A quiet winter???

It has been a little quiet on the blog front over the past couple of months.... but it is not due to any slow-down in the pace of life for our little family.

We snuck in a quick camp at Wee Jasper with a group of friends before the real cold set in. With a bunch of friends, a campfire and the benefit of hot showers, it was great to get out for a couple of nights under canvas, as a last hurrah.

The kids try to make a rock bridge at Wee Jasper

The Great Paper Plane Throwing Competition

Then we returned home and started getting ourselves ready to move house.

Whilst it took a while for us to sort and finalise our domestic arrangements, the one definite was that we had sold our house… and we needed to move on.  But like all good plans that come together, we found a delightful house, ten minutes down the road and ended up shifting there.

Disaster

Then the week before we were about to move – disaster struck.  Our little Subaru was immobilised and yours truly couldn’t figure out why. One cold morning we jumped in and started the car, only to be greeted with a horrible whining noise from the gearbox area.

We had replaced the clutch about 12 months and 30 000km earlier – and all sorts of horrible (read expensive) scenarios went through my head.  It didn’t make sense for a clutch failure though – as I could push the gear lever into all gears, however on releasing the clutch, the car wouldn’t engage gears.  I said to Jo it would either be a five minute job, or a week… and to prepare for a week.

Terry came to the rescue, and after bundling into the 4WD, we were able to make our planned date with the Zoo (boys happy) before returning home with a car trailer on the back (Dad not happy).  A rather shameful trip into the mechanics for the Subaru where I left the car parked out the front on the street, with the keys in the glovebox (it was a Sunday after all).

At least someone thinks it is all an exciting adventure!

The next morning I called the mechanics to book the car in.  Five minutes later they called back to let me know it was all fixed.  Glen (the mechanic) had recognised my car, and found the hi-lo range selector was just out of gear, in neutral, and by pushing it back in gear, we were good to go.

When I went with my tail between my legs to pick up the Subaru, I told Glen that he could have pulled it all to bits, put it back together, charged me a thousand dollars and I would still feel better than I did coming to pick it up for such a silly reason.

He laughed, told me not to worry, and again confirmed the reason I have loyally taken cars to Roger and him for the best part of 20 years now… So a quick plug to recommend our mechanic, Roger Keft Auto Repairs, 8 Balydon Road Queanbeyan (02) 6297 5944… give Eileen a call and book in! 

The Move

We hired three blokes and a truck to shift the bulk of the house hold, however there was plenty of stuff left to be hauled by us over a week or so.  We removed the kids seats from Terry, hooked up the trailer and ferried the bulk of the remaining gear in this way.  The little Subaru did plenty of trips too – with the boys packed into their seats almost as tightly as the rest of the gear in the back, surrounded by pillows and blankets and other odds and ends.

With the rear seats folded forwards in Terry, we could fit six big tea chest boxes on the floor, with piles of other gear all around them. I was amazed at what we were able to fit in, an absolutely cavernous amount.  Then there was the trailer.  I have never been happier with the 7x5 box with a cage.  Our trailer has been made strong and heavy (a fact I curse every year when we have to pay additional rego and have an inspection) – but it proved worth every penny during the shift.

Load me up!

And so we made it – the trampoline was reassembled and normality has started to return to our family.  School has resumed and we have unpacked enough to start feeling like home… It must be time to start planning our next camping adventure J

Just load testing the reassembled trampoline!