Still At Gregory

Hi All
Tony moved to the Gregory Area in 01' He had been working on Nardoo Stn prior to that fencing with a contractor and decided to return and start his own contracting business. I moved there in the April of 02' and had Brandy 5 years later to the day!! That has nothing at all to do with what I am talking about but an interesting fact all the same. I had moved there in the beginning to be a governess and I was teaching 3 girls aged 10, 8 and 4. After 4 months I decided this was not the job for me and I missed the pub life and approached Jo at the Gregory Downs Hotel for a job. I had worked in bars prior to moving to QLD so I did have a bit of an idea as to what I was getting myself in for. We had done the pub thing, the contracting thing, the baby thing and the hay farm thing and after we returned to Gregory after our wedding we had talked endlessly about what to do next. The farm wages were OK but with 2 little ones and all our expenses and the new car payment we were living from fortnight to fortnight and not saving. We were missing out on fun things and often had to postpone payments on bills. This probably would not have happened if both of us were working. I was doing odd jobs here and there and I think I earned all up $1000 last financial year. We had decided it was time for a change however we were not sure where we were going to go or what we were going to do.

Around Jan 08' mum called and told us that Dean had got a crane operating job working on wind farms, and that they were moving from Roxby back to Adelaide. The money was good and they were both really happy. I told her that we still had not decided what we were doing but we did know it was time to go. I had looked on the Internet and we had been keeping an eye out in the local papers to see if anything suited us, but our biggest drama was no knowing what we were looking for.

I ended up applying for a job in Port Lincoln on a tuna farm for Tony as the aquaculture industry had always interested him and he had previously done work on a prawn trawler, the only catch was I didn't tell him I had applied. For those of you who don't know Tony there is no urgency in ANYTHING he does. He isn't slow when it something he wants to do but you can not rush these things. It was now the end of February and after talking about moving for about 6 and a half months he still had not done anything. I was sick of being cramped in a 2 bedroom house with 2 small kids who had to spend a majority of time inside because of the heat, so I did something about it. About 2 weeks passed and we had heard nothing so I assumed they had filled the position and thought nothing of it.

I called mum and was having another whinge about life on the farm, when she suggested I e-mail Tony's resume to her and Dean can give it the foreman on the wind farm. Tony is very mechanically minded and we thought this sort of job would suit him. I spoke to him that night about it and he said why not!! It was a HUGE move but really what is the difference between packing up everything and moving it 500k or 2500k you still have to pack it all and move it. Anyway I e-mailed it, that night then got a call from mum the next morning saying start packing they want him down here A.S.A.P. I had started packing about 2 weeks before as I knew something was going to happen I just didn't know when. Tony called the Foreman and arranged everything, he said yeah how soon can you get here. Tony allowed for 2 weeks notice and 3 days to drive there and gave him a date. He said cool see you then. Word spread like a bush fire and before we knew it everyone in the Burke shire district knew. Tony was working at the farm during the day and packing his shed at night and I was packing in between looking after the kids. I was also cleaning like a mad women to get the house perfect before we left. We were both very busy but managed to get it all done in time.

Those of you who know me and those of you who have read previous blog entries know I am a cryer. I did well when I said goodbye to Jo, (she left on holiday's a couple of days before we left.) I did really well at our going away party at the farm, I didn't even cry when there was a speech. I cried more at Bec and Marty Dixon's going away party than I did at ours. The day before we left Sheldo had come to get some more of Tony's things for us and when he said goodbye I couldn't give him a hug or even look at him, so I just waved. I knew the water works were coming and I was afraid if I started I wouldn't be able to stop. All was OK until Billy and Amanda who were helping us pack the last few things and clean went to leave. Billy started then I started then Amanda stared it was all over. Billy was worried Tony would think he was a sook but Tony held his tears back until they had pulled away. Gregory was a great place and Kasey Chambers said it best in "Southern Kind of life". "It wasn't easy to stay but it was harder to leave".

I will always remember Gregory Downs, "I had nights I can't remember good friends I'll NEVER forget (Toby Keith, Shoken Y'all) There was fun times, sad times, happy times and hard times but all rolled in to one we had a GREAT TIME!!

Bye for now and Happy blogging.
Bec