We Are Back!!

The heading says it all. Ros and I and the two small dogs are back at the farm with occasional forays down to Cait & Nicco's to have a meal, sleepover and shower or just to remind them what a bloody nuisance we can be. 

We are pretty well set up although there's a fair bit of work to be done before I'd say we were settled in. The annexe is on the caravan - probably took me four times as long as necessary to get the thing set up properly and then a week of minor adjustments but we're dry and warm despite the rain. I've even devised a scheme involving the fishpond pump about 20m of plastic tubing and a wire to suspend it from which will allow us to capture the rainwater from the awning and feed it into the big water tank. Heath-Robinson would have been proud of me.

Haven't installed it yet - another job for the working bee on Sunday. Cait's organised a bunch of her mates to come and spread mulch, cut up pine logs, dig holes or whatever. People are very keen to be of assistance - its wonderful.

And What About the Landrover?

It's fantastic - just what I wanted - although I'm still getting used to  the truck like turning circle. Stephen warned me that it was pretty big and he was right. Things are improving though as I can now negotiate Cait's driveway without threatening the trees. I'm a very happy camper. It's already proved it's worth in helping to shift loads of mulch down to the flat which pretty much becomes awash if  there's any significant rain or the fire hose polypipe feed-line from the pump is split after the Grocon guys accidentally ran over it with the excavator is and sends torrent s of water gushing down the hill without me noticing for abut 15 minutes. It was dark and I was admiring the silvery glint until I realised what it was. There's a wet lining to every silver cloud. 

Anyway back to the landrover which to date remains nameless but was well worth the wait. Its very well fitted out - only took me a week to work out how to use the radio - actually about three secs after I read the manual!

Speaking of Grocon which I was a sentence or so ago, today I finally confessed to Rhonda that we'd accidentally killed Phil's enormous webber by dropping a load of roofing iron on top of it and then whacking it with the excavator bucket. I hadn't made it explicitly clear that all of the items against the retaining wall were for preservation.  

I have to say that apart from the webber and part of the sleeper retaining wall which got crunched by a truck driving a bit too closely, the Grocon guys did a really good job.

Site Improvements

In addition to helping us spread mulch in strategic places and feeding us dinner on Sunday night, our friend Jan and son Charles came up during the week and erected what looks like a mini-big top circus tent that has provided much needed additional protection from the weather. 

We've also acquired courtesy of Helen a large pine picnic table complete with attached seats which will be very useful when it isn't being rained on.

The Uphills mentioned that they'd been over to Stratco at Epping 

and discovered that they had some sheds at nearly half-price because they were a bit marked. Well the service at Stratco leaves a lot to be desired but the shed was cheap less than half the price of the slightly larger one I got the week before from Mitre 10. I'll pick it up tomorrow and add it to the list of activities for Sunday. 

 

Well it's 23:40 and while there's a fair bit more to say, the genny's been running for long enough and I need some sleep so it will have to wait until next time.

"Adios" -  to quote a well Known PM 

Thursday May 20 Back to the Keyboard

A fair bit has happened since the great Chiminea robbery of 2009 - I can laugh now at the thought  that some bastard with a broken foot and his mate with an irreparable hernia are being berated by their wives for coming home with a slow combustion stove that doesn't have a door and won't fit in the fireplace ... if only - anyway its gone and I can only hope that there's a child somewhere who will be warmer as a result.

On Mother's Day or it could have been Saturday,  Uncle Digby, he's actually my youngest brother and amongst many other attributes a registered builder, announced by phone, his imminent arrival from SA. As you will have noticed I've been a bit slack with the keyboard and hadn't checked my mails for a few days so it was just as well he phoned or we'd probably still have been in bed on a sleepy Sunday morning. Well Ros might have finally  got a cup of tea from me as well as her gifts from Phoebe and Angus but she missed out as we leapt out of bed.

We had previously spent some time discussing building issues with Dig when we were taking a break in SA and he'd offered to caste a professional eye over the site, design, council requirements and generally see whether or not I was heading in the right direction.  I felt pretty pleased with the design Ros & I had come up with using the draughting package he'd provided. It fitted the old footprint and had most of the things we wanted.

Monday 12

Still it's a long way from being a useful in plan until a builder had caste his eyes over it and provided some initial costings. As I hadn't done much about finding a builder,  under Dig's non- too subtle urging I rang a mate in the landscaping design business and asked if he knew any good builders. To my pleasant surprise he suggested one that he'd worked with quite a lot and recommended that I give him a call and mention his name.

Three hours later Dig & I were up at the farm waiting for Michael the builder to arrive. Bit of a new experience for me as I've never had anyone build anything for me before and had only a vague and general idea of the process to be undertaken. Michael was a quiet and thoughtful chap and after the inititial introductions, look at my "plans" and a bit of discussion about siting of the original house, views and construction materials and a quick move in budget estimates from $180k to $250k which still seemed like it might be a long way short of the "typical" $300k- $400k house build, I stood back a bit and let the two builders compare notes, materials and  find each others measure. 

The first site meeting concluded with an exchange of details and Michael's suggestion that he'd get some concept drawings prepared by a draughtsman that would give Ros and I something to work with and think about. 

Both Dig and I feel quite positive about Michael but he takes care to ensure that I will check out other builders that are known to friends and colleagues and get quotes from them once we have settled on a design.

One thing that we have to do is look at construction materials, claddings and the like to get a feel for what sort of options we may have when it comes to looking at ways to keep the cost down. I'm still keen to investigate the Hebel option as it seems to have quite a bit going for it although perhaps not so far as Michael - he seemed fairly disinterested in the product but this may just be due to the fact that he's not previously worked with it so it's an unknown quantity. 

The Landrover does not quite cometh

Got a call from Allan - the Landrover has been for its RACV & Roadworthy Check and to his obvious disappointment, they've been pretty damn thorough and there a few items that need replacement/investigation/repair. I'm also a bit disappointed but for different reasons. I'd been hoping to pick it up on Tuesday, but am  very happy to wait while it's brought up to scratch. That after all is the purpose of paying nearly $300 for a full  RACV 4WD check and requesting a Roadworthy certificate as a condition of purchase. With a bit of luck it'll be ready by the end of the week.

Dig departed on Tuesday after a longish chat and a cup of tea and I got on with working for IBM  which I'm finding harder and harder to focus on. I called Stephen to see if he could recommend a good 4WD mechanic as Allan is from Sydney and doesn't know any local firms. He's also going to similarly check with his mechanic in Sydney. As luck would have it, the company recommended by Stephen is the same as that recommended by Allan's former mechanic. That at least is a good sign.

Wednesday Night Ros & I discover that we are not the only disorganised non-perfectly communicating couple in the world. Her sister Sonya and husband Warren have organised different sets of days off so they can bring the van down. Bottom line, it will be here on Friday morning - ripper!

Thursday - one more sleep!

Friday 15 

Up bright and early as I have to go to Mitre 10 at Diamond Creek to collect a garden shed. I anticipate that I will need to borrow their trailer but with a bit of a heave ho  it all mostly fits in the back of the volvo with the tailgate held down with an "occy" strap. A quick run up to the farm, check that the generator is still there, drop off the shed and then back to Cait's to collect Ros.

Of course everything takes a little bit longer than expected and by  the time I pick her up, the Sydney crew  have arrived in St Andrews and are sent off to the general store to have a coffee while we hasten through the light fog patches and occasional rain-drop or two hoping that it will hold off for a bit or that the weather forecasters (winds of up to 100k and heavy showers) have got it wrong for today at least. 

The rain holds off and after meeting at St Andrews we take the lead to the farm and then watch as Warren's 4wd easily pulls the caravan up the hill to the flat. While Ros & I watch from a distance the van is rolled into position with only a minimum of effort. Obviously done this once or twice before.

The caravan is quickly settled into place and once we have it stabilized, Warren and I start work on the shed which is to consume most of my next three days, while Ros and Sonya organise a cuppa.

It's fantastic to finally have a place to stay at the farm - I am truly grateful.

A Week Later & It's Still Pretty Damn Good - Mostly

Friday 8 May 2009

We have been invited to lunch at St Erth, Blackwood by one of Ros' nursing colleagues Rosemary. It's a pleasant misty grey trip with Kingsley & Chris taking about 90 minutes. Feels more like winter than autumn and while I'm enjoying the damp outside I'm also wishing that the rain would hold off for a couple of weeks more. The caravan is coming and if there's too much moisture, getting it up onto the flat could be quite a challenge. In fact it will be nearly impossible.

As I've discovered on more than one occasion that I have no control over the weather, its easy to just sit back and hope that at least it won't be raining too heavily at St Erth. The gardens are well worth a longish wander and a light misty rain would be quite pleasant.

Speaking of pleasant, haven't been up this way for about 6 months and the freeway extension bypassing Deer Park is a very useful improvement. I'm not quite sure where I stand on more freeways in general but this one has my blessing.

Lunch was very enjoyable as was the company which also included, Keith, A... , and our most delightful hostess Rosemary who has a soft Dublin accent that I ignorantly mistook for educated Liverpudlian because it reminded me of my best mate's older sister. My trout fillet was enormous and very tender. I'd loved to have caught him but I suspect he was farm bred and had never seen a mountain stream.

While we were enjoying lunch, back at the farm the Grocon team were busily removing dead cars and roofing iron. We weren't certain whether they'd got a start on Friday but it turned out they were working right on schedule. Only a couple of young blokes, a 13 tonne excavator and as many trucks as they could get their hands on.





After filling ourselves to the brim and a little beyond - I didn't order any dessert but was obliged to help Ros & Chris finish theirs, we wandered outside and hastily put up hoods, hats and umbrellas to keep our heads dry. It wasn't particularly cold but I was glad to have three layers as well as my new waterproof outer jacket.

A very pleasant walk around the gardens with a knowledgeable and enthusiastic A... was interspersed with the odd photo-opportunity or two.

By the time we were ready to leave it was approaching 16:00 and no way were we going to be back in time to collect Angus and Phoebe from Fiona's before Cait finished work. A quick call to Cait and she'd organised for the kids to stay with Fi until she arrived. We breathed a grandparently sigh of relief that our failure to recognise that lunch might well be of the extended kind would cause no major drama on the home front.

Farewells concluded, Kingsley once again took the wheel and conveyed us back to Eltham via the wilds of Trentham, Whittlesea and Diamond Creek. "It's a hard life...." and this has been a great end to a very good week. Amazing what a day away in congenial company does for the soul.

Saturday 9 May 2009
Keen to see whether the Grocon guys had actually started as scheduled, I drove up to th efarm on Saturday morning and was pleasantly surprised to see them hard at work. Introduced myself to Jay the supervisor and had a bit of a chat about what they were doing. Also met the excavator operator whose name I've unfortunately forgotten and identified what needed to be left.

Unfortunately this did not include the borrowed giant webber which had already been removed with a mangled pile of roofing iron. I'd meant to move it but had completely forgotten and now I have remembered I need to tell Rhonda that it is no more ... rather a big oops!

It was while I was feeling regretful and not a little guilty about the webber that I noticed that the only thing of value remaining - our cast iron single-piece chiminea was not where Richard and I had left it. Bloody thing weighs a tonne and I couldn't imagine anyone just walking in and knocking it off. So much for my imagination!

Asked the Grocon guys whether they'd seen it on Friday and got a negative together with the information that when they'd arrived, there'd been a log dragged across the driveway preventing access and nothing on the side of the drive, where I'd left several bundles of flattened fencing wire stacked up for Grocon to take.

At this point I got fairly bloody shitty as the realisation that the looting bastards who had stolen it had obviously been watching the site for some time. When I first started going up, upon leaving I dragged a log across the driveway as discouragement to casual passers by. I'd stopped doing that after about three weeks so its pretty obvious that these thieving shits had been looking at the place early in the piece and had returned just before the Grocon team to knock it off, presumably hoping that Grocon would get the blame.

If it was some homeless poor bastard from Kinglake who needed something to keep them warm this winter then I guess they are welcome to it but my suspicion is that it was just an act of bastardry by some reasonable well organised and opportunistic arseholes. Fuck 'em!

Of course I reported it to a sympathetic policeman at Diamond Creek but neither of us held out much hope for it's recovery. Note to the new police commissioner - add the word "chiminea" to your list of stolen-item descriptors. Chimineas are reasonably common and it would save a few minutes of trying to find something acceptable to the system.

Well on that note - it's time for bed.

Thursday 7/05 - What a great Week and it ain't over yet!

The Caravan is Coming!
It's been confirmed - the caravan has been repaired and will be here not this weekend but next weekend because nephew Simon has a race on and his family are manager/support crew/transporters and cheerleaders not to mention timekeepers and they can't be in two places at once. Simon rides outfits (motorcycle and passenger containing platform) at death defying speeds around a race-track. I think I'm the first member of their official fan club.

The Generator is here! Monday 04/05
Well it's been sitting in the warehouse for a few weeks but today I drove around to Bell & Orders (great people to deal with) and picked it up and brought it back to Cait and Nicco's. By the way if you need any excavating or landscaping done, call Sean at SIR Excavations on (03) 9844 1129.

A Meeting with the Council 05/05
Apparently some weeks ago I registered with Council to meet with their departmental reps regarding requirements for rebuilding. I was reminded of this by Jacqui who phoned last week to confirm and make time and date. I had absolutely no recollection but was very happy to get involved so Ros & I toddled along to the Council offices at the appointed time and met with reps from Planning, Building, Health and Environmental Planning. It was a very useful and informative session. The Council team were well prepared and gave us relevant infopacks to take away. I came away being very impressed, particularly after receiving two follow-up calls regarding matters we'd raised at the meeting.

The second call which I received this morning ( 7/5) was from Graham who said that it might take a while because they stil had a lot of roadside clearing to do but Council would get rid of the tree's in the paddock left by DMR. I mentioned that we'd piled them all up near the barn because Grocon had indicated they might be able to take them and gave him Stan's (from Grocon) phone number. Also asked about the roadside pine trees and Graham said he'd need to get an arborist to look at them but would see what he could do.

Grocon is Coming Soon!
En route to the council meeting my mobile rang and it was about 10 minutes before I could return the call. It was Stan from Grocon who had apparently had a machine available but in the intervening period had re-assigned it. I wasn't particularly impressed that I'd had less then 10 minutes to respond, however I couldn't fault his re-allocation of resources. It means they are very close and hopefully will have got to our place before the caravan arrives.

The Mulcher & the Brush Cutter are Coming Too!
During MIFGS I had taken the opportunity and advantage of "special prices" to order a new heavy duty garden mulcher and a Brush cutter both with Honda engines. The sales guy had asked if I minded waiting for a few weeks as they'd had so many orders, he'd run out of stock and would need to get more from the manufacturers. That was no problem so I ordered them early this week and they will be delivered this afternoon. Yay! Nicco will be happy because we can do their place first.

& Finally a New Vehicle
One of the many things that have contributed to some sleepless nights has been what to do about a new vehicle for me. Ros has (mostly) been very patient in sharing her Volvo but it's not a long term solution and if I keep filling up the back with tools and boots and suchlike, it's likely to be very short term!!

What to get has been an issue - I need something that must be able to carry garden and landscaping stuff, plants, rocks, tools etc., tow La Pirogue on a trailer (two tonne all up) and provide a 4wd for camping/fishing trips.

I'd really like to have a Landrover Ute (Defender 130) but they are almost as rare as hens teeth and a have mostly been a bit higher in cost than I had initially planned to pay for a vehicle. The other choice was probably a Nissan Navara 3l which also started at about the $18k-$20k I thought would be reasonable.

Several weeks of reading the Trading Post and hitting all the car sites on the net were beginning to take their toll when I realised that with very little mortgage, we could probably afford to pay a bit more for a car. Ran this past Ros who agreed so the search started again and almost immediately I found a 130 in Sydney that seemed to fit the bill. At about $29,000 it was at the extreme end of my budget but it was what I wanted. However, by the time I'd done a bit of checking with various friends, land-rover clubs and the web, it was gone. I'd also seen a fairly good Navarra for about $25k but hadn't bothered to chase it up.

Things must be looking up a bit or more likely it's really a 130 I wanted, because rather than have a look at the Nissan I said to Ros, "let's give it a month and if I can't find a landrover by June I'll seriously look at Nissans". To my relief she agreed.

Browsing through the web on Tuedsay night with Nicco, I spotted a 130 I hadn't seen before. It was in Victoria (tho' with NSW plates) and apart from having had the rear seats replaced with a tool storage area had a bunch of accessories including ladder racks, roof rack, adjustable airbags inside the springs and a heavy duty alloy tray with tool drawer and a small compressor, Hayman -Rees towbar, looked exactly what I needed - and it was white! Printing off all the details, I stuffed them in my bag as by then it was a bit late to be calling anyone.

Drove into work the following day (Thanks Ros) and after checking with the RACV and booking it in for a 4wd inspection, I rang the owner Alan and arranged to meet him after work. The visit was a bit of an anti-climax with respect to the 130, which looked just like it should, had a few minor dings and dents consistent with its use as a landscaper's vehicle and was generally in pretty good shape. Alan seems like a really nice guy. He's an ex town planner originally from Ballarat, who has been practising as a landcaper in Sydney after retraining at TAFE about 7 years ago. His wife's company has recently transferred her to Melbourne and they've only been in Melbourne for about a week. Alan is giving up hard landscaping and is going to concentrate on design hence the decison to jettison the Landrover.

Alan is very happy to get it RACV inspected and arrange a Roadworthy certificate, so all things being equal I should have what is very close to the car of my dreams about this time next week. I know that Landrovers are a bit prosaic, but I used to own a 1975 series III Safari Wagon with a Holden motor in it and Fairey overdrive, and wished I'd never sold it. Coming from WA I couln't imagine what I'd do with a 4WD in Victoria.

Anyway apart from the fact that growing up in Woomera, there were landrovers all over the place so I've probably got a bit of an emotional attachment to them, I've always said that, "You should never drive a vehicle that goes faster than you can think", so a Landrover and I are admirably well suited.

I am looking forward to it!

A Week's Gone Where? 04/05/09.

I can hardly believe that it's been a week since I last logged in here. I have no idea where the time has gone. Tuesday was work, so was Wednesday & Thursday.

Friday I remember. 06:00 start so I had time for a shower and breakfast before walking up the road to meet Sean with his big Mack truck, excavator and skid steer for the drive up to the farm and a 07:30 start. Sean's been working in excavation since he was sixteen. Initially for his dad Rob in the family business and subsequently himself after Rob retired. I recently got my my skid-steer ticket at NMIT but here's a guy who's been at the controls for 16 years and it shows. Don't reckon there's much he can't do with the damn thing.

While Sean cleaned up around the barn, I busied myself with removing wire and old fencing from the few remaining fence posts and before I'd finished he'd removed all the concrete and crap from the flat as well. Pretty impressive!

He kept going on the flat and worked on some additional landscaping while I started clearing up branches from the home paddock and adding them to the ever increasing pile. Was interested to see today an article in "The Phoenix" that Murrunindi Shire is to allow their ratepayers to burn off provided the piles are no more than 1 metre high by 1 metre wide. At that rate I would need to have a minumum of 10 -15 such heaps about 10 piles and that's just a beginning. I reckon they'll have a revolt in Murrundindi and at the moment I'm grateful to be in Nillumbik.

Speaking of Nillumbik, I was most impressed to be phoned on Friday and invited to attend a meeting with representatives from all the council's departments to discuss issues associated with rebuilding. Apparently I had registered for this some weeks ago. I didn't remember having done so but I am really impressed with this initiative and said so. Hope I'm still happy after the meeting.

While council matters are still close to mind I'm a bit frustrated to have found that we are probably going to have to replace our old septic tank which has worked perfectly well for the last 15 years at least and would presumably keep working for another 15. Apparently the rules are about to change. Why frustrated? Well about seven or eight weeks ago I met with a council guy who for the moment will remain nameless but readers with good memories can look him up.

Anyway I met with this representative of the health department to talk about what was required in order to live in a caravan on the site. One of the items we discussed and I remember it quite clearly was whether or not the septic tank had been damaged and whether we would be able to continue to use it. I was left with the clear notion that provided it wasn't damaged then there would be no problem.

It now seems that the rules have changed. If it's less than 3200l then it aint big enough and needs to be replaced. This information is apparently about to be published by council. It's a bit too obvious a pun but I'm so glad they are going to do this, I could really have been in the shit!

The council gives with the left and takes with the right. I will try to maintain a sense of balance and remind myself once again that this is an unprecedented crisis and our local government representatives and their staffs can't possibly have been expected to have anything like a contingency plan for something so unusual and unexpected as a bushfire. Enough irony... but I am still astonished that they were so unprepared.

Back to Friday and the farm. Ros was supposed to be bring us morning tea about ten but when I called her at about 10:45 she and the coffee were still in Eltham as there had been a minor altercation between Angus and a footpath on the way to school. The footpath won but it was only a temporary victory. Hot coffee and cake arrived with Phoebe and Ros was gratefully consumed.

We were just about to get back to work when Cait and her friend Nicole arrived with lunch and so there was nothing for it but to have lunch.

Can't really claim to be real farmers but the work ethic is pretty strong so we all went back to work. I spent nearly three hours digging out bits of the gate posts while Sean cleaned up the front yard with the skid-steer and Nicole and Cait moved branches, bricks and dug up a vegetable bed.

Sean very carefully and delicately manouvered the biggest log on the property into position and then watched in disbelief and anguish as it rolled away from the front of the bucket, over one of my newly planted Manchurian Pears, straight over the top of a star picket, paused then headed straight for the dam before it swung sideways and rolled ponderously towards the Western fence, stopping about 10 metres short. Apart from the horrified look on Sean's face it was the funniest thing I've seen in years.

After catching our breath Sean and I removed a couple of star pickets and undid the tapes so he and the ski-steer could roll the bloody thing safely down the hill to the monster log pile he had already created. Hopefully, Grocon will take the lot.

It's 11:59 and I'm outa here! Cheers