chooks and winds

10.7.2010
More people have been robbed. For the last twenty years we never bothered to lock a door but things have changed dramatically since the fires. Properties in our area are raided every week, probably because there are fewer people around. Even big things like tractors and trailers are pinched and the B@B half way down steels creek lost all their cottage contents. We are all afraid to go off and leave the place unguarded.

Edd began the break from teaching with a burst of energy. He quickly rounded up the straying cattle and isolated them behind a new electric fence. He may even have found someone locally who wants to buy the heifers. Then he borrowed a neighbour’s posthole rammer and began work on the fencing system around the sheds.

Having given up on gardening I focussed on chickens. 10 commercial laying pullets were collected from Wagners, our closest egg factory, and we drove further afield to buy rare breed layers from specialist breeders. I brought new feeding bowls and a bamboo ladder the exact width of the chook shed so Edd could fix it up for perches. The new pullets are now living with the gentle faverolle rooster in the new chook shed and the older chooks are with the aracaner cross rooster in the upper shed.

Things began to look brighter. The sun shone, it was warm and we visited a new type of building that Barry (who works with Al) told us about. It is a system where walls are erected of interlocking recycled, plastic, web, panels. Steel reinforcing rods are put into grooves at intervals and then all the plumbing and wiring can be put in. When all is in place a mixture of fine concrete is piped into the walls and towelled off where it seeps out to form smooth wall surfaces.

This is pretty much instant house and in theory would really suit our semi underground structure perfectly because the rear walls at the back the back have no windows and only two doors. I got really excited and felt that it might be possible to get a house to live in before the summer heat. Doug, our engineer friend and Edd watched one pour and decided that there are a lot of issues such as the strength of the mix that need to be looked at and I began to feel all that ray of hope slipping away. Al is still on holiday so we are all waiting for him before things can move anywhere.

The veil of misery descended further as the frost and high winds returned. We did not get much sleep on Friday night when the donga was moving around in the wind like a small ship lost during a storm in the ocean. Stuff banged outside like a whole troop of robbers and the cold seeped through every crack. We woke to a heavy frost but the next night was worse. The winds returned, only worse and the power cut out just before dark. I had some candles but there was no running water, hot or cold, no heating and the candle flames blew in the wind too much to be effective. We are totally sick of living like this.