March 2008 - Puffing Billy Puffing Billy, Australia’s oldest surviving steam railway and the last of the experimental narrow-gauge railway lines built at the turn of the twentieth century to help develop rural areas. The 25-kilometre journey winds through thick forests and lush fern-filled gullies from Belgrave to Emerald Lake and Gembrook.

June 2008 - Walhalla With Lachlan for the weekend and the girls in tow we made our way to Walhalla for a day trip, although the weather was cold we were lucky with only a couple of light showers during the day. I have recently been interested in the use of metal detectors for gold prospecting and really wanted to check out Donnelly's Creek which is north of Walhalla, but as it turned out due to bridges being washed away due to the floods in this area and the lateness of the day we didn’t make it that far.

June 2008 - Yarra Valley Market Petting Zoo Today we made our way out to the Yarra Valley market which we have been meaning to visit for quite some time now. What a great market, with mostly home made items for sale, lots of great food to eat and the kids loved the petting zoo

May 2008 - Wombat State Forest and Lerderderg State Park Stevo, Darren and his son, Tim and his two kids, Connor and I all met at the Shell Servo at the bottom of the Westgate Bridge to convoy our way to Bacchus Marsh before heading North for Wombat State Forest. Stevo with his newly fitted muddies looking for a challenge and Tim not to be out done, I chose to sit behind Darren and follow his line. This is the first time I haven’t ended up getting myself stuck, with my home made CDL lever and the larger AT tyres Sally was more than capable even if she was let down by my driving skills. I even managed to make my way through a section that Tim got stuck in and much to our amusement he ended up needing to be snatched by a bunch of tourists in an old Daihatsu Rocky. Stevo made it through the day with no damage, Tim damaged his rear bumber bar, Darren bent his bulbar and lost a driving light cover and I cracked the lower section of my front bumper. See The Movies Here

April 2008 - Keppel Hut & Rubicon Historic Area On our 4th attempt to make it to Keppel Hut we finally made it! We have been trying to make our way to Keppel Hut for over a year but due to circumstances we never seem to make it , on our 1st attempt it was to late in the day, on 2nd attempt the gate was closed, on the 3rd attempt with Wendy the rear suspension airbag went flat and wouldn’t pump back up and we ended up driving home through the Black Spur with one side of the suspension on the bump stops! I was itching to get out of the house and the night before I said to Cath that we were going out for a picnic, the following day I was not to be deterred by the rain bucketing down nor the arctic weather I was going to go to Keppel Hut and that was it. Caitlin became car sick traveling through the Black Spur resulting in us needing to pull over and Caitlin and I to wander about in the drizzle and the freezing weather (the car informing me it was 2 degrees outside) but I was not going to be deterred by this. On our way along Lady Talbot Drive we spotted a little bit of snow on the side of the road and not expecting to see anymore I quickly jumped out to take a few photos. Well as we ventured further towards Keppel Hut it began snowing and reaching Keppel Hut it snowed on and off whilst we there. I had packed the chainsaw just in case there were any trees down on the road and began gathering firewood to build a fire, which we sat around whilst eating our picnic and watching the snow fall outside. After lunch we ventured further north into the Rubicon Historic area looking at the old tramways, sawmills and Hydro electric power station.

April 2008 - Marysville Lady Talbot Drive With Wendy down from Qld, Caitlin home from school with a curriculum day I took them and Leah to show Wendy a few of the waterfalls along Lady Talbot Drive. Our first stop was Stevenson Falls were we made our way up the steep and due to recent erosion, very rocky track to the top of the falls where we stopped at the small pool at the top. From here we made our way further along Lady Talbot Drive and stopped at Taggerty River Picnic area before making our way for our last walk of the day up to Phantom Falls. On the way out I decided that we had plenty of time to make our way to Keppel Hut and along the track I stopped because something didn’t feel right. This was when I noticed that one of the rear self leveling suspension airbags had gone flat, now this had been happening for a while now and normally the compressor would pump it back up, but not this time. (I have since read that this is due to the compressor having a built in self preservation mechanism and turning the car off for 10 mins would have reset it) So turning around and gently making our way back home we finally arrived home 2 ˝ hours later.

April 2008 - Knox Pet Show

March 2008 - Moomba Fireworks With a beautiful warm evening planned we took the girls into town to see the Moomba Fireworks.