Per dad's request

I appreciate you all for being such great followers and I love all requests/ desires for information, but my dad really knows how to put the icing on the cake. He not only asked for more information about Dalby, he asked for more information on "the history, the dogs, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, and the religion of Dalby." He gave me not only the icing on the cake but also the little rosebud flowers, writing and other little details decorating the cake! So... it will be quite hard to tackle all of that in one go but I will tick a few off the list.

Firstly, the dogs. What is it about small towns that seem to bread runaway dogs? Maybe the dogs know they will get fed by someone, or the great expanses of land without fences, or carefree owners? Every morning (well, most mornings) I run to the gym along the river and I am greeted and followed by a turkey, a family of ducks with four ducklings, and a large assortment of dogs. They don't really come near me, but seem to think it is a fun game that I am running with them. They will run, gallop, lope? (no fun that horses get all the fun "running" words) ahead of me and then stop, sniff something, wait for me to pass, and then go ahead again.  It is a little game of cat and mouse and I guess I am the mouse!

History lesson time! Dalby was settled in 1840 by a man named Henry Dennis who camped on the grounds where that white obelisk (from my previous posting) is now standing. In 1859 Dalby officially became apart of the state of Queensland and slowly became the agricultural center that it is today. Dalby is host to rich, black soil which is good for the planting of wheat, cotton, and sorghum. I am sure the 26.6" of average rainfall a year also helps the crops flourish. The population has now risen to almost 10K people due to the construction boom and a local shopping center that is a large attraction out here in these parts. So basically, I am living in a very exciting, flourishing town ;-)

The butcher and I are not quite friendly yet but the woman at the Queensland Transport office this morning was very helpful. That's right folks, I now possess a Queensland drivers license. Funky, huh?

More on the town and (yes dad) the religion of the area next time. That's all folks!

Making a house a home

So I realized that I may be getting ahead of myself here because I haven't even shown off pictures of our house and here I am about to show off all the little chachkies that I brought from America to decorate our house. In any case, I guess I am starting on a micro level and then I will expand out to a macro examination of our house (Does micro and macro work in this context or only in econ? hmmm....)

I brought lots of little things with me this last time so that pieces of my American life/ family/ friends could be scattered all around. Here are some pictures of the fruits of my labor:

The green dish with hearts is from Jan (from her last African adventure!) 

My Disneyland souvenirs (from my trips with Liz and Ali :) ) 

Statues from Dad from Africa and a random turtle... I assume Mom made it, actually
I probably did since it lacks artistic finesse... ;-)  

Random assortment of cards (I have lots more where those came from!) :) 

These are just a few of the many pictures, memorabilia, knick knacks that I have lying around to remind me of you all. Not that I need any help! I think of you all daily and love updating you on my goings-on.

Toon in next time for a brief history of Dalby and a macro view of our house. I know, I know, you just can't wait... xox

When in Dalby (with pictures!)

Observations of the morning:
People here haven't gotten the memo yet that smoking is bad... young and old, everyone seems to be on the cancer stick train.

On a more fun note:
I ride Todd's bike a lot and the abundance of wildlife is amazing. Yesterday as I rode by the river I heard these little (actually scarily large) guys scamper up each tree I passed.

Goanna/ Lizard things

On my walk this morning I noticed this:

Apparently, Dalby originated as a crossing over the Myall Creek from 1841. The first public building was erected in 1846 and the swampy little town slowly became the less-swampy but still relatively wet town that it is today!

The river I run along

The lovely flood markers! 

You Know You're in Dalby When....

- You're sweating your face off one minute... and then

- Running outside to pull the laundry off the line just as a storm breaks.

- Our tin roof crackles and groans with the heat.

- Policemen come home to their "misses" for lunch.

- The most attractive girl in town is a bogan that works at the drive-thru beer mart (bogan: Australian version of (excuse the stereotype) "white trash."

- Everything is closed on Sundays (that is actually most of Australia)

- The river has flood markers up and down the banks and yet there has still been no action to try and contain the inevitable flooding.

- The people are incredibly sweet and could talk to you for days.

- I wake up every morning to the sound of a rooster crowing...

- and go to sleep every night to the sounds of cicadas.

I returned to Dalby on Sunday and I am just getting back into the swing of things. I really do enjoying writing and I am going to try and write more and expand my subject areas so look out for more to come soon. Until next time... xox