My parents

My parents are calling in tomorrow on their way to a Women's Agricultural Bureau (WAB) Conference in Hawker, north of here. My mum told me that she has been involved with WAB for forty years and is still loving it. Although it is hard to keep the young ones motivated and interested as most of them are busy doing other things. For more about WAB Look here

My parents live in a small rural community and my dad is still working at the age of 72. All his life he has been a backyard mechanic apart from taking a job with the local Ford Dealership in the times of drought. This skill has come in handy for him over the years especially on his own farm equipment. He has a huge shed in his backyard where he still tinkers around with cars and old machinery. He has started a Yesteryear Machinery club that has a lot of members. The modern day cars are getting beyond him now.

My Dad is very fit which amazes the doctors everytime he gets a checkup. He has no health problems apart from a circulation problem in his feet, which doesn't slow him down. He takes no medication and walks everyday. He is a kind, shy and gentle man.

My mother on the other hand has had quite a few health problems over the last few years. As a child she had polio and a lot of problems may be caused by this. She has suffered a major stroke, and a couple of minor ones, but has recovered. Last year she had a large hernia removed that had damaged her bowel. This woman is very strong and tough and does not let on that anything is wrong. I think she is feeling a lot better now and has a lot of energy that she lacked for a while.

She was reared near the city, had a tough childhood that she keeps close to her chest, and doesn't talk about much. As a teenager my mum moved to Ceduna for employment with a local business. She met my father and the rest is history. They have been married nearly 51 years and are still the best of friends, holding hands, kissing, carressing etc. It's great to see!!

My parents had a short courtship of six months before deciding to get married. There are no photos of their wedding because it was squeezed in between Christmas and harvest time on the 28th December, 1957. The only people present were my Dad's parents and they were the witnesses.

After marrying my Mum decided not to continue working. But, by golly she has worked hard alongside my father working the land. Driving the machinery was her favourite past time, and it was a real surprise to strangers to see this petite 5 1/2 stone, 5ft nothing woman climbing down off the tractor. It was no trouble to lift wheat bags on her shoulders, little wonder she has hernias and trouble with her shoulder. She would always rise early to milk her dairy cow so we had fresh milk, and we had a constant supply of fresh eggs from her many forms of chooks, ducks, geese etc or should I just say poultry! At the end of the day there was lovely homegrown, homecooked meals and treats, always cakes and slices and to this day she is still the same, with a constant supply of goodies to eat.

Mum was also very good at knitting and sewing and would enter a lot of her homemade things into the local agricultural show, where she would win prizes. She taught me how to knit and sew although she is left handed we still managed it. I also learnt to crochet from my grandmother as my mother said she could never master the skill, perhaps because of being left handed.

My mother is very independant and dislikes relying on other people for anything. When they come through tomorrow she will have her basket of goodies including thermos, teabags, sugar, milk, cakes and any meals that they will need to eat, even their breakfast. Never do my parents buy any food while travelling. By the way she is still very slim and tiny. Her secret is; she doesn't eat her cakes!!

My mother wanted a large family but only ended up having two children, a son and a daughter. My brother is four years older than me.

My parents are good Christian people and are loved and respected immensely by many. I am extremely blessed to have these lovely people as my parents.

This photo is of my grandparents on their wedding day. My Father's parents, I was very close to them as they were the only grandparents I knew while growing up.

The mornings have been freezing the last few days with frost. We did have a couple of showers of rain on Saturday but nothing much in it. The ground is already dry. The days are also turning out to be cold, I have had to keep the fire burning day and night.

Coming up in August is the Cleve Field Days here. I am looking forward to going along this year, always fun filled days with plenty to see and learn.

Wishing you a wonderful day,

Tania