Post Christmas update:
Today was 37C here in Franklin, much better than the 40+ being experience on the North Island (mainland Australia) but still plenty warm.    There is a small bushfire burning to the West of us, but it is of no concern at this point.   In the North of Tassie several homes have been lost in bushfires today.   The mainland is insane: out of control fires in 5 states with over 1000 homes lost this fire season - and this is just the beginning of the fire season.  And our politicians are still pretending that there is no need to be concerned about climate change.

Courtesy of our son-in-law, Duncan, we have had the road into our place repaired and a container put on a new gravel pad to store some of the masses of stuff currently in storage.

Christmas visitors
Our son, Josh was down with his two boys for the lead up to Christmas, and Yanna and Jack, and our granddaughter Alex, joined us for our early Christmas on 23.12.
Among other things, I received a Boer goat: Vinnie.

 Josh and Buddy with Vinnie.

 Xaviah became Vinnie's adopted Dad while he was here: complete with late night visits to make sure the goat was settled.

Jack admires Xaviah's courage in  bringing Vinnie inside to sit on his lap on the lounge.  Sue was taking a nap at the time, but when she woke was fairly forceful in expressing her opinion about having a goat inside.

Xaviah got involved in applying render to the north wall of the house - it helps to be 6' 3" when reaching the high bits of wall - and Che was on render mixing duties.  Thanks guys.  Your help is really appreciated.

And then, to top off a great Christmas, I was taking Vinnie for a walk, when I noticed bees going back and forth through the grass to get under an old telescopic hive lid I had left on the ground.  A little investigation revealed that a colony had established itself in the old lid.  I made up a hive out of two old ideal boxes and some left over full-depth frames, popped the populated lid on top, and there's a new hive doing very well for itself.  I will complete the rehousing over the next few weeks as money becomes available for hive bodies and frames.

As I finish this posting, it is just starting to rain.  Here's hoping we get a decent fall tonight.  We had a paddock hayed on Saturday afternoon, but the rain won't be a problem, if we get a decent fall, as the rest of the week is forecast to be fairly dry.  So all good!