.
Darryl's two specialists last week were quite pleased with him and don't want to see him for 12 months - whoo hoo.  I haven't heard from my specialist yet - but will try and contact them tomorrow.
This week we have had only one doggie to look after.
Andy has gone to live with Beckie, Matt, Brad, Gemma, Max and their dog Bob.  Buster has been good.  He was off his food initially but seems to have settled down.  We are trying to keep up Ben's routine with him and he goes for a walk each afternoon.  We take about 30 mins to do the walk and it is difficult to encourage Darryl to come along - and 80% of time he walks behind us :)
It is almost time for me to get a new computer too..... :(  My little vaio is not coping :(  Have taken a lot of photos and documents off it and put them on the external HDD and still only have 15GB left out of 120!!!
It has been a great little machine for the past 3 years.