4.10.2010
The sun is still shining and we are warm again. Al came over again on Sunday and helped us put up a cheap Bunnings structure so that we can have a picnic table under a shade cloth down in the ruins. We moved the BBQ into the old chimney and there we were, instant out door room. I am getting ready for some friends who are visiting from the UK soon and I am worried that they will find our demountable building too hot to get into.

India got the horses out again and she and Ti rode Waldamar bare back. We thought we had got enough horse tack assembled but apparently we still need girths before we can use the saddles. Edd brought new bits for the new bridles last week, but every time we try to do anything we find that we are still missing a vital ingredient.

I am still trying to get all the gear together to make cheese again. I am getting close but rebuying everything we need to get our life back on track takes time. Mostly I cannot even remember I ever had the stuff until I try to do something and find it is missing. It is the same with clothes. Once I had something suitable to wear for every occasion that cropped up. Now I have not even the space to put more than the most basic gear.

The garden has surprised me and come out with a splendid display of spring flowers. We have mown our patch of grass and cleared the weeds off the brick paths and it all looks amazing. Flynn tries very hard to help me and interprets weeding as a search for food. He eagerly digs where I dig and as that fails to yield edible results he digs harder and deeper. When all his efforts fail he decides to sit close by me in a nice soft plant and watch to try and find exactly what I am after. This does not exactly help with my garden efforts.

He tries so hard to help. At night he rolls the hay bales with me and pulls off the strings and he carefully fetches the tin mugs that we use to measure out oats, regardless of the fact that they were already in the right place in the buckets. I left him outside the vegetable garden today, which upset him. When at last I started to climb out over the sheet of corrugated iron that closes the door he wrapped his front legs round my leg and pulled to speed me out.

25.9.2010

At last! The sun is back, things are drying out and we have the new house plans in to get a building permit. Suddenly we all begin to feel optimistic again. The new puppy, Flynn, is fantastic. He follows me everywhere at my heel and has settled down to farm life with amazing cool. Janner is still young so the dogs often play together which is great. Bryn was so old when we got Tess that he never did more than tolerate her and certainly never let her share his bed.

I was totally impressed by Andrew’s book. He shames me with his honesty. Somehow I still find inhibited when it comes to describing my total reality. There is still so much I experience that even I don’t understand that it seems silly to expect anyone else to. After Edd left Yuendumu trouble sprang up, mostly to do with a pay back situation and it was on the main news. I am not surprised everyone is simmering with anger under the surface. The “intervention” Yuendumu people have been put through has been truly horrific and totally unjustified.

Edd's story Flynn of the Outback

We lost our old mate Bryn (18yrs) in the fires and along with young racy, flighty, rabbit hunting Tess, our beautiful dog relationships were sadly ended.
The guests who stayed with us that day and who safely exited the area in the face of the fires later organised a Kelpie pup for us. Janner, the mad kangaroo hopping Kelpie who is now in training, except that he’s about year 8 level. Barking at the moon, a lunatic. Say no more!

Amanda and I have missed both of our previous dogs so much and after several experiences where we saw them behind us, or working the animals with us, we realised that we needed to find replacements or be haunted forever.
Amanda found a web site that advertised an adoption program for camp dogs from Yuendumu! (Tanami Desert N.T.)
All manner of images appeared to us of “rhinoceros dogs’ with no hair, lice, ticks, fleas, starving scrawny animals, you name it, we had seen it all before as we had worked there for 5 years.

So when the internet pictures showed ”Sonny Boy” a round hairy fat brindle pup, ears yet to stand up, a perfect combination of Bryn and Tess we were hooked.
I needed a break, Amanda was heavily into goat kidding, what a great idea. I’ll go and fetch the pup! Fortunately it was Amanda’s idea.

Tiger Airways don’t take animals forget it.

Qantas were unsure, some operatives thought Alice Springs airport did accept animals, others did not. So having booked Tiger up and Qantas down I was left with the dilemma of having paid twice the Tiger price for a return trip and having to send the pup on Australian Air Express (AAE) as Qantas changed their minds! (We don’t accept animals from Alice Springs) A trap for amateur players.
That problem was overcome with money, Flynn was able to travel back to Melbourne with me despite being under the control of AAE.
We collected him from Melbourne airport with few complications and since being on the farm he has shown himself to be a thoughtful and calm contributor.

Adoption of a dog from the community is helping reduce the population of dogs which impoverished community members try to keep alive. As numbers reduce the health of those that remain improves.
Having a number of dogs has been so much a part of aboriginal culture for so many years that the dogs have a skin name (a relationship name) which relates them to their family. Flynn’s skin name is Jangala (Amanda’s uncle). So he has obligations to her which he is discharging by following her around and protecting her from spirits and physical threats.

I was lucky to be able to get a lift to Yuendumu with Gloria Morales who runs the dog rescue program and who works for the art co-operative (Warlukurlangu Artists). Gloria uses most of her salary to feed and treat the health of the dogs whilst she tries to find them homes. It is truly a labour of love requiring a huge input of time and energy.
The mechanic in Alice who maintains her vehicles fitted a number plate for her at his expense DOGLADY. It was in this vehicle that I returned from Yuendumu on the Monday and delivered it for a service. Even in Alice you get strange looks when driving a Toyota labelled DOGLADY around town.

So ‘Sonny Boy‘ now renamed Flynn, a combination of Bryn for brindle and Flynn the flying dogter, is enjoying his new life in Steels Creek.

new puppy

17.9.2010

Edd is home , plus the new puppy. It is not the same puppy as the photos that were sent down to me , but he is a nice brindle boy who has a relaxed attitude and fits in with every request made. I missed our dogs enormously but until now I have not felt ready to emotionally commit to a replacement. Then when I discovered it was possible to adopt a desert dog I felt differently. Somehow it seems that we already share experiences with this puppy.

Edd was able to relax once he got away from the work here and has come back feeling better. Even his bad leg felt better but the cold dampness here made sure that improvement did not last. He stayed with our friend Margaret ( who once again was so hospitable) in Alice Springs and got a lift out to Yuendumu where he stayed at the dog rescue house. The lady who is caring for the dogs works for the art centre and uses her wages to support her animal work.

It is such a wonderful thing for someone to do. Camp dogs are a motley crew of canines who have lived around people for generations and bred more or less when they felt like it. Some get mange and lose most of their fur and sometimes ears but they are always part of someone’s family. They did spread some diseases especially as they slept with people for the warmth of all concerned. When we lived in the desert there were occaisions when the council workers were sent out to shoot dogs .
This upset everyone , so I am thrilled now that a more humane approach is being taken.

Margaret gave Edd a book written by our friend Andrew , who worked for many years with the local people in Yuendumu to tackle the petrol sniffing problem. I am reading the book now and am struck with the honesty with which he describes his experiences. One reads so much rot about Aboriginal communities and we despair over the ignorance demonstrated by most Government policies that it is a great relief to find that someone has written down the issues , joys and sorrows as they really are.

Back on the farm I was allocated grandchildren who stayed and helped with the baby goats. India and Arden are at an age when they are really helpful. We gradually trained all the kids to take their milk from a feeder. That meant we could feed several at a time. By the end of the week the goats had all remembered how to jump up on the bale for milking and the kids were settled down into a feeding routine. By starting fairly early all the routine morning work can be over before 10 am.

There is more good news because the latest set of building raters we employed managed to get our house beyond the required five stars and we can now apply for a building permit. We do need a certificate from Doug but mostly we can gather everything up and hand it in. Once we pass this stage we can actually start building!

All mod cons

11.9.2010
My ! Have I really not written anything for this long! It must be a symptom of kidding time. I now have 14 hungry babies in the shed in various stages of adaptation to bottle-feeding. Only 5 goats have kidded and we still have two to go! It was only meant to be one but Erin tricked us by getting the buck to jump over the fence to her.

Edd did an amazing job of welding up a new base for the milking bale. He even cleaned off the burnt old one and started to repaint it so that it is now in use with a new shiny aluminium floor. This is all set up in the proper place in the new milking parlour with new gates and yards to the sleeping shed. All this makes twice daily milking so easy.

Better still the plumber came and connected the water to the milk room. I have my washing machine in there and a disk washer for the milking jugs and buckets. It is pretty easy to carry over the plates from the house too. I hardly know myself with all these luxuries. If I wasn’t so busy caring for the kids I might even have spare time!

I am especially busy this week because Edd is on holiday in Alice Springs. He is staying with friends for a break before building starts on the house. (If it ever does). I just hope it works as rest for him. I have friends coming over from the UK in October so by then I should have settled all my animals new and old into a routine and may be able to have a break then. At least I have the animals to think about.

The house situation is taking forever. The problem is trying to get a five star rating for our design, which is the standard now. Our house should be much more energy efficient but the computer program designed to work the rating out was not made able to cope with earth covered houses. This seems an extraordinary situation to cause weeks hold up but that’s what it does!

Mean while we now have a huge solar system on the shed roof that generates our own power. We now need an input/export meter so we can get credit for electricity we donate to the grid. The young men who installed the system did a great job but had difficulty with the boggy conditions. A big truck arrived at 7am with a large four-wheel drive scaffold machine. When the driver tried to turn he got off the road and got his truck bogged. We had to get Dave out of bed with flu to pull him out with his digger because the tractor was not strong enough.

By the time this was done and Dave had gone home the blokes had bogged the scaffold machine by trying to drive across my new lawn rather than go round the shed on the road. Once again the tractor was not enough so Edd fetched Craig’s big machine (they all look like Tonka toys to me), and we rescued them that way. The blokes were all young and probably this is their first experience of wet conditions. After that things went much better and the job looks very neat.

a miracle of packing

30.8.2010

The dangerous machinery is in action again and I discovered a sudden need for paper work time. Edd and Craig are trying to up root the old water tower and lie it down away from the shed so that the solar panel men can have improved access on Friday. The other option was to dismantle it piece by piece but the bolts have had 30 years to rust into place and burning it did not help. This idea might work.
They have already moved the pine tree by the small donga. It was slowly leaning farther and farther over until today I noticed that about half the roots had pulled out of the sodden ground. All hope of its survival was over, and the most important thing was to make the area safe. I think the high winds together with the unusual ground conditions are the problem No water shortages now. We have not had a year like this for over a decade. The grey skies are getting depressing.

Last night the first goat kids arrived. They are so large that they represent a miracle of packing skills. It is impossible to imagine how they fitted inside mum. Two lovely healthy girls make a good start to kidding season. Edd has almost finished welding up a new milking bail , which we will be needing extremely soon! Lots of udders look alarmingly large!

Things may be moving with our rebuilding plans. Doug has done most of the engineering and Al has almost done his plans. The present hold up is getting the plans past the energy assessor. Houses must reach a five star standard decided by a computer program that is not designed to cope with under ground homes. We are told that someone with the most adaptable of the three programs who know how to cheat the system should be able to get it through! No one person failed, though.

Next we need a building permit , building insurance and then some workers. At least something has happened and the wheel has started to turn. It is now or never if Edd wants a holiday. He can’t relax if he has to look out at all the jobs that need fixing here so is desperate for time out. I cannot leave kidding goats but then I have had more than thirty years practice at living with all the work here.

Edd has booked a holiday doing something so we both benefit. He is going back to Yuendumu to pick up a brindle puppy for me. He can get together with all our friends again and hopefully come back refreshed and ready to launch with gusto into the building project. At least, that’s the idea. So far the hardest part has been getting tickets on line. We seem to waste more time dealing with stroppy, inflexible computer systems than anything else.

storms and mulled wine

18.8.2010
How do I cope with this? The wind is howling around the donga and it shakes like a leaf with each buffeting blast. It is as un-nerving as being on a jet when you pass through turbulence. More annoying it also blows right through the donga so there is nowhere to escape. It is blowing through the sheds too, so our tools and stuff are getting wet and the animals are miserable.

We have three sheep in the shed, two with twin lambs and one with triplets. I suppose however bad it is in there, it is better than being outside in the paddock. I have bedded the animals down with fresh straw and loaded up their hay racks to make them as comfortable as possible. For the first time ever Edd and I are wearing coats and scarves indoors. At lunch time the plumber had still not arrived so we evacuated and spent most of the afternoon in Bo’s restaurant. She stoked up the fire and after two glasses of stout and a pie we began to feel slightly more human.

Tonight Edd has gone off to choir and I have mulled some wine and am taking regular doses as a survival tactic. Nothing seems to have progressed with the house plans , but why? Is Al not bothered about us, have he and Doug conflicting ideas about the engineering? Is his rating engineer incompetent? The annoying thing about not being in control is that I do not have the information needed to find out and I will have to be very assertive to get it. I could just employ new “experts “ in hopes they would come up with the needed stuff but that would mean paying everything double and yet more waiting.

It would be a good time just to draw up anchor and depart for warmer climes but the sheep are lambing and the goats are due any moment so that idea is out. What is this about Mars too? Is it really going to appear the same size as the moon by the end of August? Mars , the God of war! I kind of have the “oh sh**” feeling.

The mulled wine is starting to take affect and the stinging in my unthawing fingers has gone. Tonight’s plan consists of having a warm shower and retreating into bed , I don’t think I will bother with a meal.

good things happen

14.8.2010
Ha. There are times when life is great. How good does it feel to go roller blading with ones six- year old grandson and his friends and find that suddenly armed with the right footgear you can move faster and freer than the youngsters! How good does it feel on coming home to find that you have been given an amazing work of art?

Edd tells me that Don turned up here, totally unexpected, and presented him with this book he had made from his photographs taken on our wilderness property near Cooma. They are incredible. Not just photos but works of art using photography as a base. We are overwhelmed. I am really enjoying doing my own art too. Each Thursday we have an afternoon at a studio in Yarra Glen and just work in peace. My efforts are improving but I have a long way to go. It is coming back but unfortunately not as fast as skating!

On the home front at present I seem to be winning the power war. I am now connected back to TRU energy, who are also our local supplier and suddenly E-mails are answered and we are being helped! I am still trying to get connected with a grid interactive solar system, as I was before the fires. The only remaining issue is the type of panel. All I read seems to suggest that mono crystalline panels are superior to the poly ones except that they are dearer and have more embodied energy. If only there were only one type.

Better still, Josh has actually sounded happy the last few times we have been on the phone to him. He sounds as if he is putting together some sort of life for himself despite the isolation from family and friends. He has done his intensive and is now doing practical work in clinics and in theory all the assignments. I am just praying that things go a bit more smoothly for him now.

Al had the opening for his new school building at Mansfield last week. It is the one I went with him to see. The opening went well even though it was on Friday 13, which was hardly auspicious. Bo is attracting larger and larger crowds to her restaurant. Edd and I go to foodie’s night on Mondays and this week we were joined by Beni. She is struggling to pull her winery through the bad turn in the market and is also trying to write an historical novel based on her husband’s family. My goodness. What a creative group of friends and family we have.

Realism will hit soon as the goats are due to kid in September. Edd has worked hard on the dairy. He has all the cupboards and stainless steel tops up in the milk room and is now working on some devilishly creative pipe work to link all the tanks, pumps and buildings! We have ordered a plumber for next week and at last I might have a washing machine here. We need to have the plumbing all done so that we can wash out the milking machine. Otherwise it will be hours of hand milking which we are all keen to avoid!

High winds are rocking the donga and the constant rain has resulted in mud but I am just grateful we have not started to build yet. We have just about achieved a holding pattern and it is now possible to relax and let things take their time.