Al engaged, Ollie 9

Aug 19 2013

It is pretty cold today, but not freezing. There has been enough rain now to fill all the dams to overflowing and the daffodils and jonquils are in full bloom. Edd and I make use of any dry days and work at cleaning up the builders’ mess by the front entrance. The idea is to get the new fences up and plant trees before summer arrives.

I think we have found a good retirement home for Dot. She is a large ginger coloured goat who is now about ten years old. So far she is holding her own in the herd and looking good but she would probably not cope with another winter under these conditions and certainly not if she got pregnant. I thought she was too old to re-home but a friend is happy to take her as an addition to her animals and provide the necessary level of pampering. This is a great relief. I do not feel justified in keeping unproductive animals but Dot has earner her place for so long that I would not feel good at just letting her be pushed aside by the younger, fitter herd members.

Edd has now completed the tree week’s full time relief teaching he agreed to do and starts work tomorrow doing one day a week maths coaching. His finger is still strapped up but he has been able to do a lot more on the farm recently. Today we brought second hand fencing panels so that we can use them to replace the gates that are currently being used for goat yards. We need the gates to put in the new paddocks as they get fenced off.

We are fencing off a corner by the road between us and our new neighbour in the James’ place. Then we can hopefully put up a screen of trees before he starts on building a house and maintain our own privacy. Also in the fenced off section I plan to plant stone pines. I have not found many for sale but I have some seeds that I am hoping I can grow trees from. There is so much to do that I have not started on this project yet.

Last week Ollie had his ninth Birthday celebration at Bo’s place and the family gathered to wish him well. Al was very sad that his two boys did not come but Pi made a special effort to drop in on her way back from work. The big news is that she and Al are now engaged but they have not made any wedding plans yet.

Amy comes to stay

July 31 2013-

Al and Pi came to tea here yesterday and spent the night hear so that they could leave early in the morning. We get to look after Amy, the great dane puppy, whilst they are away for a week in Alice Springs. I am envious of them. I have such happy memories of living and working in the desert. We have given them addresses for our aboriginal friends and hope they will get to see them. I worry because so many of the people I worked with have since died. It was very much third world conditions and life is often short.

I spent most of the morning trying to catch Amy who barked and ran away every time she saw me. Last week Al held her whilst I took the stitches out of her foot and I don’t think she has forgiven me yet. I failed to get anywhere near her but I have shut all the gates to our house site and if we can keep her enclosed here she should not come to any harm. The hardest bit is getting our dogs out past her.

Al and Pi left very early and Edd got off to work. I started the farm work about 8.30 and there was still thick frost on the ground, and thick mist. The sun came out ,the dam and the cows started to steam and the mist lifted making it a nice morning to work out side. We are really low on hay and it costs a fortune at this time of year. We will have to get some this week end what ever the cost because the animals need it to keep warm.

My job for the day was to buy the tiles I found last week. I bargained for them and reduced the price considerably. Now I have to get them out of my car from where we stacked them in the back. I should have enough to put a skirting on all the house walls that need one. I also got two more tiles for the toilet so I have enough for that job too.

Yesterday we ate brocholi and cabbage as vegetables. It will have to be rocket today I think. I brought a punnet of Pak choi seedlings and planted that out so that we have more greens coming on. So far the snow pea seedlings have escaped slug damage but I should throw a few coffee grounds round them to give them a helping hand.

July back on the farm

July 30m 2013-07-30

I am working on the accounts. There is quite a bit to do before they can go to the accountant, but I am gradually making headway. I cannot get restarted on my tiling work yet because I need either Edd or Steve to put up the doorframe and architrave so I can work up to an edge. Edd cannot do anything much with his bad hand and he is working full time teaching anyway. Steve has a first grandchild and that has kept him away. Or else he is waiting for Edd, either way my tiling is at a halt.

Today the new chooks started laying. I heard them cackling while I did the milking and when I looked there were eggs. The old chooks produce an occasional egg too, spring must be coming. The other signs are the buds swelling on the mulberry trees and the flowers on the wattle and tagasaste trees. The daffodils are close to opening too.

On the down side we are very low in hay. Edd and I drove towards Bacchus March and brought a ton of oats on Saturday. On Sunday Al came over and helped unload the oats into the old beer vats we use as bins and also got us in more fire wood, Edd picked up another load of off cuts at the bakery last week so we are well stocked in that regard. Yesterday with the sun shining it was mid twenties with out any fire in the house.

I found the latest power bill and was pleased to see that even in winter we are producing more than we use in electricity. The costs here are the rates and the insurance, which just keep going up. I am so glad we got this house built straight after the fires. The new council has got even more strict on building rules and now Craig and Eva find that they are stuck in the middle of a build unable to continue in a similar position to Brian and Lynne.

 It was really due to Al’s help that we got going so soon. We were as shell shocked as everyone else and would be in the same mess now without his help. I feel a bit of a failure over my efforts to get help for my neighbours last year. Down this road Craig and Eva, Brian and Lynn, Lyne James, Steve, Dave and Sally, Judy and Andrew, JB and Erin, the sharps and us lost houses and only the last three and us are now in proper houses. Lin died when her house burnt and the new people who brought the land have not rebuilt yet, two families left to live elsewhere and the Pierces and Montells did not loose their houses. Not really a good success rate for one road full of people.

July 26 2013

I have given up writing all our adventures when we were away because I need to record events here. We got safely back from our travels and found that Bo, Pi Al and Bennie had kept everything in very good order here. The animals were all fit, though the horses had lost some weight. All in all everything was great.

Edd put an end to the peace by getting a finger caught in a calf bucket and having to go to hospital for two days to have it fixed! He now has a small cast on the finger, which is pinned back together, and he is teaching full time at Healesville High School to fill in for a staff member who is away for three weeks. Time goes so fast he has done one week already!

Last weekend we had a party here for Pi, Al and Bo, who all have July birthdays. Bo suggested a bonfire and BBQ, which was a bit dicy given the weather. Rather to my surprise it stayed fine on Sunday night and all this was possible. There seemed a lot of new faces. Pia introduced us to friends, aunts and uncles as well as bringing her parents, and India brought Woolangarra friends.

Wayne came with is new girl friend Danielle, so that was another new face. Bo only showed up at the end, which was sad as she missed her birthday cake and my first ever water melon carving. Everyone ate a lot including almost a whole round of hard goats cheese. Despite this there was food left over and Edd and I have lived off left over’s all week.

India and Erik took the horses up the track into the forest for a few days camping. Again she was lucky with the weather and at least the first and last days were sunny.

polluted seas

This time the sat nav decided to take us down a mountain side. This was marginally better than climbing up one but this time the road was only wide enough for one car and we seemed likely to end up in someone’s olive grove. At the base of the hill was the hotel and mercifully this one had lifts and our room had a balcony we cold use to dry clothes on. All this was good as we had a three day stop here to have a rest.

That evening we walked down to the beach but it was a big disappointment. The sand was perfect, the sea was warm but the pollution completely spoilt everything. People were at work trying to keep the beach clean but more plastic rubbish washed in with every wave and the task was impossible. We booked to go out on a boat to the Tremiti Islands next day which were far enough from the coast to avoid the problem.

san Marino to gargano

San Marino

I was now starting to worry but I got even more worried when we saw a sign labelled ”cable car”, I had not bargained on anything like that. Luckily before I totally lost the plot we saw a board with an arrow and the hotel name on it. Just in time too. The cable car was the next step on the climb!

The hotel was in an old building perched at the side of a cobbled square. The mountainside was so steep that the square was divided into two levels but it still left room for some cars to park. The hotel had a sort of added on dining room at the entrance made with glass doors that could be rolled back to make a more outdoor space. In side an old door led to a stone staircase, and more lugging of heavy cases.

Our room looked out onto the square through one window and the town clock through the other. The clock chimed ever quarter hour but luckily someone had the sense to turn it off at night. There was even a bar made who spoke English and a cellar dining room carved deep into the rock. The inner dining room had massive old beaams holding up a low ceiling and we chose to eat there.

By this time we had learnt that we were not actually in Italy any more but in the tiny republic of San Marino. The sat nav had actually tried briefly to suggest this too us but we had ignored it on the grounds it was being stupid! We all live and learn. Anyway the food and the wine was delicious and the Republic turned out a very good choice of places to be.

I woke early next morning and went for a walk up the tiny cobbled streets. There were already men out sweeping the streets with ordinary house hold brushes and there were pots of flowers everywhere so it looked totally charming. I was amused to se that the zebra crossing was made with white and black cobble stones to contrast with the usual grey ones.

Edd woke for a brief breakfast and we were back on the road again. Today we were to head for the Gargano peninsula where we had booked a beach side hotel. Luckily the firther we went south the lighter the traffic got and driving became much less nerve wracking. It also got warmer and we were now settled in summer mode.

Travelling down Italy

Travelling around Italy

On Monday we had to go to the airport and find the car we had booked over the internet. Rather to our surprise it was all waiting for us with no drama at all. It even had a built in satnav which we decided was an essential if we wanted to avoid the sort of problem we had on entering Lyon.

Getting into the car was easy but we had to launch straight off onto the Italian Autobarns, and we had already had one experience of Italian driving to make us wary. Luckily Edd quite likes this sort of challenge. It certainly prevents you worrying about anything other than the moment at hand!

We had booked for the night at a place Edd found called San Marino so we had about four hours driving to get through. The traffic was heavy but our car was young and strong. After a bit I could relax enough to look at the scenery. The sat nav had no instructions with it so the first few days we just had to experiment until we had worked it out.

Mostly I noticed the oleanda. Everywhere down the sides of the roads it was planted in endless banks of all shades of pink. Beyond it we could see land being lived in and farmed but there were no ox carts in sight now-a-days. Modern machinery seemed to have totally taken over and there was almost no-one to be seen working the land.

Every country house seemed to have at least ten olive trees, all pruned back to low height and once I saw a grove of stone pines which interested me because I am planning to plant more on our farm. We found some unexpectedly good food for lunch at a motorway café or Auto grille as they are called and then the interesting bit came when we had to leave the autobarn and look for the hotel we had booked into.

It did not matter what we did the sat nav in the car would not accept the hotel address. This left us back to basics again but as San Marino was signed up we just followed the signs and kept going. The streets got progressively narrower and it started to rain but the signs kept coming and we kept going…mostly up as we had begun a mountain climb.

Milan

It did give us an extra day in Milan so we set off next morning to look for the cathedral. Trams looked too hard so we tried the under ground. This worked well but first we had to work out how to use the machines that sold tickets. Next we had to work out where to get off. Our first try was central station as it sounded right. It was a good mistake as central station has to be seen to be believed. It is pretty much a rival for most cathedrals I have seen except that the statues were of Romans or greek gods rather than holy images. Everything else was well in line. It was massively tall with a central room police cars and ambulances could drive through and it had other equally large sumptuous spaces.

We just stayed and gauped for ages but eventually we went outside. The building was just as impressive on the exterior but seemed to be located no where particular. We were obviously in the wrong place for anything except trains. Our next stop above ground got us to what was obviously the right place. A huge square was bordered by magnificent old buildings. We decided to explore the cathedral.

This turned out to be a good move. It was Sunday and services were running but anyone could walk around or join in. There was a choir and Bach on the organ so we were enthrawled. The music was magnificent and what with various church dignitaries in full robes it was quite a show. After the choir left we had a girl singing solo parts so we just settled down to a musical morning which we thoroughly enjoyed. Edd was thrilled that he coud be part of something so archaic.

When the show was over we drifted along with other tourist who were heading for the shops. We were not interesting in buying anything but it was interesting to look and we soon found a busker with a guitar singing one of Edd’s favourite songs so we joined his audience and had a musical afternoon too. We walked back to the hotel and got a good look at the city.