A car for Josh and a new toilet

28.3.2009 Saturday morning.
It is cold today. Luckily I have a little blow heater that Josh’s friends mother sent over and it is really very effective at warming the site office. We have come a long way this week . Miracle of miracles we now have a toilet. Admittedly it has no roof or door but it does have a window , it does flush and strangely it is exactly where my toilet was before so it all feels familiar.
Gary and Andrew from my friend Merrie’s mob pulled down the remains of the fire damaged walls and used the better bricks to rebuild them in a stronger form so they will support a roof and create a sort of shower block. Gary is incredibly skillfull at creative building and we are so lucky he has been free to help us. The actual toilet was donated by a Healesville group and Edd connected a hose pipe to the pump on the dam water tank so it would all flush.
Now it probably seems very odd to have the toilet a main subject for writing about but for the past month I have been the only woman on a bushless work site with large numbers of men. Try it and you will see what I mean.
Yesterday I drove Josh to Burwood Vic roads office where we met Andrea who was donating him her mother’s old car. She heard about him from Jo when she worked up here to help the bush fire relief mob. Andrea is the MP for the South Metroplitan Region and on meeting her I got the feeling we should have a lot more women in poletics. She even made us feel that we were doing her a favour !
Josh did not grasp his freedom immediately. He phoned RACV from the car park and arranged insurance and then sedately followed me home through the traffic. His next call was to Jo’s place , but then he gathered up his things and left for the weekend muttering things about buying himself a CD player and no doubt dreaming of all the other things car owners can set them selves up with.
Miracles were not over for the day. On the way to Burwood I had been telling Josh that what I really needed now was help from Stevo to fit out the classroom. I knew he was still working near Newcastle so could not expect him for a month or so. You could imagine how I felt when who walked into camp that night but Stevo himself. I am afraid I pounced on him at once over framing advise and he said he would help me next week! Wow. Looks like we will have something like a home before the worst of Winter strikes .
Mean while I must mention Mike . He has now moved all the trashed building materials from the house and shed sites and had time to level a space outside Donga city so we can pave a path to the site office (donga) and classroom (double donga). Also more plants continue to revive. The Yucca type palms have sprouted new shoots at their bases and My orange and grapefruit trees have lovely green shoots. I fearful for the lime tree. It has shoots from the rootstock only. Also the big oak tree near the house shows no sign of life.
Further afield recovery is in full swing. The paddocks are greener every day and many gum trees appear to have green mossy lumps that on closer examination turn out o be new leaves sprouting in bunches from the blackened trunks. The fern trees in the gully have new fonds already and less welcome , the backen and blackberries are coming back as well. Superb blue wrens follow us around and cockatoos come on raiding parties but we miss so many old bird friends. The gorgeous little fire tails that hung around the big shed are gone and I can only hope that the swallows migrated early. Where are the humming birds and the rosellas, the King parrots that came down to be sprayed with cool water when I shower hot chooks and the rest?