Community get togethers bust winter blues

7.8.2009
Heavy showers, high winds and the return of mud. Not a recipe for easy living. Mike has still not put stones on our new drive, so we continue to wade across the mud flats every time we want to get to the cars, our animals or the toilet. Edd has replaced some of the fencing round the chooks and vegetable garden but it has been too wet to get gear up to the boundary fence on the hill and complete the work there. Today we stayed indoors and worked on the endless paper work that is needed for trying to reclaim as much as possible.

Yesterday was more interesting. The Governor of Victoria came to visit the community centre where I go to do art one afternoon a week. We provided rather better food than we usually do for afternoon tea and various community members joined us to do the greeting bit. As far as I could make out it all went without a hitch. We did not get much art done, but the stitchers who joined us got me up to date with all their family news. We have past connections with most long-term residents here because our children all went to school together once upon a time. I always feel embarrassed because there are so many names that I should remember but never can.

The general dreariness of the season was relieved last weekend when all the locals at our end of the valley were invited to Erin and JB’s donga for a party. Their house and vineyards were totally destroyed by the fires so friends and neighbours joined them that day for a working B on the remaining vines. In the evening tables and chairs were set up in the donga and fabulous food appeared along with wine and even candles. Everyone chipped in to make a great community party. It reminded us long-term residents how years ago we all lived in sheds and make shift places, all getting together and laughing.

We are so lucky that all these younger people have been able to move into the valley, and that they want to stay here despite the horrors of last year. There is now a new house being built by the Steel’s Creek road on the way into Yarra Glen. Someone told me about two thirds of the houses were lost in the fire so it is good to see that someone has started to replace them. It is a worry that it is going to be a wood frame house on stumps , but perhaps they will add fire proofing features later.

A third lamb has been born. A tiny ewe for the Finn sheep. We now have three lambs, Lance, Alberto and Paris! I am rather hoping that the last two ewes are not pregnant. They are a little young to have lambs but we had no chance to separate them from the rams after the fires. The sheep are still in the paddock with the big dam. It is pretty well grazed but at least they have room to move around and seek sheltered corners when the weather is bad.

The swales Mike made across the paddock channel excess run off into the big dam which has started to fill up a bit. The idea is that light rainwater stays in the channels and slowly soaks into the land. This does seem to have started to happen but it is too soon to assess the results yet.