Hardly the way to begin a blog with such a positive heading but that's the way the QDa crashes. QDa is what my grandchildren call me.
Saturday was planned to be busy day and so it was. Began the day in bed, writing up 3 x A3 pages (in texta) of the work areas and detailed description what was to be done not forgetting OH& S of course.
Ros and I got up to the farm about 09:45 and immediately set about cutting down dead trees and stacking them against the chook fence. It's a shame to have to cut them down but after 9 weeks with no sign of life then there's no question, there's no longer any life support to take them off. 
Must confess I take a certain amount of pride in being able to drop a tree pretty much where I want it.
Losing a tree certainly changes the landscape and I think that Ros is not altogether happy with the resulting emptiness.
Shortly after we got started Cait Nicco and the kids arrived, bundled out of the car and after perusing the jobs list, started work in the vegetable garden. It actually took a bit longer than that. There seemed to be some confusion over what was required to be done and it wasn't until I'd explained that there were about four pages of instruction that the problem seemed to go away. I never did get to the bottom of that.
I'd like to keep going but I'm a bit over this hip and subsequent headache so I'm off to bed. More on the weekend tomorrow. - Cheers
Well it's been tomorrow for some time so back to Saturday. Cait and Nicco finally went off fully tasked to the vegetable patch and got into some serious work.
I cut down the third and final tree which I had been going to leave for Grocon as it was very close to the house and apart from the bloody leaves had been gaining a few degrees of slope each year.
Once again it fell exactly where I had anticipated and those who are wondering about hubris need be concerned no longer. It fell smack on top of the giant webber I had borrowed for Xmas and moved out of the way so it wouldn't get removed by Grocon. Of course I'd forgotten the bloody thing was there. It's only a fairly small dent, but I felt pretty stupid, particularly as it took me about 15 minutes of branch trimming before I noticed.
Once again it fell exactly where I had anticipated and those who are wondering about hubris need be concerned no longer. It fell smack on top of the giant webber I had borrowed for Xmas and moved out of the way so it wouldn't get removed by Grocon. Of course I'd forgotten the bloody thing was there. It's only a fairly small dent, but I felt pretty stupid, particularly as it took me about 15 minutes of branch trimming before I noticed.
Jamie arrived shortly thereafter - it was beginning to look like a Volvo convention - probably not a bad collective noun - a "convention" of Volvos and after a quick look at the task list fired up the chainsaw and that was just about the last time he stopped except to refuel and re-sharpen the saw. The pile of logs against the fence just kept getting longer and higher only beaten by the pile of branches we were both creating.
Not to be outdone Nicco had created his own pile of grevilliea branches - nearly enough to mulch the whole paddock.
Cait in the meantime had got a bit dispirited about working on the vegetable patch, presumably because Ros had started thinking aloud about not wanting to spoil the view up the valley from the windows of the new house - not that we have a final design by any means. Wanting to give Cait something meaty to do, I took her down to the flat area below the tank where Macca & I had dumped a large number of barrow loads of bricks a couple of weeks earlier and explained that they all needed to be neatly stacked at one end so that we could snuggle the caravan into the side of the hill. The idea is that there will be some protection from the wind unless it comes howling in from the south west. All I could see of Cait for the next hour or so was her head bobbing up and down above the cutting as bricks went from scrambled shambles to an ever-increasing wall you could just about march a legion on for a short distance anyway. Hadrian would have been proud!
Called Ben on the mobile to see if he'd like to bring Willo up. The exercise would be good for them and I'm a bit concerned that it will all be cleaned up and Willo will have missed out. As is often the case I get the answering service and no Ben then or later.
A short while later Richard arrived with some tracing paper for me and an hour or so of willing labour which was quickly directed to increasing the size of the branch pile. If we ever set fire to it, they'll be panicking in Kinglake and Marysville.
I can't believe it's after midnight again and I haven't even finished Saturday.
Problem is I've spent several hours turning my newly acquired MacBook into a windows machine so I can continue to run some useful applications. More of Saturday and Sunday later - its bed time.
I'll publish this now and update again tomorrow - Cheers - Q
Cath - Jamie's wife arrived with their two girls Molly & Lea and lunch at about 2:00ish and were quickly followed by Sean another of Cait's school neighbours and his dad Rob. Sean has his own earthmoving business and had offered to help move whatever needed moving and this was the first time we'd had as chance to meet and inspect the site.
While the others ate lunch Sean, Rob and I wandered down the dam paddock and looked at the bloody great logs the Main Roads Dept had carefully parked just below the flat. I wasn't sure if Sean's skid-steer was big enough but he explained he had an excavator as well so it wouldn't be a major drama. A bit more of a wander around and over the flat to see what needed doing and then back up the slope to have a look at what I call the home paddock which is where most of the garden will be, where we stood about and yacked for a while before they headed off and I went back to work.
Somewhere in here the kids discovered the black mud at the bottom of a largish puddle in the driveway and just had to do something useful with it like painting Jamie's trailer. A great deal of fun was had by all.
The last thing I had on my agenda was to finish cabling up the electric fence for the goat who will hopefully not have discovered how to swim while holidaying at his temporary home. The much threatened rain must have been getting close because the temperature took a sudden drop. So much so that I decided to stop toughing it out and put on a long sleeved polarfleece - Thanks Stephen - before getting on with the last row of electric tape. Just got that done
and was walking back to the car when the rain started to get serious. I threw on my rain jacket and walked up to the area behind the chook shed where Jamie and Cath were still
stacking wood and yelled, "Hey it's OK to knock off you don't have to work in the rain!. To which Jamie replied "Aaah we just thought we'd better keep going until you gave us the word to stop." I hope he was joking.A couple of photos later -
the rain wasn't quite pelting down and we packed into the cars and drove away leaving Jamie to change a stop light bulb before he too followed. Cath and the kids led the way with Ros & I behind her the first of the Volvo cavalcade.We stopped in Research to order the biggest lot of fish and chips that I reckon they'd had to deal with for a while and Cait & Nicco went in to Eltham to top up on lubricating fluids. I took Ros home for a shower and returned to Research for the food.
Food and drink downed, we all headed for bed and an early finish to the blog. What a great day!
Sunday 26 Well it's only supposed to be Autumn but it feels like deepest Siberian Winter or pehaps just a normal day in the Antarctic. Eventually dragged myself out of bed got breakfasted and after a bit of dithering around which generally means I can't remember what we were doing, went down to see if I could borrow Jamie's trailer for a couple of hours. CFA had arranged a "Wholesale Price Day" for all CFA members at PlantMart and I thought it would come in handy if we hade more than we could fit in the car.
The trailer was freely given and after pumping up the tires on route we wombled our way to PlantMart at Thomastown which was chock a block with CFA bods, not a few of whom were from St Andrews and other local brigades.
The temperature went down pretty much in inverse proportion to the number of plants we bought. By mid afternoon when we had filled three trolleys with fruit trees, lemon, navel orange, blood orange and mandarin. A Wollemi Pine that Ros has wanted as a Xmas tree for some time, as well as a new Waratah to replace one that hasd not survived. Groundcovers including myoporum parvifolium, the last three trailing rosemary they had, unfortunately only in 100mm pots, grevillea gaudi chaudi, several pots of herbs, a whole range of correa including one called "Little Cate", Dianella tasmanica and revoluta, Eremophila maculata - spotted Emu bush, Santolina chemaecyparisus - Lavender Cotton, a beautiful brown foliaged shrub the name forgotten, a couple of sets of grasses including lomandra "breeze", eight Sea Lavender and not least of all but certainly last, seven Pyrus ussuriensis - Manchurian Pears to replace those along the driveway killed by the fire. Subsequently discovered that I'd miscounted or lost one more and it should have been eight. Another example of what I'm calling "bushfire brain". Talk about a child in a lolly shop - apart from a car and a boat I don't think I've ever spent that much in one go and the great thing was I enjoyed doing it.
Car and trailer absolutely stacked to the gunwhales we drove up to the farm and very quickly offloaded everything into sheltered spaces among the trees and behind logs for additional protection and raced back to St Andrews at 40kph and then maxed to the speed limit because we had to get home, get changed or at least put on a clean pair of trousers in my case, pick up Angus, Phoebe and Lena one of our German daughters who was back alone in Melbourne and head back to the St Andrews Hall to attend an event which had been organised by local St Andrews people who'd formed a very effective committee to arrange a public thank you to St Andrews CFA and a presentation to members who'd been involved on Feb 7 and beyond.
We arrived at 16:50 just before the presentation began at 17:00 and despite the large crowd manged to find some space at the back of the hall. I made the mistake of going for some drinks for the kids and the adults, by which time the speeches had begun and I was stuck outside with three glasses of sparkling red. What a dilemma. I moved around to the side door and was able to hear most of the speech by Lex de Man CFA Regional Manager and only drank one of them.
Between speeches, a gap opened up again at the back so I squeezed in and handed them to Ros.
It was actually pretty hard to hear at the back of the hall but CFA folk were requested to make their way to the stage for the presentation. I asked Angus if he'd like to come with me but shyness overwhelmed him and he said "No thanks." Phoebe immediately put up her arms and said, "I'll come", so we struggled our way to the front of the crowd and up on to the stage. She was pretty happy until the crowd were asked to show their appreciation for us CFA wallahs and then it all became a bit much as she made herself tiny and snuggled into my shoulder.
I was the first to receive the cheers and my Thank You Certificate which was very nicely printed and framed, as well as an engraved Selangor pewter goblet. Asking if I could have the microphone for a second, I said, "That after the North East Fires in 2003/2004, I had marched with CFA through the centre of Melbourne, but nothing was as good as being thanked by your own Community!". Phoebe and I returned to the back of the hall via the side door and joined in the cheering and clapping as the presentations were made.
A great celebration is seldom complete without food and drink and as Phoebe pointedly asked, "Where's my dinner - I'm hungry?", the presentations were completed and we joined the queue for a barbeque dinner which certainly seemd to fill most of her spaces and mine. Dinner over, the kids joined with a bunch of others who were doing laps around the hall while we chatted to friends, acquaintances colleagues and neighbours. I was particularly chuffed to learn that Angela who we had met at the Royal Commission Briefing Day had really enjoyed reading the blog which she'd discovered via the article in the Leader.
As I've mentioned once or twice, its very gratifying and encouraging to receive such positive feedback so after everything else good about Sunday, Angela pretty much put the icing on top of the rich fruit cake which had been my day.
The trailer was freely given and after pumping up the tires on route we wombled our way to PlantMart at Thomastown which was chock a block with CFA bods, not a few of whom were from St Andrews and other local brigades.
The temperature went down pretty much in inverse proportion to the number of plants we bought. By mid afternoon when we had filled three trolleys with fruit trees, lemon, navel orange, blood orange and mandarin. A Wollemi Pine that Ros has wanted as a Xmas tree for some time, as well as a new Waratah to replace one that hasd not survived. Groundcovers including myoporum parvifolium, the last three trailing rosemary they had, unfortunately only in 100mm pots, grevillea gaudi chaudi, several pots of herbs, a whole range of correa including one called "Little Cate", Dianella tasmanica and revoluta, Eremophila maculata - spotted Emu bush, Santolina chemaecyparisus - Lavender Cotton, a beautiful brown foliaged shrub the name forgotten, a couple of sets of grasses including lomandra "breeze", eight Sea Lavender and not least of all but certainly last, seven Pyrus ussuriensis - Manchurian Pears to replace those along the driveway killed by the fire. Subsequently discovered that I'd miscounted or lost one more and it should have been eight. Another example of what I'm calling "bushfire brain". Talk about a child in a lolly shop - apart from a car and a boat I don't think I've ever spent that much in one go and the great thing was I enjoyed doing it.
Car and trailer absolutely stacked to the gunwhales we drove up to the farm and very quickly offloaded everything into sheltered spaces among the trees and behind logs for additional protection and raced back to St Andrews at 40kph and then maxed to the speed limit because we had to get home, get changed or at least put on a clean pair of trousers in my case, pick up Angus, Phoebe and Lena one of our German daughters who was back alone in Melbourne and head back to the St Andrews Hall to attend an event which had been organised by local St Andrews people who'd formed a very effective committee to arrange a public thank you to St Andrews CFA and a presentation to members who'd been involved on Feb 7 and beyond.
We arrived at 16:50 just before the presentation began at 17:00 and despite the large crowd manged to find some space at the back of the hall. I made the mistake of going for some drinks for the kids and the adults, by which time the speeches had begun and I was stuck outside with three glasses of sparkling red. What a dilemma. I moved around to the side door and was able to hear most of the speech by Lex de Man CFA Regional Manager and only drank one of them.
Between speeches, a gap opened up again at the back so I squeezed in and handed them to Ros.
It was actually pretty hard to hear at the back of the hall but CFA folk were requested to make their way to the stage for the presentation. I asked Angus if he'd like to come with me but shyness overwhelmed him and he said "No thanks." Phoebe immediately put up her arms and said, "I'll come", so we struggled our way to the front of the crowd and up on to the stage. She was pretty happy until the crowd were asked to show their appreciation for us CFA wallahs and then it all became a bit much as she made herself tiny and snuggled into my shoulder.
I was the first to receive the cheers and my Thank You Certificate which was very nicely printed and framed, as well as an engraved Selangor pewter goblet. Asking if I could have the microphone for a second, I said, "That after the North East Fires in 2003/2004, I had marched with CFA through the centre of Melbourne, but nothing was as good as being thanked by your own Community!". Phoebe and I returned to the back of the hall via the side door and joined in the cheering and clapping as the presentations were made.
A great celebration is seldom complete without food and drink and as Phoebe pointedly asked, "Where's my dinner - I'm hungry?", the presentations were completed and we joined the queue for a barbeque dinner which certainly seemd to fill most of her spaces and mine. Dinner over, the kids joined with a bunch of others who were doing laps around the hall while we chatted to friends, acquaintances colleagues and neighbours. I was particularly chuffed to learn that Angela who we had met at the Royal Commission Briefing Day had really enjoyed reading the blog which she'd discovered via the article in the Leader.
As I've mentioned once or twice, its very gratifying and encouraging to receive such positive feedback so after everything else good about Sunday, Angela pretty much put the icing on top of the rich fruit cake which had been my day.
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