A time for..............Catching up.

One of the reasons we chose to leave our overseas posting to come home to Australia earlier this year was the desire to catch up with everything that needed doing 'at home'.  Even though we tried to keep up with things whilst home on holidays, inevitably many things were left un-done.  I feel really fortunate to have the time this year, not 'only' to pursue my dream of building a Toy Train Museum, but to catch up with many other things which I had long wanted to do.


I've been slowly catching up with all the mowing and tidying up that needs doing around our property "Whistlestop".  Of course, this is something I absolutely love to do, and I get a real kick from looking at an area that is 'finished', compared to what it looked like before I started. But there's another aspect to all this mowing and clearing, and that is the responsibility to minimise the bushfire risk on our property.  Whilst there is always more I can do in this regard, keeping the grassy areas properly mown is a very good start.  


While there are still quite a few things to catch up with, in the last few days we've largely sorted out two things which had become really run down in the last few years.  We're having some family stay with us at Whistlestop next week and this has been the catalyst.  We used our  fold-out campervan extensively when our kids were growing up, mainly going for holidays to the beach, but in recent years it's just been sitting idle.  It's quite old- perhaps a 'Classic'- and really needs re-juvenation.  This week I attended to some of the things that needed doing, and already it looks and works a lot better!  There's certainly more to do, but it's a great feeling to be able to 'tick' some things of the 'to-do' list!    I'm really looking forward to hitting the road with the campervan again, perhaps visiting some of the many beaut Old Machinery rallies around the country.

The other thing that needed some serious attention was the 'cubby' house that I built for our girls many years ago.  Again, it's had lots of enjoyable use, but in the last few years it's become more of a storage shed.  Dare I say it was full of junk?  With kids coming next week it was high on the list to refresh the cubby!  And that's what was achieved today.  What a dreadful job it was, but it's now as good as ever.

While these might seem like small, even insignificant, achievements, it is a really satisfying feeling to do things, finish things, which I've wanted to do for years.  To have the time to spend on doing stuff, and spending time with friends and family, is very, very special.