New career

I started my new job in march 2008, This is somthing special, to be able to change from a sugar grower to Fire prevention consultant and aircraft maintenance in ones lifetime sure is somrthing special, Iam so lucky and am enjoying it to the hilt.

Christmas 2007 at Alicia's

Alicia got her new Honda100 motorbike.
Steve Jacqui and Boston came up, we had christmas dinner/lunch together, it was good to be with them again. just to get a hug from them all and Boston was worth the drive down.

Camping on the Tablelands Nov 2007

DSCN2333 Originally uploaded by Bill Hutchings We left the highway at Kennedy up the range to Blenco falls, Beautiful drive through the rain forrest the road was good no rain to make it difficult, we camped there for two days I recommend this spot, Rick & I hiked up to the falls from our camp about 2 hrs up and down track. From there west stopping for smoko at rudd creek, and getting going we made it to the kennedy highway stopping for lunch at Mt Garnet. We made it to Ravenshoe with plenty of time to spare so we did some shopping, Rick & Gloria needed some Groceries and I bought a cig AA battery charger for our cameras, the girls had a look at some art shop. We set up camp at koombaloomba dam in time to get dinner / Tea on. we went hiking to the tully falls couldn't see anything, the Dam here is the storage for tully river hydro power station and the white water rafting, no other users get the water. Staying for a few days we drove up to Atherton and Mareeba looking at the districts attractions, did some fishing out of the canoe I caught a small silver bream but that was it, the other campers were saying they never caught much either. I was planning to go on to Chilagoe but ran out of time so we packed up and headed down to the coast, making camp at Henreitta creek on the palmerston highway. breaking camp early after breakfast of bacon & Eggs we headed to Tully where we stocked up on some more groceries and made camp at Murray falls campsite, this was the last night of camping and the ninth night sleeping in the back of our landcruiser. the Motel at Cardwell was wonderful, airconditioner on, a nice hot shower even though we had our own shower at camp a motel is always nice.

Dion & Mardi & Harry Visit to Australia 2007

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Originally uploaded by Bill Hutchings

August 2007. Dion, Mardi & Harry holiday in Australia, We went to Mooloolaba Beach, Australia Zoo,

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Originally uploaded by Bill Hutchings

the one that got away! was this BIG

Alicia came up for the week in August 2007, we asked Rick if we could go down to his hut for a few days.
We couldn't have asked for better weather, caught some fish too.

August 2007

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Originally uploaded by Bill Hutchings

Took Cassandra and Ross and friend for a plane ride over the district, we went down to camp Island up along the beach to Cape Bowling green over to the Barratas and back, having a look at all the fishing spots. about one hour ten minutes.
Nice flying! The weather was a bit cloudy but not too bumpy.

I gave the controls to Ross for a try, he handled it ok too.
Thanks Ross

Flight up to Tully, 30July 2007

Barry asked me to go with him up to visit a friend oh his in Tully, the weather was beautiful, over the Hinchinbrook Channel and in Tully.

Beach Party, August 2007

Lesley & I went to the beach, a couple of jobs had be done and then we set up the camp tarp and relaxed for a few hours, watched the sun go down over the dunes, cooked up some steak and chips and watched the Moon come up over the beautiful coral sea.

Flight back from Temora, March 2007

A Guy I know bought a cessna 177 cardinal and asked me if I would help bring it back home, I didn't hesitate, yep! I said, and thought, what! you havn't flown for three months dimwit, well I went out to the aerodrome and did some circuits and thought I'll be alright it'll be just a lesurely fly home, and it was, before I could say anymore Barry rang, "I have the tickets" on Virgin to Sydney and then Qantas to Wagga and the previous aircraft owner picked us up at the Wagga Airport and drove us the hour to Temora and his home, first barry had to go and look at his new toy. Very nice! That afternoon we had a look through the AVIATION MUSEUM AT TEMORA they have heaps of planes Spitfire, SaberJet, Trojan, alsorts, worth having a look, they say that all the exhibits are in flying condition and fly at least once a month. Then I took the cessna up for a check to see if all would be ok for the trip home. had a little bit of trouble I forgot to run up the constant speed and it started to surge on the takeoff roll and I had to abort, but after that it was warmed up enough to continue, did one circuit and all was ok. The first day 5hrs we went by way of Temora just near the Vic Border and Albury, to Walgett for fuel and then to Roma for an overnight stay and more fuel the next day to Emerald for fuel and then to Ayr another 5hrs and the plane went fantasticly.

previous owner Ian and his wife new owner Barry his baby and wife

Quick visit to Brisbane June 2007

We went down to Brisbane for a queensland health meeting and stayed a few more days to visit Alicia David and then Steve + Jacqui + Boston, we enjoyed the visit a lot, to see Boston again was fantastic, he is starting to talk now using words like Mama, Dada, Nana, Popy.
The meeting was good it was about a new concept we are introducing into the system, it seems it is an american idea where a peer specialist is employed in hospitals to make communication with mental patients more user friendly, Mum is thinking about looking futher into it.
we went shopping with Alicia, Mum enjoyed that, she always wanted a daughter to go shopping with, the sad thing is Alicia doesn't like shopping that much.
Steve cooked some nice meals while we were there, I played cars with Boston on the lounge room floor.

Iam sorry it was such a short stay.

Well Bye for now

Spyzooka, this anti-spy programme is the best I seen

Try it Click Here!

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Originally uploaded by Bill Hutchings.

Lesley had an accident missed the step on the front stair case and put her hand through the window

Beackonsfield Gold Mine, Tasmania, Dec 2006

Davenport, Tasmania

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Originally uploaded by Bill Hutchings.

December 2006, Lesley & I visited Geoff & Robin in Launceston for Shaunna's wedding, We stayed for about 10days.
While we were there Robin loaned us her car and drove to Hobart and Port Arthur, it only takes 2.5hrs to cross north to south of the entire state of Tasmania.
we saw a Tasmanian devil, some fairy penguins

and some of the loveliest scenery i have ever seen.
We had a ride on a cable chair lift across Cataract Gorge Launceston.

Click on the light house and go to flickr, have a look at the photo's on flickr and see what you think?

Riverway, Tville

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Originally uploaded by Bill Hutchings.

Nov 2006 another cell group picnic at Riverway, This area is nice with swimming pools everywhere it right on the bank of ross river up near willows, there is water skiing on the river also.

We had a barbq for lunch with other cell groups from our church.

A very nice day out.

Lounge Room Floor

Oct 2006 We Finished the lounge room floor at last! The lino was the hardest, it was glued like you would not believe, after the stripper we had to get down and scrape the glue off using turps and a scraper doing an area of about 6" square at a time.

But it is worth it, don't you reckon?

Hamilton Island

originally uploaded by Bill Hutchings.

Lesley & I flew down to Hamilton Island for the memorial service for Michael Hutchings (son of John & Vonnie) who suddenly died while in an outrigger race the weekend before. The resort hotel put aside twenty rooms for us but John's family only took up a few and others for us and some friends who came over also. They supplied two buggys for us to get around, and treated us like royality, waived our landing charges and sent us to a resturant for dinner no charge and then in the morning a nice contential breakfast.

Camping at Paluma Dam, June 2006

With working on Saturday and Church on sunday 9am and 6pm service as well, We thought it was about time to take a weekend off. And why not the best place to go was Lake paluma Paluma web site Paluma Video our camp We packed up on Friday for a lunch time departure, But some last minute customers had other ideas, who absolutly could not leave it till next week, so after getting them out of the way, and some deliveries on the way at Giru and we got to the highway turn off at about 5:30pm, The drive up the mountain is a bit scary at night and to make matters worse the cloud base was at about 5 hundred feet the last hour up, it also rained, we got to the dam at about 6:45 I suppose. Then its find the right camp site that we booked, I left the booking slip at home didn't I, and couldn't remember the site number, so I just picked one and set up camp, in the rain, Lesley cooked up some stir-fry, rain still going, we went to bed. The ranger came up the next morning, your in the wrong site! he said, you should be over there, pointing across the road. Oh can we stay here? I asked, Alright, he said I will have to change the site number on our records for you, that is if no one has already booked it, in that case you will have to move! whew! that was close. That sorted out we settled in for the stay. Bacon & Eggs for breakfast, and a hot Tea out of a ceral bowl, don't like that, on the list today make some coffee mugs. Sat afternoon I went on a walk up to the mountain lookout about 8k, about two hrs in I said to mysef "not gonna make it" it was about 3pm I had been walking for about 2 hrs now, say 2hrs back it would then be 5pm that's late enough to get back, anyway Lesley would be worried, so I turned around, as I walked along I started to sing out loud "holy spirit have you way in me" it was nice to be on my own with nature (God) I felt as if the holy spirit was with me all the time, I asked the holy spirit to show me some thing special that I need, and not really expecting anything, this voice said to me in my head, hello! I looked up! who said that? and it is as if I had seen the forest for the first time, I am all around you! the voice said, I'am an earthly spirit not a heavenly or too far away spirit as you think, but I will always be available for you, its hard to convey the feelings I felt that day but it gave me a sence of comfort, nothing is beyond me, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, from then on it was singing and more singing, hope there are no bush walkers around this guy is nuts. I couldn't wait to tell Lesley about my experience it seemed I was back to camp in no time. The weekend just got better and better, Sunday the sun was out, day trippers with their kids arriving for a picnic lunch, the weather was fantastic, we went to visit a Bower Bird's nest that I have known about for about 10 years, and is still being used, I don't know if the bower is handed down from generation to generation or not, but it was still there and in good shape(Photo with the blue plastic things) if you look close you can see the bower right in the middle of the shot We had lunch about 2pm, sausages and salad and a cup of tea, then started to pack up for the drive home. Love Bill & lesley

Trailer June 2006

I finally finished the trailer took me about 6 months, I found the old trailer was rusting away before my eyes, instead of the main roads police putting it off the road I decided to cut it up and rebuild it. I could only work on it on saturdays and some times, after work. I'am happy its all over, Lesley has already put out the order, now next job the rest of the floor polishing in the lounge.

Cell Group Picnic, May 2006

In early May our Cell group went on a picnic at Horseshoe bay Bowen, On the drive down Lesley started to go all red, from her face to her hands and then all over, when we arrived on the beach it was obvious we had to do something so we went over to the hospital, the doctor said it must have been the crab we had consumed the night before, he said it can take up to 12 hours to come out or as soon as a few minutes, and from now on crab is out for Mum, I think we were lucky it wasn't worse and caused a more severe attack.
The group said they would wait till we got back to have lunch, and by now I could have eaten a horse, we arrived just in time for a delicious lunch, Lesley had prepared roast chicken and potatoes the day before, some of the others had their barbq's and were right in the middle of cooking as we settled in.

Then we played some frisby on the beach and the kids went for a swim.

Just a beaut day, before the rain came!!!!

Then I hurried to put up the tarp I had brought.

See you Bye.