Christmas tthis year was very special for our family.  A deal was made that if Matt stayed on as caretaker at Arkaroola while the resort was shut , he could invite his family up there  for Christmas. Much planning ensued and on Dec 22nd we set off, Rob and co from Adelaide, John and the girls and me from Pt Pirie. 

470 odd miles to our destination...

This was the first hurdle, somewhere north of Quorn. There had been rain the day before and what had undoubtably been a dry crossing was now under water.

This was the view upstream, that was a lot of water coming down.The water was flowing pretty quickly but after watching a couple of 4wd vehicles going through we knew that the road was good underneath and the water not terribly deep in the middle of the dip. John drove on the wrong side of the road (for Aussies), away from the left edge where the water was tumbling rapidly down into the creekbed and we got through. Lily said "Hold your breath if you hope to live!!"

I couldn't believe the line up of cars and caravans on the other side, some people had even got out deck chairs and were waiting patiently by their vehicles. The lady in front of us when we stopped said she'd been there for an hour- How long were they prepared to wait?

Of course I did mutter to John that I hoped we wouldn't become one of those viral videos of cars being swept away, ha!

The further north we drove the more stunning the scenery became but with the girls in the car we couldn't really stop to take proper photos. The ominous gathering of clouds also meant that we had to get there as quickly as we could; the road to Arkaroola had been washed out a couple of months ago and we didn't want to risk being stuck somewhere.

The last part of the road is dirt and we could see veils of rain sweeping along ahead of us, so the nervous tension in the car rose steadily. Phone coverage is very spotty, John had none at all but I was able to contact Matt, and he set out to meet us in case we needed assistance. One of his jobs is to go and rescue stranded people, which happens regularly on these roads.

It was good to see his vehicle waiting for us, and his verdict was there was one crossing where he might have to tow us through, but otherwise it should be fine. The crossing in question had been washed out and tons of fine red dirt deposited like dunes amidst the water, but John went through at a steady pace and we made it. He said there should be sand in our underpants after that!

The worst bit was a stretch of small rocks that looked firm but underneath was squishy, so there was a bit of sliding and skating and muttering until we got out of that.

Of course all of this had slowed us down, so it was nearly four oclock when we finally reached our destination, eight hours after we set out. John said if we ever do this again, he's hiring a 4wd, which would have given us a bit more peace of mind. There might also have been a few less squabbles from the back seat if there had been more room in the car, about everything from Lily's water bottle touching Mia's leg...windmills.... binoculars..... 'leaning'.....who would get the 'top biscuit'. I don't even know what that last one meant.

But we were all together now, and it was Christmas coming up! Let the fun begin!

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Back again...

 2022 turned out to be a year of upheaval in one way or another. My youngest son Matt had been living at my place since jan 2017 and in March he found his dream job and moved out. He's been working at the Arkaroola Resort as a maintenance officer doing everything from plumbing to changing tyres to feeding wallabies and checking bush trails. He's even had a few flying lessons, gulp. I'm so glad for him and I love hearing about this remote area that he loves.

My son and daughter-in-law are now living separate lives and the three girls go back and forth between the two houses. It seems to be working out as well as it can and as Mia said once "We've got two homes now."  When my son has them I look after them during the day and stay overnight as it's not worth driving home. My life is still divided  between my place and the pirie family for the foreseeable future but I love being able to help so that the girls don't have to go to daycare.

Next year the twins will start school and I'll have the days free, so I'm hoping to get back into customer quilts and more of my own persuits.

Izzy (on the right) is eight now, and the the twins are five. The difference between Mia (on the left) and Lily (in the middle) has grown even more pronounced and they are totally dissimilar in personality too. This nana who only ever had boys has had to learn some hair styles and plaiting skills but it's been fun.

Keryn has written about the original computer on Millhouse (the longarm) crashing and having to learn a new program to run it. At least she is computer savvy and can work things out, but I'm having to be coached slowly through each step and the things I did automatically in the old set-up have to be unlearned. I'll get there, I've done two of my own tops and feel a bit more capable. It's still intimidating, whereas I used to feel pretty confident in my skills.

I'm still doing lots of piecing and starting of projects, so I'm really looking forward to being able to use Millhouse to actually finish a swag of them, hopefully without too much help from Keryn.

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