It was Easter Friday and we were up early packing up our camp getting ready for the long journey back to Broken Hill for the Easter weekend.

Karl packing up his swag…he slept on the roof of the truck

Putting down the tent

Stopping to pump up the tyres once we got back on real road

and to give the piglets a drink

We took the piglets back to Broken Hill to give to Ponove the Tongan shearer.  His wife just had a baby.  He was more than happy to raise the piglets for the next 3 months of their short lives…

We had a good month of home schooling back on the Gold Coast before we came to the outback. We had a routine of school work in the morning and fun in the afternoon.  That routine has sky rocketed way out of the universe since we came out here.  The environment is different, every shed is different.  There is so much for the kids to explore and heaps of cousins to play with.  There is no consistency what so ever to get a school routine going.  For the first few weeks I figured the environment was so different it was an education in itself.  But we’ve been trying a little harder to get some school work done here at Waka.  We had our own little class room set up in our tent.

Marama is dyslexic and the one on one time works well for her (when we can get it).  She’s doing pretty good with her work.  Tama was in prep last year (first year of school) and didn’t learn much.  Since I’ve been home schooling him, I see why.  He seems to have some of the issues Marama had.  Blending letters together to make words just don’t seem to make sense to him, so instead of focusing on his work he’ll goof around.  So of course with all the adventurous things to do around here it’s been a battle to get him to focus.  We will keep persevering however.

Art is always a winner subject for the kids…oh accept for Tama

Art with Aunty Renarda is even better!

The kids are really getting to use their imaginations.  This is Manahi’s outback kinder surprise.  An egg shell with a treasure (rock) inside.  He thought it was so cool!

It’s another saturday…time to explore and chill out.

So we never found out where the actual lake was at Lake Stewart.  But this looked like a good candidate for it.

We went for an hours drive to Tibooburra to send a letter to Jonell by snail mail…and to get some phone coverage.

Then back to the farm for some fun

Chilling out

Will chilling out

Emu’s just over the fence

Sun starting to set

Collecting fire wood outback style

Building the fire

Someone get the baby!

The fire

Kids around the fire

We saw another Taipan snake slithering around the shearing quarters.  Today was not its lucky day.  The last Taipan we saw we never caught.  This one looked just like the last one we saw.  Could it be that we bought it with us under one of our vehicles?  Possibly but apparently they are quite common around here so we’ll never know?  This time the farmer got involved in catching/killing it and bought in the heavy machinery to help get it.

You don’t see the snake at the beginning of the video.  It was hiding under the old meat house.  The farmer tried to get it out but it wouldn’t budge, so he had to get the forklift in to lift up the meat house.  The snake then slithers out right under Rachel (farmers wife) whose siting on the back of the caravan, it goes under the caravan, then under the truck and then into shower drain and out the other side of the wash room.

OK..the lesson for today kids… This is an Inland Taipan Snake

It’s found where the Queensland, South Australia, New South Wales and Northern Territory borders converge.

This snake has highly toxic venom and is considered to be the most potent of any land snake in the world; it has the potential to kill an adult human within 45 minutes.

So don’t go anywhere near the drain where it was killed.  There might still be venom there!

more into at http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2012/07/australias-10-most-dangerous-snakes

Paewai Shearing is a family affair with heaps of little Paewai’s in tow.  We have 11 kids with us at the moment.  All of them are Paewai’s except for 1 (Misty 7).  Lewis and Renarda Paewai are the shearing contractors and owners of Paewai Shearing.  They have 4 young kids Benevolance (10), Eden (7), Patience (3) and Hohepa (6 months).   There’s our 3 little ones Marama (10), Tama (6) and Manahi (3).   Last week we were blessed to meet Brooke (7) and Reefe (3) Paewai, this week they’ve gone home and now we have Lakin (10), Sharna (7) and baby Alizay (4 months) Paewai.

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Our Babies!!!

Alizay with mum Ngakita

Hohepa and Marama

Bath time in the kitchen sink

Gorgeous Alizay

It was the last day shearing at Lake Stewart today.  They just had 1 run to do so they started at 5am.  Finished at 7:30am ready for breakfast, then we had to clean up, pack up, drive just 10kms down the road to Waka Station, set up camp again, have lunch then back to shearing for the gang.

We finally got to set up our tent fully for the first time and it feels great to have our own space!

Waka Station is where we came last year for our holiday.  It looks quite different this year with vegetation everywhere from all the rain they had this year.  We also got an awesome surprise when we walked into the kitchen!

A modern outback kitchen!!!

These refurbished old fridges are cupboards

The dining room

This old wood fire stove could still be cranked up…but maybe in the winter!  Loved the big modern gas oven.  Now this is an oven to feed a shearing gang!

The old and the new

The kids doing the dishes.  Everybody works around here!

Kids doing the dishes

And how is this for a meat pack…fresh from the farm.

A gift from Bodie and Rachel the farmers

Bodie and Rachel are the owners of the farm.  Here’s Rachel and her gorgeous sons.  Such a cool family!

The dams here are filled with yabbies.  So of course these Maori’s have to go catch them and cook them up to eat!

Bucket full of yabbies

Retrieving the catch

Shelling and preparing to cook

First time touching a yabbie

Setting the nets

Chilling out on a Saturday evening…a bit of target practice.

Relaxing by the fire