Dark glasses were needed!
Yes, there were tears, both happy and sad when we hugged our house-sitting host goodbye last month. We spent six fabulous weeks in Cawarral, which is somewhere in the middle of Rockhampton and Yeppoon on the Queensland Capricornia Coast. (You might recall I set a story in the same region after staying on a cattle property last year.)
Yes, we are officially house-sitters and care-taking our way around the country by looking after vacant houses, maintaining properties and gardens, and feeding and loving animals while their humans head off on holidays. We did up a website, printed some business cards, and the requests started coming in and if our first sit in Cawarral is anything to go by, this roving life just got better.
Check out the pictures: the view from our van was stunning, the company cute, and the experiences were the type you tick off the bucket list — the highlight for sure was being midwives to Lacey the Appaloosa mare (check out the video below).
Of course the birth had to happen just after midnight, with Michelle banging on the caravan door: “Come on, girls, we’re having a baby.” So we chucked on long pants and shirts and fought off mozzies that were bigger than a Black Hawk helicopter, while keeping nosy stable mates at bay and taking really bad video recordings. We soon realised the birth was not going to plan, but Michelle took charge and there was a happy ending. His name is Barney, and if you would like to work your way through some very dark and badly done recording (it does get better when we needed it to) you too can witness the miracle of birth.
Best of all, we have made friends for life in Michelle and John (and Paddy – the award-winning Palomino, Clancy – who thinks he’s a dog, and Wilbur with the wonderful eyes. Coco, who is actually a dog, was also the perfect puppy therapy). Missing you all in Cawarral, but there are new communities to get to know. Next stop — Bairnsdale, Victoria. We hope to back in Cawarral for Christmas next year. Barney will probably be with a new family by then, but we got word recently another bub is on the way, so he or she will be a few months old by then. Can’t wait.
Thank you Michelle and John for your friendship.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nicole Alexander is a part-time grazier and author. Her 7th novel, River Run is out now.
Life is simple on top of the mountain for David, Matthew and Tilly until the winter of 1979 when tragedy strikes, starting a chain reaction that will ruin lives for years to come. Those who can, escape the Greenhill banana plantation on the outskirts of Coffs Harbour. One stays—trapped for the next thirty years on the mountain and haunted by memories and lost dreams. That is until the arrival of a curious young woman, named Sidney, whose love of family shows everyone the truth can heal, what’s wrong can be righted, the lost can be found, and . . . there’s another side to every story. For more books: 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Fiona Palmer lives in the tiny rural town of Pingaring in Western Australia, three and a half hours south-east of Perth. She discovered Danielle Steel at the age of eleven, and has now written her own brand of rural romance. She has attended romance writers’ groups and received an Australian Society of Authors mentorship for her first novel, The Family Farm. She has extensive farming experience, does the local mail run, and was a speedway-racing driver for seven years. She spends her days writing, working as a farm hand, helping out in the community and looking after her two children.