June 30 deadline

"If you don't spend it this year, you can't have it next year." Our governments do not seem to know how to encourage good spending habits.  Why would you penalise a department for saving money?  Why would you not encourage common sense.

I hear stories about this all the time.  Whilst teaching, it occurred in our school.  Government funding was cut if you didn't spend your allocation.  I heard a story about our navy burning fuel so that they didn't have any left over at the end of the financial year.  My husband is now trying desperately to get a fence built so that he can receive a grant - he's already bogged the ute twice trying to get around in the wet.

And now we have no access to our closest town because our local council has decided to rebuild one of our major bridges during flood season.  The Eidsvold Station Bridge is out.  A sidetrack has been built to detour traffic around the bridge.  The only problem with that is that it is now six feet under water.  There are other ways to get to Eidsvold.  But the roads have been cut up by trucks trying to get around that way and they are boggy and impassable.

There is now no work being done to the bridge because the water keeps washing away the scaffolding.  There are no plans to finish the bridge or give us any alternative to get to town.  All because the money needed to be spend this financial year?  That's the only explanation being circulated at the moment.  How ridiculous.  Why else would you not wait until April or May to start the work?

So here we are: no mail, no groceries, no access for an ambulance to come through in an emergency.  I'm supposed to have routine medical tests done this week to check on the progress of my pregnancy.  I guess I'll skip these.  I'm sure my obstetrician will not be happy about that.  But what else do I do?  We're just lucky that we have half a cow in the freezer, a vege garden and some chooks.

Well done North Burnett Regional Council.  Here's hoping we don't need anything in town for the next month or so.

Take time to picnic

My husband has been working very hard to get a new stock fence built to a deadline.  He's not used to deadlines but with a new bub arriving soon and our other little one still in nappies and not yet walking, I'm sure he's aware that there's not much he'll be doing farming-wise once bub's born.

Our lifestyle here is fantastic, but when hubby is working out in the paddock from daylight to dark, I get a little crazy playing one-year-old all day.  I'm sure I'm not the first mum to experience this.  Luckily for me, there are a couple of paddock vehicles I can choose from to get out and break the monotony.  Miss One get's strapped into a car seat and away we go.  The first afternoon (around 5:00ish) we decided to get out, we ended up visiting Daddy who was busy with a chainsaw.  We didn't want to hold him up so announced that it was just a brief visit and we'd be on our way.  It didn't occur to me that our company was the highlight of his day, marred only by the absence of a cup of tea.  I've now learned my lesson, and since then, we have had daily trips out to visit the tireless worker, with a more elaborate picnic each time.  I've found renewed motivation for baking.  Beyond that, I recognise that this is really why we are here and what it's all about: Spending time with my family and enjoying the great outdoors.