We all start 2021 with our fingers well and truly crossed as health authorities battle to contain the COVID outbreaks and we must be grateful that we live in the fresh air of the tablelands.

My only new year's resolution is to stay humble and try to always think of others.

Our population is so blessed to live in this wonderful country, the best place on earth to raise a family, so we head into a new year full of confidence.

Our country isn't perfect, but it takes some beating.

A SMALL group of registered woolclassers have received a gold coloured stencil to mark their 50th year of registration.

Some of the recipients have operated professionally for many of those years, while some classed only their family's wool clips.

The first registrations happened in 1963 and my memory tells me that Kevin Toole, Roy Artery and John Hay were busy "guessers" at that time and Helen Sowden was one of the first lady classers.

At that time, no females worked in the sheds and ladies always tooted the car horn for a man to come outside.

Where would the wool industry be today without the girls who are so good at every woolshed job?

OTHER RECENT RURAL NOTEBOOK COLUMNS:

SOME sad deaths that have occurred during the Christmas break:

BATHURST Merino Association is putting the finishing touches on this year's Jack Seaman Memorial Merino Ewe Competition that has remained a quality event since the inception of the BMA.

This year's event covers an area to the south of Bathurst City, all the way to the Abercrombie River and across to around Mandurama.

Selected judges are Sally Martin and Craig Wilson, who each have a background involvement with leading Monaro studs.

Sally grew up on the Jilliby Stud and Craig spent some years working at Hazeldean.

Merino breeders who live in the southern part of the district are very welcome to enter their ewes in this event.

FOR a great Sunday outing for your family, please put a circle around Sunday, January 24 from 5pm to 8pm for the Tarana Farmers' Markets.

You'll find top quality locally grown or made produce and a stopover at the pub or cafe across the road should cap off a day that could be warm and sunny.

We called in at the last Tarana market and a lady told me that "if Jesus returned to earth today, I think He might land in Tarana".

MY Christmas reading included Eddie Jaku's story The Happiest Man On Earth.

This is the story of a Belgian family almost destroyed by Nazi Germany's march across Europe, but several survived to make a new life in our great country.

If any of us ever feel down, we should read this book slowly (some sections three times) and be grateful every day for what our soldiers fought for.

Please put this book at the very top of your bucket list.

AFTER a great rainfall year (800 millimetres where we are at Perthville), the growth on trees and shrubs is phenomenal.

To hear the white cockatoos crunching seeds on Hawthorn trees makes me realise the value of great new hearing aids.

A 90-year-old lady told me: "I'm so glad I didn't die and miss this."

THANK you to the editorial staff of the Western Advocate for asking me to continue writing this column for each Thursday's papers.

What began as a Merino Association newsletter morphed into a commentary of country happenings and a few throwaway lines of day-to-day politics.

A long-time friend from another area who reads this column tells me: "My politics and yours are a long way apart; I'm staunch Country Party, but I still enjoy what you write."

For an old bloke who tries to be apolitical, that is a pat on the back.

IN 1980, five local men (1941 models) went to lunch together at the Family Hotel because one of them had his eye on a cute waitress.

In 1990, the same five went back to the Family because the food and service were spot on and the tap beer was excellent.

In 2000, the group again dined at the Family because there was plenty of parking, no loud music and prices were reasonable.

In 2010, they again went to the Family because it had wheelchair access and toilets for the disabled.

In 2020, our five old friends decided to dine at the Family because they had never been there before.