Following an amazing celebration of 21 years of Hartwood, Campfires & Country Music, Paul has decided to take a year off from touring and focus just on the Hartwood Festival for 2009.
These first few months have been most enjoyable with a stopover at Moree Artesian Baths at the Gwydir Caravan Park on the way home from Hartwood and then a holiday trip to inland Queensland, including Charleville Cosmos Centre, plus the Qantas Museum and Stockman’s Hall of Fame in Longreach.
Oscar, our dog came on the trip with us and was very well behaved with only one severe warning to a man at Dawson River who ventured too close to the van.
The conclusion to the trip was to be a week by the water at 1770, however, a severe low pressure weather system arrived that first night as well so we headed home at daylight the next morning.
Our time at home has been taken up with well overdue home maintenance including a major re-build on side gates and fence to a height of two meters to keep one flying Oscar from jumping out and wandering the streets of Buderim.
Paul did arrange for musical director, Vic Lanyon to call in this week and chart a new song for him to learn, ready for next Easter, so he has not entirely retired yet!! Vic has penned a great song titled “Back To Hartwood” which will be available on CD during his appearance next Easter.
It will be difficult to top the 2008 Hartwood Festival with the brilliant performances of all the artists, plus the over the top antics of Peter Horan on chainsaw and Rodney Vincent left singing from a branch of a gum tree!!! Not to mention Oscar, stealing the limelight on stage, but Paul says they will be trying. The Dancing Under The Stars night with Peter Horan was a huge success and a magical setting. It is a must for 2009.
A couple of changes in the artist line up for 2009 include the withdrawal of Frank Sargent due to health problems (and we do wish him all the very best) and the inclusion of Lynette Guest and Vic Lanyon, both will be featuring new albums.
Paul and I will return to Hartwood in September to work on new fencing in an attempt to convince the agisted cattle they must remain on Hartwood property. We will also be fitting two new water tanks (44 thousand litres) plus re-configuring about 2 kilometres of poly pipe so as to avoid the couple of water problems we had this last year. The submersible bore pump has been replaced which was the major cause of the problems.
Hope to see you all again with big smiles at Hartwood 2009.
Cheers,
Hele & Paul
