Bad luck comes in threes! Off to the pub!

[THE COW BELL ON THE BAR TO SUMMONS HELP WHEN YOU'RE DYING OF THIRST]

A couple of weeks ago we lost an important person from our Carbon Coalition team in an incident that made me so depressed I nearly threw in the towel*. Then we found out we were unsuccessful with the CMA Farming Systems 'talent quest' and couldn't understand where we were deficient (so you imagine everything you did was wrong). And then we lost Daniel's dog Jackson under the wheels of the ute.We emerged from 2 days of mourning and took ourselves off to town for a long lunch and home via the pub. Guess who we found there?[LOUISA & STEVE MINNETT, OUR GUN SHEARER]
Our shearing team, just the men we wanted to see. "We haven 't received our invitations to shear at your place," said Col Doherty. "They're in the mail," said Louisa. "Like the cheques." We have the best time with these guys in August. While other 'squatters' begrudge them a few beers at 'cut out' (end of shearing), we have beeers every night after a day's shearing - sitting around a fire, yarning. Steve Minnett is our gun shearer,
[LEN COONEY AND COL DOHERTY, OUR MENTORS] Col works like a Doherty, and Len Cooney is a fantastic roustabout/presser/general expert. Daniel 'runs' the shed. These guys recognised that we were enthusiastic amarteurs and undertook to educate us in the fine art of farming, especially shearing management, etc. We have become close friends.
]




[THE PUBLICANS HAROLD & BETTY, ALWAYS GOOD COMPANY]






Dan Gorrie is our next door neightbour. He and his brother and mother have around 2000 acres, a lot of it arable (cropping) but much of it rough country, with quartz outcrops and thin topsoil. His Dad, Viv, who died not so long ago, ran his sheep hard and not too much grass got a full set of rootmass, so their carbon lebvels will be delicously low. I made an offer to buy that day. Dan said "No Deal"....

[OUR NEIGHBOUR DAN GORRIE, MAKING A POINT]












[I WON 10 BUX ON THE POKIES]








[THESE THINGS ARE LIKE A CANCER IN COUNTRY PUBS]











*An old saying I live by: If you want to know how badly you'll be missed if you leave a situation, put your arm into a bucket of water. Then pull it out. The hole you leave is the gap your leaving will create. (Someone or something will always fill the void. This image keeps me from taking myself too seriously (mostly).