Quick Note from Downunder

We arrived safely on Wednesday morning but feeling a bit out of sorts after 26 + hours of traveling. Eric and Helen picked us up at the airport and had us back to their place in no time where the kids were there waiting for us. It was a wonderful reunion – they hadn’t forgotten who we were.

Yesterday we hung around their house, took a walk with the kids, took a drive to one of the wonderful local wineries and just relaxed. We have few plans other than visiting Bill and Sue in Dixon’s Creek, Jenny and Gary towards the end of next week and Fergus’ interview on Tuesday. We want to do a little sightseeing of some places in Victoria that we didn’t get around when we were here before.

We saw an echidna in the wild yesterday when we were driving around. I will post his picture in another entry.

The weather has been good, a bit colder than Kansas and today it is a little misty but we are well and happy to be back. I have limited access to a computer and the internet so I will try to keep you posted if we have any exciting news.

Dinner and a Movie

Yesterday I was invited by one of the library ladies I met a few weekends ago during my garage sale to go a late afternoon movie and then come over for dinner after the movie. Fergus was working so I said sure.

We went to see “Julie & Julia” and it was delightful. I highly recommend it but be sure to arrange to eat after you see it because it will make you hungry. Mary Beth – the lady who invited me, had prepared two Julia Child recipes and they were cooking in her slow cooker while we were at the movie house. Sylvia brought a eggplant dish (some French name that I can pronounce nor spell), also from the Julia Child cookbook. I brought wine (’cause I don’t cook and I wasn’t asked to anyway). It was FABULOUS!!

And just like in the movie we sat around and talked and ate and drank and laughed. It was the best day I’ve had since leaving Australia. Their husbands were there too so I felt bad that Fergus missed all the fun and great food. They said we will do another get together before we move back to Australia. It turns out that one couple lived in California near where I use to live and she even worked in the building down the street from where I worked – small world. Her husband, Mel is a retired research botanist (can you believe that Sue). He went to Sydney several years ago to present a paper on a banana fungus (or some such thing).

Another small world connect is that Mel is the President of the Fredric Remington Historical Society – Remington lived just a few miles from here when he was in his early twenties. Well my ex-sister-in-law Julie, is Remington’s grand (or great) granddaughter. Mel was the person who organized and constructed the Remington plaque at Remington High School. When I went to my brother John’s 50th wedding anniversary party a few years ago I took a picture of that plaque and gave a copy of it to my nephews, Paul and Dan, Julie and Bob’ sons. Mel is working on creating a garden around the monument and is planning a celebration for the unveiling of the garden. He found out that there is a couple in Wichita who are avid collectors of ORIGINAL Remington works. He is going to see if they would be willing to display some of his art during the celebration. All of this is happening within a ten miles of our house. We have lived here for TEN YEARS and I never knew any of this.

For my Aussie friends I want to remind you that Kansas is like Alice Springs – not dry and red nor all that difficult to get to – but right in the middle of the country. And Whitewater is this tiny little community far from anything. How one can find herself so connected in so many ways to such a place is a mystery to me.

Trent -The artist

Cooper’s foster human brother drew some pictures of Cooper and Bean Sidhe and they are fantastic. I guess you would have to know the kids to really appreciate Trent’s ability but their likeness is amazing. If you send these to anyone please give Trent Patience credit as the artist.

Drawing by Trent Patience

Drawing by Trent Patience

Fergush’s Birthday Pictures

Jane, Fergus, Jenny and Cooper (I think Daisy is back there too).

Fergus and Coop – headless Jenny and pal, Jane.

What is a THAT? Cooper asks Aire’ly.

Cooper and Jenny.

Fergush (our nickname for Cooper’s foster Aire’bro) has a party to celebrate his tenth birthday. Cooper looks like he was having a grand time – “we never celebrate like this at home”, he was thinking. I think he is going to be spoiled when we get back. He will be wanting to visit Aunt Jenny and Uncle Gary ALL THE TIME!! Here are the pictures they sent of the party. Jenny does have a head – see her in the last photo.

Computer Skills & Junk

I have been venturing into new areas in the past couple of weeks. I have listed the house on a website called Info Tube. It’s a For Sale by Owner site. I had to enter info about the house etc. I only have one picture on it  so far but once I get everything looking the way I want to show it I will get the next updated package that allows more photos.

I am also trying to sell some things on Ebay. That’s a bit more work than I thought. So far NO ONE has bid on the items – not a good sign. The garage sale is still going strong. I am getting rid of lots of “stuff” things we haven’t used or seen in years. But it is getting old hanging out in the hot garage all weekend long, people moaning about something being a dollar, people rummaging through boxes and leaving a mess. I am ready to call the Junk Boys and have them haul it all away. This week is the city wide yard sale hopefully business will pick up when they compare my junk with other people’s junk.

 

This week however wasn’t all work, I had lunch with Misty on Monday. I have seen her a couple of times since we have been back. She has come to my garage sale and bought some items for her theatre and she brought Storme, her sister by one day and she went book shopping in the basement.

My only other excursions have been to the grocery store and the hardware store – my personal favorite. Have a good week and thanks for keeping in touch. My stats showed that one day over 28 people viewed my blog – I can’t imagine who all is following the continuing saga so drop me a note when you get a chance.

Aire-reunion

Cooper and his foster family, Jenny, Gary and Lorna went to visit Bean Sidhe and her family, Helen, Eric, Emma and Teddy last Sunday. It sounds like they had a great time. We were able to see them when Jenny and Helen Skyped us. It was about noon their time and 9 pm our time. We were having a storm – what a surprise – wind and rain so the connection was choppy and it was hard to hear what Jenny was saying but we enjoyed it anyway.

Here are some pictures that Gary took of the reunion. They looked great. Cooper was decked out in his favorite blue collar and BS had a pretty red bandana. Teddy had a new haircut because he was the “host” of course. And Emma was just as pretty as can be with her blue scarf. It sounds like Cooper was overwhelmed with all the Airedales and humans around him and that he didn’t really spend any quality time with his baby sister. She of course was much more interested in what was happening at the BBQ. She knows what a great cook Uncle Eric is so she didn’t want to miss a thing.

Cooper in all his glory.

Bean Sidhe all dressed up for the party.

Foster family reunion – Lorna, Helen, Eric, Cooper, Emma, Teddy and Bean Sidhe.

“When do we eat?”

The Adventure Continues

We finally got the internet satellite hooked up so I can catch you up on what is happening. We hear often from the “kids” and I will share their messages to us.

On April 30 – Helen reported that:

“All is well here. The 3 of them popped out for a little while this morning whilst sunny and then came in. Raining now .Bean Sidhe slept in her bed all night, they were all so tired no-one woke till gone 8am, and they only got out of bed for breakfast!
Bean Sidhe has mastered how to get on all 3 lounges, like Teddy she lumbers up and stretches out. Last night Emma wanted another game, but she pretended to be asleep on the lounge and Emma gave up.”

And on May 3 -

Helen reported – “All’s well here. BS had some time out in the garden with the others. She’s eaten all her dinner and had a game with Emma. We continued our ‘burn off’ until lunch time when we all went in and BS and I had a nap!”

And Jenny wrote to say “Iwent to bed early last night as I was tired after the weekend with Mum over and the hospital etc, Gary said when he came to bed Cooper was snuggled up on the bed with me sound asleep, then he slept on the mattress next to Gary as we all couldnt fit in the bed.  He gratefully woofed down his weetbix this morning after his liver balls and doggie choc chip cookie.  I bought them for our Tessa collie and now cannot break the habit with Fergus and Daisy who can’t wait to have one first thing in the morning.”

and later that day she wrote to say, “Just wanted to let you know that when I came in the door Cooper ran to me , tail wagging so fast and picked up his red and black toy to play tug of war -  then sat in front of me for a back massage, when Captain Fergus saw this going on and said “hey that is my massage you are getting! ” , so promptly sat next to Cooper and I gave them BOTH a back massage, with Daisy and Smudge waiting in line.
So funny and touching the two goof balls grinning ear to ear.

My heart knew then that he is going to be ok .

So I actually am going to thank you Anne Marie and Fergus for sharing your beautiful boy with us which is such a special thing with the trust.”

It is so good to hear how they are doing. They are with great families and we are very lucky to have found Sue and the Airedale Rescue group.

Fostering the Fur-dales

Our last day in Canberra was Monday. After packing the SUV and doing the final cleaning of the house we hit the road. We loaded the kennels and boxes on the roof of the car, the back was filled to the ceiling with suitcases and there was enough room for the kids and their beds. We drove to the small town just over half way to Helen & Eric’s town and spent the night. It was a truckers motel, a bit shabby but it allowed two dogs and the owner was really very nice.

Are we there yet?

 

The next morning we headed towards Woodend – northwest of Melbourne – where Helen and Eric live. They have two Airedales, Teddy and Emma. They have a lovely house in the hills with a view of Macedon Mountain area. They have chickens and ducks and alpacas as well as many wild Aussie animals. Bean Sidhe got on well with her new foster brother and sister. Emma is two and a bundle of energy – she will be a good playmate to keep BS young – Teddy will keep her in her place.

Bean Sidhe's foster family

 

Helen and Eric have an In-law unit attached to their house where we spent the night so we had our last night together as a family. We kept Cooper away from Teddy since Teddy doesn’t like other male dogs on his property. The next morning we drove to Lilydale which is east of Melbourne with Cooper and all his bedding and supplies.

Bean Sidhe loves to play with Emma & Teddy but Helen & Eric feed her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jenny, Gary, Trent, Adam and Lorna are a wonderful blended family who have a perfect house in a new housing development. It has a small yard but that’s great for Copper since he isn’t much for spending time outside. They have lots of loving hands to pet and massage Cooper. They all get down on the floor and give him the time and attention he needs to help him feel safe and secure. Adam is working on getting Cooper to sleep with him and I don’t think it will take too long before that happens. Cooper will thrive with this family.

Lilydale family -Trent, Lorna, Cooper, Daisy (the fuzzy non-dale), Fergus (yes that's his name), Gary, Jenny and Adam in the back.

 

We couldn’t have found better families!!! Sue Forrester’s Airedale Rescue contacts have truely been a wonderful help for us. After we left Cooper on Thursday morning we went back to Dixons Creek, Wombat Bend to see Sue, Bill and the four ‘dales. It was so good to see them again. So much has changed in the four weeks since we were last there. The silt from the billabong was spread over the property, the billabong was filled, the grass is still growing. It was colder than last visit because winter is coming.

Wombat Bend billabong now

 

 We enjoyed our visit with Bill and Sue. We couldn’t have done this without their support and help. On our last visit we didn’t get a picture of the entire gang so here they are.

The Wombat Bend Family

 

We only spent one night and then it was back to Lilydale to see Cooper for about an hour, then to Melbourne for the day. We had dinner at the Blue Fire – a Brazilian BBQ – for our 16th wedding anniversary – we almost forgot with all the activities. Then we drove back to Woodend and spend two more nights at Helen and Eric’s. We were able to visit with Bean Sidhe. She is coping really well with her new surroundings. Helen gives us frequent reports on her – BS sleeps thru the night and gets plenty of exercise during the day.

Today, Sunday May 3, 2009 is our last full day in Australia – for awhile. We said our final farewell to Bean Sidhe and the Woodend family, drove to Lilydale to say bye to Coop – and his foster family. Sue met us there so we were able to say good-bye to her. I had a nice good-bye call from Carole Polson.

The next stop will be the San Francisco Bay area to see Fergus’ parents, and my brother Danny and his family for a few days. We fly back to Wichita, Kansas on May 7. I will continue the blog with our trials and tribulations as we go through the process of making a permanent move to Australia. In upcoming blog entries I will keep you posted about Fergus’ dealings with the Australian Medical Council, selling the Benton house and trying to get ourselves back to the “kids”.

Thanks to all of you who have traveled with us on this amazing Aussie Adventure. I loved getting your emails, reading your comments posted to the blog, and having connected with friends and family during our time Downunder.

Love, Anne Marie

So how was your week?

I’ve been a crazy woman packing and cleaning. It has been a very stressful time and sad too. We’ve had a chance to say good bye to most of the people we’ve met here. We went to dinner one night with Mike and Caroline Hall at the Rubican – very nice. We went to dinner another night with Carole and Greg. I went by the theatre to say bye to everyone there. I’m taking the Turkish girls to the movie today.

 

What a week it’s been. I’ve been packing and trying to organize the storage and cleaning and farewells. Then on Wednesday night Cooper stood up and yelped in pain and couldn’t walk on his left rear leg. He’s never been like that before, he was whimpering like a puppy every time he tried to walk and he was shaking so hard. We couldn’t  find anything in his paw nor feel anything out of wack. All through the night every time he’d walk he would cry. I was sick about not knowing what was wrong or what to do. It wasn’t any better in the morning so we drove to the Vet in Manuka, got him out of the car and he started walking around like nothing was wrong. We put him back in the car and drove back home. He was okay most of the day and then in the afternoon it started again so this time we drove to the vet and got him out of the car and into the office. The vet thinks he probably torn a ligament in his knee. He gave him a shot and some pills for the next few days.

He seems to be doing better but we have to make sure he takes it easy on that knee for 4 weeks. That’s going to be tough with him going to the foster family next week. Fergus found a great article online about ligament injuries in dogs and the treatment of it. We are hopeful that he won’t need to have surgery if the takes it easy for that period of time – no jumping into and out of the car – no running or ball chasing – just nice easy walks.

 

We turned in the small rental car – and got an SUV to haul the kids and their kennels and our bags to Melbourne – we drove three blocks to park and mail a package and ran over a broken beer bottle at the curb – the tire was history!! We had to buy a new tire. I washed three loads of sheets and towels and hung them on the line before we went to the rental office – while we were waiting for the guy to change the tire it started to rain so all my laundry was soaked by the time we got home. I spend the entire evening using the dryer to get them dry (that dryer can handle about one towel or two sheets at a time – it’s like a kids size play dryer).

 

I had also had the carpet cleaners come that morning and so it took forever to get the carpets dry because of the moisture in the air. And you can imagine how hard it was to keep the kids and Fergus from walking on the wet carpet with dirty paws and shoes. AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!

Today was a little better. I finished most of the laundry – still too rainy out so I had to use the dryer. Got most everything packed  and the furniture back in place (all the small things were in the kitchen). Cleaned the kitchen floor and I was in bed asleep by 7:30 pm.

 

Today I hope to relax a little. I’ll go to the Bus Depot Market – take the girls to the movie – take the last couple of boxes to the storage – and enjoy my final day in Canberra. Tomorrow morning it’s pack the car and off we go to Melbourne. The kids know something is up and they won’t let us leave the house without them. They love to ride in the car but it’s a long trip. They may feel differently about the car after this trip. 

So I might not have a chance to write for a couple of days.  I hope to get at least one final blog entry about the foster homes and our final days in Australia before we fly home. Check back in about a week for more.

A Visit to Wombat Bend

We finally got to Victoria and visited Bill and Sue and their four Airedales at Wombat Bend in Yarra Glen Valley east of Melbourne. It was a fantastic time. We spent three nights with them and were able to hear all about their battles with the fires. 

 

Their B&B is so cute. It’s a one bedroom and bath but it has a large living room and kitchen – the place is bigger than our house in Canberra if you exclude the extra two bedrooms. It was so peaceful and quiet. One early morning I heard and saw the hot air balloon go by –  it was magical. We were surrounded with Airedales, birds I hadn’t seen before and the billabong was full of ducks. In these pictures you can see their round house and the B&B with it’s surrounding veranda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are still doing a lot of cleaning up and also having their billabong dredged since the water is so low due to the drought. The silt that they are digging out of the billabong will be spread out over the property and the grass will eventually grow.

 

With the help of a neighbor they were able to save all their buildings, their cars and many trees but manyof their fence posts were gone. When we were there it was seven weeks after the fires and a soft covering of grass was visible in many of the burned out fields we saw. In these pictures you can see how close the fires came to their house and the B&B. The fences are their property line.

This isn't Fall color - it's burned leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 These pictures are just a sample of the area around Sue and Bill’s house. We took a ride throughout other areas where entire hills and houses were burned to the ground – it was very sad. For those of you who where in the Bay Area during the Oakland Hills fires you will remember the look of the devastation – multiply that by acres and acres and that is how this area looks.

I was so relieved to see Sue, Bill and the dogs safe. It is scary to see how close they came to losing everything. It wasn’t luck however, they have been prepared to fight the fires for years because they knew it wasn’t a matter of if there would be a fire but when. Years of drought and a history of bush fires has made them even more vigilant. This is Australia after all.

Seven weeks after the fires the eucalyptus trees have already begun to sprout new branches from their charred trunks. More about our trip in upcoming blog entries.