bush * beach * beyond: ta-da !

Today's a special one for me...it marks my very first post on bush*beach*beyond...and I am soooo nervous! After all, I'm presenting me and the whole craziness of this first post to you guys, some of the best evuh bloggers around! Seriously, it's taken months of hair-tearing preparation to get this to a point where I'm comfortable with launching it into the global community. It also marks an event I've been dying to share with y'all, like forever....we finally put this little beauty on the market back in October. Wow, has it really been that long?! So today I'm braving it and giving you a first dibs eyeful into the start of our journey {hopefully} from creek to beach....beginning here!

for sale!

I will be posting more pics soon to my bush house tour folder, so be sure to stay tuned. Don't fret about missing this next momentous event because, the minute they're up, you'll be the first to know.

There's a lot of redeeming things about this property that I will miss when we're gone, like this little fella....

koala rescued by me

and many that I won't, like this unwanted visitor....

deadly eastern brown snake

It's hard to believe five years have passed since we packed up our former lives in Sydney and headed north to Queensland to a better, less frenetic way of life. That little plan backfired on us super quick. Life on our bush acreage has been very different. We've worked our butts off around here, with one job seemingly evolving into another with the upkeep alone. Fifteen acres of madness, is how I refer to it on a good day! Admittedly, when we first arrived here, there were five of us living at home - one already having opted to stay on in Sydney, rather than heading up north. A year down the line another one de-camped to share a house with her boyfriend. And then there were four of us....! (I hear some of you asking whether that's such a hardship? The truth is, every hand on a place this size, counts!) Any-hoo, this place takes up a lot of our precious me-times and requires all hands-on-deck time just to keep on top of things. So when #3 decided to de-camp to a shared house nearer his work last year, that left us with only one not-so-eager helper at home. At the time we thought, okay, we can deal with this - but all too soon, #4 was on her way to boarding school in Toowoomba for her final year in school.

But....I digress! The laidback lifestyle, the annual trips into Outback Queensland, the vision of a wonderful tree change - never amounted to anything. With the hubs and I working long hours in Brisbane, enduring long commutes into the city every day, we were exhausted for much of the time! Then two things happened which I believe were a blessing in disguise. The Qld government started axing jobs {yes, it's happening all over again right now}, so last in, first out - that was me. Two weeks later hubby broke his leg in two places when he slipped on wet grass while putting the goats out to pasture...and yippee for us, he's worked from home ever since! Yayness! My job is history, and so are the goats! No, no....we were kind. They went to a new life on a hobby farm.

Now that school is over and #4 is back home, we've got a lot of thinking and planning to do between now and February, which is when she needs to start her degree. The question is weighing rather heavily on our shoulders over destination and choice of Uni, should this place sell soon. The one thing that's absolutely and resolutely certain in our lives right now, is our desire to make that sea change we've been dreaming about forever! Trying to get the balance right in making sure that everyone's needs are met, is proving to be a tough one. One minute we're thinking Sunny Coast, next we're thinking Fraser Coast, and in recent days we're "armchair traveling" to Port Sorell in Tasmania, and the far East Coast in Victoria! It's mind-blowing stuff, believe me. If it were just the two of us, transitioning would be a piece of pie; but with university location to take into account, it's proving to be a nightmare. Admittedly that I'm leaning towards a more comfortable climate to live in, after enduring the relentless heat and humidity of Qld for so long. And I won't be sorry to leave this behind, even though we weren't personally affected....