A shiny Terry returns - but it isn't long before I break something!

It seems that everything happens in the lead up to Christmas, and of course we don't seem to do things by halves in our family.

With a busy schedule of school concerts, assemblies, swimming lessons, BBQ's, community breakfasts and the rest in the last few weeks of school, Jo and I have been having nightly planning meetings to make sure we get everything both of the little helpers to their assigned activities.  How families with more than two kids do this is completely beyond my comprehension and my sincere admiration goes out to you.

Somewhere in the middle of this, Terry was booked in for repairs, following our little mishap a few weeks ago.  With careful examination of the calender, we chose a week and a half block where living with one car would have the least impact on our family.  So on Monday 5th of December we dropped Terry off to get a new bumper, to be picked up on the 14th.

A New House For Terry

After three years of frosty winter mornings and living outside, we decided it was time for a new house for Terry and Suby.  Whilst we chose a simple 6m x 9m carport design, we decided that we didn't want the standard colourbond K Panel cladding.  We were fortunate to know of an old hayshed that had long fallen over, and with kind agreement of the owners, we removed the old iron.

The old hayshed iron is loaded into the trailer

After my efforts building the cubby house, and knowing the limitations of my building experience, I decided that the main construction of the carport was to be outsourced to local contractors.   We thought that this would be a straightforward operation, but no it was not to be.

What Terry Gets Up To In His Spare Time, Part II

In my last installment we looked at two of Terry’s primary duties - Taxi for the Little Helpers and being a mobile tool-shed.  Of course Terry has many other duties....  

iPhone Cover Load Tester
Not an intentional role at all, but on one occasion I dropped my phone whilst removing a stick that had been caught up under Terry. A few kilometres down the road I realised I didn't have my camera, not even realising at this point that my iPhone wasn't in my pocket either.  I returned to find the camera unscathed by the side of the track, but my phone was lying face down with a dirty great Cooper STT tyre print running right over the top of it.  

I thought my shiny new iPhone's days were over, but full credit the the Otterbox Impact cover – the phone escaped with nary a scratch, and eighteen months later it is still going strong!

Firewood Collector
Our house is heated with 100% renewable, ecologically friendly firewood, collected from a nearby farm. Terry hauls an empty trailer to the farm and watches by whilst the trailer gets filled with timber.

What Terry Gets Up To In His Spare Time, Part I

Nearly all my blogs so far have been about the wonderful camping adventures we have got up to as a family, and a few misadventures too. Now whilst it would be a great thing if we could make a career out of exploring Australia, reality is a little more mundane.


We lead fairly normal busy lives around our two active young boys. We live in a small village, are involved with the school and all the associated social events that it entails such as birthday parties, community morning teas and the like. It is all good healthy fun. Somehow around all that I work full time, and whilst the tax man considers Jo’s employment part time, any mother would agree that being a mum is anything but a part time job!


As this blog started on the Australia4wd forum, it is only fitting that we look at what Terry – our 2005 Hyundai Terracan gets up to in his spare time. After all it is a well known fact that the majority of four wheel drives never venture off the blacktop.

Truancy and Bad Luck go Hand in Hand.

Over the past few weeks, Mr Four and a Half has been enjoying Kindergarten Orientation at our local school.  Over three Thursday mornings, he has gamely set forth into the Kinder classroom and emerged a couple of hours later with exciting stories to tell and new friends made.  Mr Six has been far too important to even be seen with his little brother as he has been spending the same mornings doing Year One Orientation.

Whilst the kids have been off learning about what the next year has install for them, the parents have enjoyed education seminars on Literacy and Numeracy, before enjoying a delicious morning tea with other parents.  Happy days indeed. But it is funny how things happen in our family.

Week three and final, and we had decided that on completion of Orientation, we would pull both the kids out of school and race away for a longer than normal weekend down at the coast.  We had a meeting on Friday afternoon, but decided we would make an extra night of it and give ourselves the opportunity to relax as well.  So it was fitting that on the morning of our planned escape, the school had invited someone from the Department who chose to give a talk on truancy.

The Department spokesperson proceeded to lecture all the Mums and Dads on truancy and how missing a few days of school would result in your child protegee failing to reach their full potential, indeed any potential and how they would be doomed for life.  She did proceed to explain what did constitute a valid reason for removing your child from school for a day.  Apparently fishing or camping is not a valid excuse, but attending a family event does pass the grade.

So it was with a wee tinge of guilt that Jo signed the vacancy log for Mr Six as attending a “Family Event”, and we loaded the kids into Terry, with fishing rods on the roof and the camper in tow.  We took off, first stop Oallen Ford for a fish.  After all, what could possibly go wrong!

Mr Four and a Half tries to fill the river up with rocks whilst Mum wets a line.