It's Been A While.....

Yes, it's been a while since I've posted any kind of update and of course, way too much has been going on to post in full. But, I thought I'd share a few bits and pieces on life here lately. 

Disclaimer: The photos you see were taken with my dodgy phone camera, as it's the one I have on me all the time, so I'm sorry for the bad quality.

Anyway, what's been happening? Hmm. Where to start. 

As you know, we own a small transport company called DJ & CO TRANSPORT. The CO stands for whoever works with us basically.

 Firstly, there's Dave, the main one, the boss, the head honcho, the one who calls the shots etc, then we have one full time employee and then there's me, part time truck driver, delivery driver, bookkeeper, debt collector, secretary, all rounder, jack of many trades, etc etc. Then we have Maddie and Chloe who also work for us part time, in between their jobs at 2 cafes and Chloe's work as a early childhood educator at a local day care.  

It's an extremely busy life that we lead but we feel we're where God wants us to be so we're very busy, but happy. 

Our fleet currently consists of 2 Isuzu fridge trucks, a Scania prime mover and 2 trailers, a forklift and 2 utes plus other smaller trailers.

In between the crazy busyness of our lives, Dave and I were able to get away for a weekend recently. Only to Darwin but as we are prone to do when given the chance we took a detour home making a 3 hour trip turn into an 8 hour one! 

We had a nice time away in Darwin then headed home, 

the long way. 

We wanted to check out an old abandoned mine site to see if was worth Dave fossicking around at a later date,

so heading off the beaten track into unfamiliar territory, in Maddie's good old 80 series, we took the road less travelled. 

This track hadn't seen much use in a while as we drove through long grass, washouts and gullies, finally getting stopped by a creek crossing not able to be crossed, we ventured forward on foot. 

The open cut pit was actually so pretty with it's amazingly blue water. Seeing storm clouds overhead, we headed back so we wouldn't get bogged in the already wet season water-logged track. 

Of course, I had to pick a few little flowers along the way. 

After this, things got a little bit more interesting. 

Needless to say, I waded through a few creeks to test the waters

(I know, crocs right??), but Dave doesn't like getting wet and I do, so there's that. We crossed quite a few and one or two that I was in fear and trepidation of crossing, due to their depth and unsure foundation. 

But as expected, we finally came to one that stopped us in our tracks. I waded across and it came up to my waist. The bottom wasn't too firm on the entry and exit and it just wasn't worth the risk, with no phone reception, no one knowing exactly where we were, so we turned around and headed back the way we came. 

And yes, that meant recrossing the creeks I was a little uneasy about. But of course, Dave is an excellent driver and I needn't have worried. Really, you'd think we should have learnt our lesson from a previous experience on this road during wet season and having to turn back, but hey, you never know if you never go! 

Well, we had our little adventure without any mishap, except a very muddy car that I sweetly washed for Maddie. 

In other news....

I have begun a weekly run to Pine Creek and a mine about 45 minutes out. It's a dirt road that hasn't been graded since the wet, so it's slow going but I enjoy it. There is no phone reception, so I enjoy the solitude and time to listen to sermons, podcasts, music or just thinking up articles and lessons to teach. Dave did the first run with me to check out the road, and now it's all up to me. 

The other news has to do with a fan belt braking on our Scania recently. I won't bore you with all the details, but it's amazing what a great God we serve. God worked it so that the belt broke in a place where Dave was able to limp to a pull over bay where it was safe. 

Breaking down at night, with 2 full trailers meant a 1 1/2 hour trip with our 2 fridge trucks, myself, our driver and the girls to unload and reload etc . Needless to say, a late night, but praise the Lord for a tailgate loader on my truck! 

Well, once again, the Lord blessed with the loan (hire) of a friends truck and trailer to do a recovery the next afternoon. 

I was of course very excited, seeing it was a Kenworth, and I have a thing about them. (Although I now see why Dave loves his auto Scania so much. Those manuals are a lot of work)

We discovered that our Scania didn't like to be put on a step deck trailer and after 3 hours, with much chocking with wooden blocks and a lot of prayer, we were able to get it on and head home. 

While Dave was off looking for something, I was of course taking reflection photos in the gutter. Ha. 

The Lord also amazingly supplied us with another prime mover to hire from Darwin that we were able to use to get us out of trouble until our truck could be fixed. God is so good. 

And at the time of this writing, we are currently in the midst of another break down story, only today, with the radiator splitting, and a recovery and hire truck again. 

But I'm so glad that God is in control and nothing takes him by surprise. 

Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Hopefully, the next post will have cute grandkid photos instead of breakdown stories. 

And so, the saga continues...............