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!