Month: January 2020

The town of Monto is small. The population is about 1,189. For perspective, this is basically the capacity of the Assembly Hall in Willoughby, Ohio. (Correct me if I’m wrong about that in the comments!) The point is that it is a very small place. It is the kind of town where everyone knows everyone…

I’m posting this a day late, but in the US it’s still January 26th (or it was when I started writing this), so it’s all good. Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, it marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships…

If there were two creatures I could’ve thought of as roommates during my time here, they were a magpie named Check and a gecko named Kermit. In many ways Australia had turned out to be the antithesis of what I had expected. I saw no boomerangs, no didgeridoos, no koalas, and no snakes (except one)….

For a foreigner, Australia is a place we believe to be, literally, crawling with dangers. A few years ago I had seen a television series in which the 72 most dangerous animals in Oz were counted down. Granted, the kangaroo and platypus were on the list because, technically, they can do serious damage, but topping…

Tim and Khiara left the morning after the second muster and I began making a list of things that needed done. Among these were getting internet service, opening a bank account, re shaping my hat, and sending post cards. The straw hat I had used for the muster had been replaced by a proper felt…

I was supposed to begin setting up internet service so that I could begin teaching, but T and K needed to round up some cows for sale and try to get the cattle fed and watered as the drought continued. I decided that lending a hand with that was more important, so that that took…

Tim owns a panel beating shop in Monto, so once a week he and his daughter make the two hour drive to work at the shop. But this week would be a bit longer because there were cattle that needed mustering (rounded up). The Craigs own a share in a cattle business. Since I was…

Since the morning after I arrived in Gladstone, Tuula had been insistent about bringing me to class for show and tell. Today Tim and Maisey were going out in the ministry, so I had a free morning on my hands and Tuula got her way. Fiona drove us to the school and walked us in….

It was Tim and Maisey’s service day. Maisey is a pioneer. Her name (pronounced MAY-see) has an interesting story behind it.The Dutch word for girl is meisje. The Craigs liked it, but couldn’t get the pronunciation right, so when they had their second daughter they named her ‘Maisey’ as an Anglicized version of the word….

I awoke at about 6 am, which is something I never, NEVER do, but the sun comes up early here and my biological clock seemed to have gotten quickly attuned. I had heard some rustling against the swag a bit earlier and now heard a small whiny bark overhead. I glanced up through the netting…