Carved in Stone

For the last while I've been experimenting with pumice stone carving. It's been lots of fun and all the kids get excited and try to make their own carvings. It's a great way of wasting an afternoon. Lately, I've been asking Shar to give me a challenge, so she will give me a random subject for me to carve. Today's challenges involved a duck and two linked rings.

We've just experienced cyclone Debbie. We lost power for nearly four days and Shar's cousin Lance came to stay with us as his home in Halliday Bay had to be evacuated. We had some fun playing games cooking with the gas camp stove and using the LED lights on battery. We lost everything in the fridge and freezers but that's fine. None of our trees were destroyed, so we consider ourselves quite blessed. 

Recently I bought a new Apple TV. Now we stream 3ABN, Hope channel, and other edifying programming to our tv. 

Some photos of the carvings:

The duck.

 

The linked rings.

 

Clam.

 

Rounded and edged hearts.

 

 

 

Azariah made a shoe as his carving. It broke a little so he patched it with pva glue.

 

Cedar Grove

This Christmas, we took the children camping. All through my young life, I recall my family camping at Cedar Grove near Gympie. My extended family still go there and so I thought it was time to introduce the next generation to the joys of this piece of paradise. 

We stayed for 5 days finishing on Boxing Day. Uncle Trev and Aunty Roni camped with us and Aunty Bonny and Uncle Lindon came on Sabbath with their family.

We had a great time swimming and bushwalking, tending the fire, eating camp food and playing games. 

It stormed for most of Christmas Day, but we didn't mind that so much either.

 

Cedar Grove swimming hole.

 

Lily with her new vest that gave a lot of confidence in the water.

 

All the cousins together on Christmas Day.

Can't wait til next time.

 

Rechargeable Zemi

During the first week of September holidays, we went to Brisbane as a family. We went to Big Camp in Brisbane and enjoyed a few days with Uncle Trev and Auntie Roni. Zemiel went into audiology on Thursday and came out with rechargeable batteries for his implants, complete with charging packs. The batteries come in two versions: 10hrs or 4hrs. Zemi is highly motivated to keep them charged and changed.

We also got some new beekeeping equipment whilst down in Brisbane. We came back with some new bee tools, wood for making frames, new wire and some extra foundation. Enough to keep us busy for the next few weeks.

I robbed hives during the second week of the holidays and we extracted honey on Tuesday night. We had 5 boxes of honey to extract and got almost 4 buckets of honey.

FM - now in stereo

So...for the last couple of years, Zemiel's teacher has been using an FM to speak directly into his ear. Over time, his right ear started out best, then his left was better, now his right again, which created issues because one side would not sync with the FM.

Two weeks ago, we realised that the reason was that the processor was faulty. After changing the processor, now Zemi gets a nice double dose of his favourite teacher's instruction.

2015

2015... Let's just forget that it even existed huh? In fact I'd like to suggest that we bypass this year also.

A short summary for everyone interested (and even for you who are not). Zemiel is now in year three, Azariah in year one and Zekiah in kindy. Liana-Roze is a very independent and cheeky 2 year old. We recently acquired a pet cat, which we got primarily for Zemiel's anxiety. The brand of cat was important though, because of Sharlene's allergies. We ended up getting a 'Skookum', which is a cross between a 'Munchkin' and a 'La Perm'. Zemiel named her 'Tollie'. More about Tollie in another post.

Diesel turned 10 years old yesterday. The boys bought him a new squeaky ball. He is getting a little stiff and doesn't run as much as he did. He still has enough strength to peel coconuts and jump the fence though!

We also have a pet budgie in the house. It is the first baby bird that we have bred at our current house.  Right now we have another 4 babies growing in the nest box. Azariah named it 'Cutie' and we have enjoyed teaching it to whistle. Zemiel especially loved the bird and got it out often to pat it. (Another reason we got a cat). This ended up making it a bit cranky and frightened of people - so, even though we hand raised it, the bird spends most of its time in the cage. It has terrific fun in there though. I'll also post a video of that soon.

Brian's Funeral

It was a good funeral.
Everything ran well and it upheld the hope we have.
Till we meet again.

A couple of photos of the family before the funeral.







A view of the order of service.

Poppy Brian

Brian Shepherd
25th August, 1954 - 13th March, 2016

The Important Questions

This is a signed conversation between myself and Zemiel tonight.

Zemiel: Dad, what year will Jesus come?

Me: I don't know.

Zemiel: Can we look on the internet?



Thanks Trev for your call last night. It was great to hear your voice.
Today Shar and I visited Hope. We went to Adra shop and helped there a little. We got a few suits for Shar's uncle Francis to wear tomorrow.

We cleaned the hall in preparation for the wake. Adrian, Stacy and me cleaned the windows - which hadn't been done for several years - but then the decision was made to pull the blinds over them anyway. *sigh*.

We all had lunch together at the lighthouse and then I got a haircut. Nathanea had finished the slideshow so we took it to the church to make sure it would work. No problems. Except we didn't have enough pictures of Rosie, Piotr or baby Ignatious in there, that was fixed with a few emails.

Now we wait.

Funeral Arrangements

So...we've written the eulogy. Arranged caterers, cleaners. Organised the coffin, flowers and photo. The order of service has been printed. Shar's pretty messed up. We showed the kids a video clip about cancer to help them understand. They did get to say goodbye to their Poppy before he went.

We are planning to make a little book of memories for our kids to remember their poppy.

Brian died with Patti and sister Muriel beside him. Shar and I had stepped out of the room for a few minutes to discuss some arrangements. He 'chose' that time to go.

Funeral on Friday.

Battle Over

Shar's dad died today.