This week we have been moving cattle around. The season is getting progressively worse with little rain on the horizon. Although the summer storms have been making an appearance every week or so they remain stubbornly dry. Gusty winds and bad lightning have everyone worried about fires and with the number that have been burning in the eastern states since september it is cause for concern.

We started feeding some of our cows a month ago with hay and this week we begin feeding out cotton seed. This milled seed from the cotton plant is not only filling but also contains oil in the seed kernal which cattle love. David has been out irrigating the cotton and unfortunately ran into last weekends heat wave before he finished. It’s a dangerous time to be working out doors. We have had the odd neighbour collasping from the heat while out working during the late morning. People forget how quickly heat stress can creep up on you.

 This coming week we’ll be playing with the moos again and of course I have the small job of trying to complete another novel. As we’re heading into silly season – my tree is up and looking very festive – it’s clearly present time so I’ll be doing my annual list of book buys and hosting two great male authors. Peter Watt and Gregory Barron will both be visiting. I’ll also be giving a brief glimpse into my current work-in-progress over at Sara Foster’s website in a week or so and I’ll also be talking Australian historical novels with Steve Rossiter over at AusLit. I look forward to sharing lots more as we count down to chrissy day.