Country Living

It's still hard to believe we are living out here in this beautiful country...away from city lights, rush hour traffic and noise. All we hear now are the cockatoos coo-ing, the cows moo-ing and Burma meow-ing. It's such a peaceful and renewing place to be and we love all of the ways to be resourceful out here. Water for the entire land is supplied from the rain, where it collects in large tanks and pumps up to the house and yard. We eat fresh eggs and orange juice every morning and we collect firewood and snuggle up to warm fires at night. There's always something to do and I know Zach is glad to have a huge yard to chip around in. The weather has been great so far. A little rain and wind, but most days are sunny and 65-70 degrees. Spring is just around the corner!

It's been an adventurous week and I forgot to mention in the last blog about our night at the rotary meeting last week. Before Kaye and Grahame left for their trip, (by the way - they went to Africa, Italy and will cruise on a private Mediterranean yacht...not a bad vacation!) Grahame took us to his weekly meeting which has about 35 members from the community. Zach and I jumped right in and had quite a night. Australians love to joke about everything and of course we, as the visitors from California, were the butt of the jokes. They had us both go up to the front podium and give a short speech about our trip. We were even featured in the weekly bulletin!

Rotary Club of Gloucester Inc / Secretary - Rod Menzel
"We had the pleasure of meeting two young Californian House-Sitters who will be looking after the Stelzers' wine cellar while the owner is in Africa. Amber and Zach Milner gave a quick talk on their background and their reasons for doing what they are doing. Imagine leaving your job, coming to Oz for 9 months and then returning to the States to pick up careers again. Oh, to be young and resourceful again. I am sure we will see more of these two over the coming weeks."

Zach started working for the dairy farm on Monday. He clocked about 15 hours this week and is enjoying this very different type of work. He says, "I basically have been pressure-washing and shoveling crap out of the milking area and the calves playpin. Maybe I can start milking the cows next week. I'm just very happy to have a job right now." Here's a short video from down at the farm:


I have been busy with things around the house. I'm enjoying taking care of the garden, chooks and Burma. Here's a video about my activities: