Christmas Greetings and another year rolls on.

Well it only seems like yesterday we were welcoming in the new year and yet here we are preparing to see the end of it already. As I look back on the year I find myself  referring to photographs to remember what exactly I did in any given month. This year has been a busy year for my wife and myself, we started the year off with a trip to our holiday house in Sambarland. Wed have been busy renovating this house for quite some time now and the end is finally in sight with only a few more jobs remaining. As usual we camped our way across the country stopping at a couple of places along the way.

Swag Camp in EasternWA  

Mundrabilla Bra Tree.

Eastern WA rock pool.

One of many small water catchments scattered through the Goldfields.

 Well that pretty much saw out January and February, March saw me back at work and on returning we once again made the trip East to work on the house. I took out the old bathroom and toilet wall combining the two rooms then built a new wall to split the bathroom in two and cut a doorway into the master bedroom creating a bathroom and ensuite.

Walls removed and doorway installed.

New wall and flooring.

Waterproofing and tiling was next on the agenda but that had to wait as we ran out of time and had to return to Perth, my job getting in the way of things as it does. I did however manage a couple of days out in the bush hunting to fill the freezer and managed to find a small cast antler as well.

Cast antler and a cupa.

Work saw us pretty busy for the next couple of months and it was late June before we made the trip across again. More work on the house was undertaken along with a couple of days out in the bush, we had a couple of good falls of snow and we took some time out to play with our dog Elly, she loves the snow.

The bathroom was waterproofed and the tiles laid out ready for tiling unfortunately time beat us and we were unable to get the tiling completed as we had wanted to. We returned to Perth and I returned to work. July And August were busy at work with a fair bit going on over the cooler months and lots of maintenence was carried out. 

September and October were interesting months for both of us as I had an Elk and Bear hunt in Colorado with friends, this was a first for me and something I would love to do again, even just for the scenery and sounds. I had arranged for my wife to meet me in LA after my hunt and took her on a short 10 day trip through the West of the US. We went to Sequoia and Yosamite National Parks in Califonia then off to Las Vegas Nevada  and finally to Williams and the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It was an amazing trip and something we plan on doing again and exploring more of the US together.

October saw me back at work and very busy for my whole swing commuting every day to a remote facility with a crew for maintenance work, very early mornings and late nights keeping things on track. But all up it was actually quite a rewarding swing with a lot achieved.

November saw us make the trip East again to Sambarland and more work on the house, this time I completed the Ensuite bathroom and got a few other jobs finished up. A little painting here and there some work in the garden and some time in the bush as well and I managed to secure a couple of nice Fallow deer for the freezer. I pulled out some of my cameras for the fire season and downloaded the contents of the cards( which i posted in an earlier entry).

We encountered all kinds of weather extremes in November, we had snow the first two weekends we were there and relatively mild weather for the remainder of the trip, however we encountered high winds, dust storms with limited visibility and 45c temperatures on the way home. It was worst in the town of Mildura but extended from Balranald to Renmark, the other side of the dust storm the temperature dropped to 19c in less than an hour, very crazy weather indeed.

I returned to work in late November for a very intense 3 weeks work that I am glad to see the back of with the weather being horribly hot and humid without a breath of wind and that was on nightshift, I felt sorry for the dayshift guys that were working in the sun. Well I am home now and its late December and only a few days out from Christmas, I am busy making preparations for the day, Lights out around the house lawns mowed and edged, all that kind of stuff. So I would like to widh you all a very Merry Christmas with loved one, and a happy and fruitful New Year. I will see you all again in the New Year and look forward to posting my adventures, yes I have a few planned.