JANNE

m John - born 23.2.50

3 children – Tanya - born 5.2.75 not m

- Zena - born 24.10.76 not m Jeremy no children

- Marc - born 5.10.80 not m Kylie - born 25.10.72

1 child – Jake Joseph - born 18.10.04

- & 2 children of Kylie & Matt (deceased) Jemma - born 12.8.99 & Jade - born 20.11.01

Janne, John and Marc & family live in Murchison, Zena in Metung, Victoria, Oz, & Tanya Adelaide Oz (works in US)

MATIRI CONTRIBUTION

Who would have believed it – we designed and built our own home in less than twelve months, using all the daylight hours available to us & quite often in the dark, after work and in the weekends. Once it was all completed and we were looking back on all the blood, sweat and tears, we felt a great deal of satisfaction in our efforts. It’s modest in size, but absolutely perfect for us and has everything we need. We’re now working on the landscaping of our 4 acres, planting fruit trees, nuts and berries and placing rocks. A deck is planned and will be added on in due course. We love living here, watching the many moods of the river from the lounge, the people using it – fishermen, rafters, kayakers and 4WD’s going through the river to wash their mud off, the wildlife – shags, trout jumping, native pigeons, tuis and bellbirds.

John isn’t into property names but if he was I’d probably want to call it “Le Roche Jardin” for obvious reasons.

In February John injured his back again and subsequently damaged it further after a visit to a physiotherapist who pushed it where she shouldn’t have to make it bend further when she thought it was going far enough! He’s still in considerable pain and will likely have to have another operation before it improves. For a replacement income when he is feeling better he is going to try converting a Nissan Civilian bus into a motorhome. Should be alot easier on him than working in the quarry, as he can rest when he needs to and avoid overdoing it.

Buck dog is still with us at the ripe old age of 15. He’s slowed down a lot and has lots of grey hair, just like his owners. New kitten Rocky is keeping him in trim with play fighting.

October 2004 we welcomed our new grandson Jake into the family. He’s so gorgeous, as are his lovely sisters Jemma & Jade (our pseudo grand-daughters) and their mother Kylie, the daughter-in-law we’d love to have. It’s strange the way the arrival of grandchildren changes you completely. Suddenly we seem to have leapt into another generation – oops must mean we’re getting older, but it’s a great feeling and it feels so right I’m sure it’s what we’ve been put on earth for.

For each of the last two years around October we’ve spent a month in Australia in our Ford Econovan camper (a backpacker special). We bought it fully stocked with cooking, camping, fishing, touring, snorkeling equipment from some Germans who had completed their round Oz trip. It’s done us proud and we have enjoyed traveling the Great Ocean Road, the Great Alpine Road, visiting both Tanya and Zena and doing heaps of fishing and sightseeing. The only mishap was when the battery caught fire when we were going down a steep hill – thanks to John’s quick action we lived to travel some more. Great for blowing the cobwebs away and when we return we can’t wait for the next time. This year we plan to visit Zena and Jeremy, catch the ferry to Tasmania for two weeks then travel to Adelaide to visit Tanya and Kristina.