Harvest Time

The picture on the left was taken from the header (combine) I've been operating for work. Farming has been a great experience, and something I've always wanted to try. The two farmers I've been working for have been great teachers and very patient with me as I learn. The other picture is me after working a 12 hour day. Somehow I always seem to get very dirty!!!!

More Thanksgiving pictures.

As you can see it was a very nice day for our celebration. Honesty, I think the temperature was near 75 degrees F.

I highly recommend that everyone look into deep frying a turkey. It tasted so good, and kept our oven free to cook everything else!!!

Thanksgiving in Australia

Hello everyone, sorry it has been so long since my last post. Harvest season has kept me very busy. Anyway, two weekends ago, Heidi and I entertained 15 of our friends to a traditional Thanksgiving day feast. We cooked ham, sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows (which Australian's have never had), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, cranberries, and I deep fried a turkey. All in all everyone was very impressed and had a great day. Oh yeah, on top of everyone bringing a few cocktails of their own we also went through 27 bottles of my home brew. Each bottle contains 750 mL of booze, so you do the math!!!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

My Web Album

Below is the web page for my web album where I have uploaded a lot more of my pictures. I will be continuing to add pictures to both pages!!!

Thanks

http://picasaweb.google.com/nwgustaf

Mangatang Horse Racing Cup Day

As promised I am posting a few pictures from the day Heidi and I attended the horse races at Mangatang Cup Day. The top picture is Heidi sitting with two teachers from the school she works at. Jody Scott to the left and Sarah Nash in the center. Our little group took over one of the private booths on the inside of the track and had a great day.

The picture above shows what a beautiful day we had at the races. Below Sarah, Nate, and Heidi display their winning tickets. On the final race of the day I placed a $40 bet on two horses going "either way." What that means that if the horse wins, or either places in the top three I win a percentage of my bet. All three of us placed a bet on the winning horse. Thankfully I did or I would have gone home a little lighter in the wallet!!!!

Lazy Sunday afternoon!!!

Today in Woomelang it rained. Only a couple of milometers, but it still rained. The people of the Mallee Valley have been under quite a drought over the last 10 years so every rainfall is big deal. On average the region only receives 13 inches of rainfall a year. The aroma when it rains seems so much stronger than what I remember from back in MN. I think it has to do with everything (grass, trees, and air) being so dry, but at the same time it is such a great smell I wish I could bottle it up!!!! A few weeks ago it rained one afternoon and I was able to go for a run. You may think the rain would be hot, and I'm not going to say it was a cold rain, but it wasn't hot either. It was nice and refreshing to do one of the things I love doing the most, running in the rain.

Just a couple of things

Hello everyone!!! Heidi and I spent last week at Rubicon with 46 seventh through ninth graders from the school where she works. I have loaded most of those photos onto a web album that I've started so I will let you know how to find that soon.

Before we left for Rubicon I had a big week that I wanted to share with everyone. This first picture sets me in the hall in Woomelang where I was the international home brew beer judge. Yes, you read that correctly, I was selected to taste 16 different beers and select a winner. There were two categories, first was ale/lager (which had 13 different beers) and the second was a stout
category (three beers). Some of the home brews were amazing, others needed some work. In reality if it came down to needing a cold beer I would have taken any of the bottles!!!! Needless to say I'm getting into home brewing now!!! As reward for doing the taste testing I get a one on one training session with the winner. The community of home brewers has been great and supplied me thirty bottles to start my adventure!!!

The second picture is of my first clothes washing hanging on our line. Hardly any households in Australia have dryers, one because
it wastes energy, and two you can hang your clothes outside nearly all year long!!!!
The last photo is of our backyard, and the two tanks that hold our rain water. Because Australia has been in a major drought the last 10 years water is collected off every building and held in tanks. It is an amazing process. I'll have more to come soon!!!!!