Dry and dangerous

11.16.2013

It is still very hot and dry. Yesterday thunderstorms set off fires all over the place. The closest was in Dixon’s creek, just over the hills to the southeast. Most of the fires have been controlled fairly fast but those in the mountains above India’s camp are still going. Sadly two fires fighters were killed last week when a falling tree hit their vehicle. One was a young girl, about India’s age who was having a gap year before starting university. She even looked a bit like India. I so feel for her family.

I have to spend a lot of time giving plants water every day. I do it by hand so that we can use the minimum water possible but it is a real effort. I am just managing to keep the young trees going and the vegetables are a bit protected in their grow beds. At last the tomatoes are all turning red but the pumpkins are not doing so well as they struggle in the heat. Perhaps I planted too many zucchinis and cucumbers and not enough pumpkins.

Yesterday we all went out for the day to Seymour alternative farming expo. We went in Beni’s ute so that we could drop off the wood stove that was in the dairy cottage and get it reconditioned. Beni will need it in the donga for the winter. After that we were free to walk round the show, which was quite large. I had to collect seaweed meal and sulphur that I had ordered from Vitec. Luckily I had remembered to take a shopping trolley with wheels, as it was too heavy to carry.

It was very hot and by lunchtime everyone’s enthusiasm was melting away. I left Edd sitting on a straw bale under a tree and went off to find Beni. Actually, she found me, and then together we found the sheep pavilion that Edd and I had missed earlier. Here we were very lucky and found a young moorit ram for sale, which was exactly what I was looking for. In theory, India is going to pick up our ram to take to her camp and we need unrelated bloodlines. Moorit sheep have brown wool right down to their skin and are fairly rare. I only have one moorit ewe left and some white cross breds.

Edd’s legs were very painful when we got home but his doctor has told him he has a bakers cyst behind his knee which is just what a neighbour said weeks ago. Edd went to see her last night and she explained her method for draining fluid away from the cyst and getting some relief. Edd tried it last night and reports some improvement.

He is now settled into the new job but finds that the paper work is so over the top that it impacts on how much they can achieve. He really likes the kids and says that they are putting lots of effort into getting their work done. They are actually far ahead of the standard that everyone thought they had reached. The high school is starting their visits again this week but unfortunately they can only come on Wednesdays when Edd is working away. I have managed the kids on my own before the fires so I can probably cope again and I have told their teacher that he is in charge of discipline!