Lesson 1. When you have low blood pressure, don't stand up too fast after bending down to pick up something off the floor.

Lesson 2. When you haven't learned lesson 1 yet, make sure you can land on a soft surface when you faint.

Lesson 3. When you haven't learned lesson 1 or 2 yet, don't do it on a Friday night when the x-ray department is closed until Monday.

Lesson 4. When in pain, codeine is good stuff (Not recommended when pregnant though).

Lesson 5. Just because the pain killers are working well for a change, it doesn't mean you should be stubborn and neglect the fact you're injured and continue on with your daily routine as if nothing was wrong and keep working on the lighter duties you can get done in the yard, because...

Lesson 6. Pain killers wear off faster than an injury can heal up when you're not resting it properly.

I have done something to my shoulder. I can move it, no swelling or bruising to be seen, but it has a constant throbbing ache, when I move it or put pressure on it a sharp pain shoots through it, I have a sharp pain shooting down my arm constantly - most of that pain is in my forearm along the radius bone and going to my thumb and forefinger... so guessing there's a pinched nerve in there somewhere... and my shoulder is making the most remarkable popping, grinding, crunching and crackling noises when I move it. X-rays tomorrow, will find out the damage then.

BB and I placed 3 eggs each from our hens under the broody chicken 20 days ago. The chickens have started hatching. It is the first time this hen has gone broody so we weren't sure if she would sit on them properly, so it was all an experiment. Silly surrogate mummy rolled some of eggs out from under her during the incubation process, so not all are going to be viable; and two eggs were put under her later than the others, so if they hatch it won't be until tomorrow. We just have to hope she keeps sitting on them for the extra day.

In checking the eggs it looks like only one more is going to hatch if any as there is only one left that has any little scratchy sounds coming from it and they're rather weak. We marked the eggs with child safe non-toxic markers and carbon pencil to tell which is which, but not sure if non-toxic ink would still hurt the egg they were an experiment as well. Seems the ones marked in pencil are the ones that work, so if you're incubating eggs and need to mark them, only use a carbon pencil. But of those that have turned up so far...

One of BB's hatched yesterday afternoon. His is grey. One of mine hatched overnight, and now I have a little yellow chicken. Perfect, one each. Knowing my luck, mine will be a rooster! LMAO

Here are the pics of our chickens hatching...

http://www.minti.com/members/darkenedangel/photos/70336?msg=C620-EA35-CB03-B0DA

I have a couple of friends staying here from Adelaide for a few days or so (Crystal and Laura). In need of extra food in the house, I called on Jeff to come around and do some cooking. The girls went out for a bit and brought home 2 other mutual friends of ours (Joel and Tammy). Joel had heard the stories about the mess fights we have around here, but hadn't experienced one himself... until last night.

It started out with the girls attacking Joel with make-up, which developed to hair mousse. Jeff and I watched in mild bemusement from the kitchen as they wrestled with hand fulls of white foam in the corner of the livingroom. I shook my head and commented to Jeff that they really don't know how to do it right. He nodded and agreed and commented with something about teaching them a lesson. Yep, that definately had to be done.

I went out the back and got a bucket of water, walked back inside to the livingroom where they were cornered and yelled out "Oi! If you're going to come here and make a mess of my house, at least do it properly!" and threw the bucket of water over them all.

Shocked, wet, and laughing they all went out the back for smoke break. Jeff and I joined them. Joel was laughing and stunned, he couldn't believe I'd actually done that. I whispered to Jeff, he looks too clean. Jeff nodded in agreement. So I went inside and got some flour in a bowl, walked back out and showed it to Jeff and asked "Is that enough?" Half way through cooking dinner and Jeff being in charge of it, no one thought anything of it. Jeff looked, nodded and replied, "Yep, looks good to me." No sooner had his finished his sentence I threw it over Joel.

It was on! FOOD FIGHT!!! Inside the house of course, most of it in the kitchen where the food was and the rest in the bathroom where everyone was trying in vain to hide and get cleaned up until they finally gave up trying and conceeded to staying covered in mess. By the end the mess was spread all over the kitchen, all over the bathroom (to the ceiling no less!) and a bit on the back veranda.

The house is back to normal again now but for the kitchen floor needing a second clean. It was an inch deep in sloppy sticky mess at one point and I had to call a truce to mop it up before someone slipped and got hurt. I wasn't so lucky however, because when flour and water mix and dry, it sets hard... add tomato and bbq sauce to it, plus more flour and try washing that out of your hair a couple of hours later!!!

Why did I bother cleaning up after the massive dust storm on 22nd Sept?

This blew in today.

It's nothing compared to the last one. In fact, pretty much everyone here is getting about as normal, because this sort of dust storm is considered typical of here.

Of course no one else will hear about this one because it isn't big enough to reach Sydney. Oh yeah, I'm cynical, but for good reason.

This one has been blowing since about 10am this morning and isn't expected to ease up until much later tonight. The sky has varied from yellow to red all day, tens of thousands of tons of dust blowing over every hour, visibility down to about 50m when it's gotten thickest so far today... about as bad as Sydney copped on the 22nd.

La de dah de dah. What a boring day. I was hoping to get out bush for a while today, so much for that plan.

Must remember to tech screw down loose sheets of iron on roof again in the morning, because we have hail storm warnings from the Flinders Ranges SA to Broken Hill NSW for tomorrow apparently...

I found this on youtube, I'm trying to upload video footage myself of the dust storm going from black to red, but this is filmed as the sky turned black. It's awesome to see. I'll add mine here once I get it onto the net.

Okay, FINALLY got it downloaded! This is the video footage I was able to get on my phone camera (excuse the poor quality, cheap phone). The video above goes from orange sky to black, this is what it looked like coming out the other side - black to red. Yes, Aidan and I were out in it (had to keep running inside to breathe while it was black, but yeah, we're nuts! LOL) Part way through I changed the exposure from high (to see with) to standard (to get the true colour of the red sky).

It is pitch black outside. It is 3:26pm in the afternoon. 15 minutes ago we had a dust storm that had the sky looking orangeish. Now it is pitch black outside. The sun has been turned off totally. Even a moonless night is not this dark. A solar eclipse is not this dark. It isn't a thunderstorm of cloud, it's all pure dust. I tried to get some photos, but there was nothing to see! I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. I have only ever seen that sort of blackness deep underground in a mine with all lights out.

With all doors and windows shut, the inside of the house is dusty. It's just floating in the air in the finest particles through every tiny crack. We can taste it, it's in our eyes, and the wind outside is blowing a HUGE gale!

Okay, I just got called outside to take more photos because the blackness passed and now the sky is red as red can be. This is a true dust storm in it's grandest! This town hasn't seen one like this for so many years the only people that would remember ones like this are well into their 70's or more. This is something that I am strangely glad to have experienced. I've seen some ripper dust storms, but never anything quite like this one. This is the type of dust storm of legends around here.

My neighbour got out his video camera, I tried to film on my phone for a bit, will have to see how well they turn out and if I can download anything to the computer to show later on. I've got some photos, I'll download them here as soon as I can.

Edit: photos uploaded here. These pics have not been edited, the colour is true.

Not human babies, gees! I'm not pregnant and I'm not trying to be. Hell no.

But I am getting clucky because we're trying to have...

Bantam chicken babies! Penny and Silvester are a happy and... active... couple, and Penny has finally started laying eggs. BB has loaned me an older broody hen (Penny is a bit young for brooding) to incubate them.

If we're lucky, in a few weeks time we'll have baby chickens. If we're really lucky they'll all be hens. If we're unlucky they'll all be roosters and will have to make a quiet disappearance and come back as chicken dinners, unless we can find someone around here that wants bantam roosters for breeding. I'm really hoping luck is on our side and we end up with all hens.

BB and I have sorted out everything and are back together, all is good with us again. We've been able to talk things out, come to agreements, compromises, etc. All is sweet with us and I'm so happy for it!

A certain person who seems to like hanging out with drama queens, believing gossip and living his life like he's stuck in some bad soap opera came around here at 4am, screaming and yelling at me for apparently spreading really nasty rumours about him.

He didn't hurt me or threaten me or anything, didn't even scare me, just left me traumatically confused, bewildered and angry. 

It was the first I'd heard of it, I certainly don't blame him for being upset about anyone saying the shit that's apparently going around about him, and I appreciate that he was willing to confront me about it, but I did not like the accusation that it was me that was saying it, and I didn't appreciate the way in which he went about it. It hurt that he believed such nonsense and wasn't willing to stop and think about it logically... for a start, I don't go anywhere to see anyone to say anything about anyone, and with what was being said... no fkn way was it me! I don't even know the people that were saying I said this shit, I certainly don't talk to them about anything, least of all him!!!

Logical concept: evidently someone wants to hurt him, just spreading a rumour like that is bad enough but it hurts more to be convinced that it's one of your best friends that's the instigator of it... so whoever was talking this crap was trying to stab an emotional knife in his back in a big way... but regardless of the fact that he's a victim of this as much as I am, I refuse to be part of that sort of drama. I don't need that sort of crap, and I can't foresee him learning to keep the drama away from me like that, so that's one more friend down for the count.

Life can lonely at times when you're a hermit, but it's so much more peaceful!

I love my Bunny Boy!!! He just threw a stocking over my head... I wonder if he wants me to rob a bank...??? LMAO

Aidan and his friends were riding bikes around the laneway out the front and they all came running in here in a hurry. Aidan (the eldest of them) had something in his hands and I could see he was intent on handing it to me so I held my cupped hands out as he approached with a slightly worried look on his face.

As he dumped them in my hands he said, "Are these bullets?" Umm... yep, they sure are. I asked where he found them... in the lane about 20m up from my front gate... mhm.

Not totally sure what they were exactly, haven't seen much ammo for years now and memory is a bit foggy and these didn't look particularly familiar, but they were definately large rifle rounds. At a guess I thought maybe 303's. The sort of thing you'd go pig hunting with. Very dangerous little suckers and not something that kids should be finding in the street, that's for sure!

Found out what they were and it didn't surprise me, but it did make me raise an eyebrow and wonder WTF they were doing in my lane so close to home. They were close to what I suspected, but worse.

They're for an SKS, a 38 calibre Russian (or Chinese) auto army rifle and there was enough to fill a full magazine (10 of them). Oooookaaaaay.. what the hell is that doing around here!!! Illegal isn't the word for it. That's overkill! A handful of single or twin shot rifle rounds, fine, someone probably has been out bush shooting pigs and they fell on the car floor, got knocked out and no one noticed... but a mag worth of SKS rounds - stuff that for a joke! No one is allowed to have one of them in Australia and you sure as hell don't go shooting pigs with one.

You should have seen the look on the cop's face when I handed them in for destruction. I phoned and asked them to come pick em up, I think he was expecting to find a few .22 rounds here. He tried to drill me about exactly when and where they were found and by who and who saw what and seemed a little perturbed that I casually answered with what I knew like it was no big deal, as if that sort of thing happens all the time around here. LMAO

Nothing surprises me, but some things make me raise an eyebrow and wonder... where is the mag for that... and the rifle... and what psycho has it... and do they have any more of those rounds... and how could they be so irresponsible as to let them end up on the street where little kids can (and did!) pick them up.

Dews (Danny's father) phoned me yesterday morning after no contact for many weeks and not having seen Danny for so long I can't even remember the last time they interacted with each other properly. He really pissed me off.

He phoned at 5am, drunk, and oh woe him he misses his boy... well then come and see him you idiot!!! ...He's been sick with the flu... for the past how many months has it been? Give me another excuse. Door is always open and he knows it. He only lives a 5 min drive away FFS.

He lost his phone and with it all the photos and little videos of Danny he had on there, from his first birthday and all... well he should have downloaded them onto his computer! Maybe sent me copies while he was at it!!!... didn't get a chance to... he's had 6 months to do it FFS!!! He admitted defeat on that.

Then he went on a little rant degrading Jeff and how he's lost all respect for him (never had any to begin with so I don't know what he means by that) because he stabbed a guy (got into a fight with a guy that's a junkie and it got very seriously vicious)... for a start, what Jeff does when me and my kids aren't around is none of my business and it's none of his, and Jeff doesn't bring any of that sort of trouble here, so shut up. Besides, he doesn't know the whole story and I already do and if I was Jeff I'd have done the same, so double the reason to shut up.

Then he said he's upset because he suspects that BB thinks he's a stupid useless prick... I told him BB doesn't think that at all, he knows it for a fact. As should be obvious, I'm starting to get a little annoyed at him by this point.

He's been busy doing what he can to get a career going so that he has money and can provide for Danny better.... Yeah righto! He's just more interested in himself and what he likes to do than he is his kid. Screw the money, there's nothing he can provide for Danny that I can't besides his time and attention, that is what is important!  Only been trying to tell him this over and over and over in every way I can think of to say it, ever since the start, and he still doesn't get it.

He said he's going to get the house cleaned up so that he can have the kids there... yep, bullshit, he's been saying that since Danny was born.

He said he didn't want anything for fathers day because he feels that he doesn't deserve it... good cause that's exactly what the stupid useless prick (his words, mine are not that polite) is getting and why.

He said he'd be around to see Danny later that night... and he didn't show up, surprise surprise! It's now almost 9pm father's day night, Danny is now asleep and he still hasn't shown up. I phoned him earlier and got his answering machine (he never answers the phone, just lets the machine get it) and left the message "Happy F...ing Father's Day, come and see ya kid." Aidan is right, he's not a father's arsehole (I was a bit stunned to hear that from Aidan, I told him it wasn't a very nice thing to say, Aidan replied that it might not be nice but it's true. I had to agree and just told him to be careful not to say that sort of thing at school or in public! LOL)

BB on the other hand...

Aidan decided that he deserved something for father's day, he gave him a laminated picture that he drew at school and this morning we had to go to the shops and buy him something. BB is an avid collector of cacti and has more cacti than terracotta pots to put them in, so many are still in plastic pots. Aidan got him some terracotta pots and some coloured stones to use with them. BB is slowly going through and painting his pots with mexican designs, so Aidan also got him some paint brushes, but said he can get his own damn paint. LOL And lastly he got him a new little prickly cactus... which is probably a type he already has, but it's the thought that counts.

BB was thrilled and honoured. He was also a little perplexed that he got a present for father's day. Not having kids of his own, that was not something he ever expected to have happen.

Once BB got here, I went down the back to wet down the compost heap now that I have a hose long enough to reach it. BB followed me and got cheeky with me so I wet him down too. Being so much taller and with a greater reach, there was no way I could stop him getting the hose off me, so I got drenched as well. Then the kids (Aidan and friends) got involved and a water fight was on. At least it was a bit less messy than the shit fight we all had yesterday when we got a truck load of horse manure for the garden. LMAO

After the water fight, BB had an assignment to get done for the course he's doing, so he spent most of the afternoon inside on the computer doing that, I spent that time painting the inside of the large bird aviary until I ran out of paint (damn it!!!) and by then a dust storm decided to blow in so I stopped all outside activity and wasn't feeling too great so went and layed down for a while.

Aidan spent the rest of the day riding around on his bike with his friend Jake. He's now in his playroom quietly on the playstation with the headphones so he doesn't disturb Danny.

Danny spent the day grizzly and miserable and screaming the house down because he's got a cold/fluey thing and seems to have the headache to match it. I'd run out of baby panadol and the only place in town open on a Sunday where I can get any is on the other side of town and I was out of money... but BB came to the rescue once he realised the problem was a lack of panadol and went and bought some for him. Now Danny is sleeping peacefully at last. Yay!

BB is at home with his father now.

As for me, I'm still pissed off with Dews, ringing me drunk and full of shit at 5am. Gees! I later emailed him and told him if he does it again I'll chuck a Jeff-style tanti on his arse (referring to the fight Jeff got into). I wonder if he'll get the idea that I'm not particularly happy with him about it?

That was father's day here.