Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow 21/07/09

22/07/09
"They" say that tomorrow never comes - well perhaps it's true but here I am again some three weeks later. Apologies to anyone who has been disappointed with my lack of continuity - I'm afraid that I've not been terribly focused or conscientious over the last few weeks. It has been easier to put it off until tomorrow than find the time to honour what is at least an implicit commitment. If one starts a blog then one is obliged to blog or tell one's readers that its no happening any more. Truth is - sometimes it just isn't happening - I get caught up in living or surviving and blogging takes a lower priority.

I think I'm back mostly - and to continue - on Wednesday after lunch we drove up to Ngapla to stay with brother Dig and his wife Lynn. Dig was responsible for preparing dinner as Lynn who works nights supervising a bottling line in the Barossa was still sleeping. After dinner a quick conversation and she was off to work leaving Ros watching tv and the tennis while Dig and I had a few Bundy & cokes and talked about house plans bureaucracy and the nature of humans before hitting the sack. I think his most useful observation regarding our house plans was, "If you like the design just build the bloody thing!"

Dig was well gone to his job in Clare by the time we surfaced, just in time for Lynn to get home. Another brief but pleasant chat before we let the poor girl go off to bed but not before she had most generously given us a dozen bottles of excellent red (Sorry Jim) and two ports of similar quality, to sustain us against the cold Victorian nights.

A meandering trip to the bakery in Eudunda and then a quick return to John and Norma in Kapunda where I had the opportunity to have a look at John's dobsonian telescope. Unfortunately the weather had not been suitable for viewing at night so it may be some time before I see it in action. LR packed, a final lunch and hugs and kisses all round we headed off to visit Ian and his wife who's name has completely escaped my memory.

The wilds of Adelaide only got us a little confused before we eventually arrived and enjoyed coffee and more food than I knew what to do with. Eventually completely sated, we staggered out to the LR and drove south to Morphett Vale and dinner with Strachan and Karol before retiring some time in the morning having eaten to capacity and drained the remains of a bottle of Jack Daniels which had been looking for a good occasion to be emptied for nearly 10 years. considerable number of years.

We got to April 4 and had a most enjoyable 60th with Greg, Sylvia, family and friends.




Originally we had planned to go back to Morphett Vale but by 03:00 it was no longer an option and after a final generous wee dram, bed beckoned.

Next morning after a cleansing coffee, a hot breakfast and some hysteria over Stavros Flatley (check it out on google - I guarantee you'll enjoy it!) we downloaded the pictures from the party and chatted about building the new house, a possible Grampians meeting in August and a bunch of other stuff that has disappeared into the ooze of my brain.

Reluctantly after hugs kisses and a bit of cheek, we left and headed off to North Adelaide to meet Strachan, Karol and Hayley for lunch. Is it any wonder I'm beginning to have trouble seeing my feet! Lunch was excellent and the rest of the day has also largely disappeared except the certain knowledge that we returned to Morphett Vale. I think a sleep was involved somewhere before Strachan and I packed a few useful tools like a router, angle grinder, sander and sundry bits and pieces that he kindly donated to my somewhat depleted tool kit. I was also fortunate to be given a fishing rod to encourage a bit of leisure taking. 2010 is looking good!

Monday morning and it was time to leave a warm bed, eat yet more breakfast, do the final packing and leave Strachan & Karol to a couple of well deserved days off.

The newly "up-chipped" LR which I think now stands for Lightning Rocket behaved very well on the trip back and we made good time much to the obvious pleasure of Angus the dog who was ecstatic to see his good friend Meggy - nearly wagged his tail off.
Since our return and this is really a summary to bring this blog up to date, we have bought some new fittings for the caravan damaged by the severe winds while we were away. Endured another weekend of howling bloody winds and rain which damaged the awning fittings quite extensively, necessitating the purchase of yet more fittings. In the mean time we have rolled up the awning and will repair it when the wind abates in summer or I pluck up enough courage on a calm day to repair it.

Ros & I met with our builder Michael and have agreed the concept plans with a few minor modifications. I've drawn up a site plan for the Council which has all the things we are likely to want to add to the property including a new barn, new tanks, a new access road, new dam, greenhouses, hydroponic greenhouses, a new sewerage treatment system and nearly forgot a new house.

Michael thinks he will be able to start in about 4-5 weeks. I'm actually quite excited at the prospect.

Other good news is that Bronwyn our Global Care Angel has organised a deck to keep our picnic table off the ground. This was installed by a team of volunteers from South Australia - Many Thanks people.

One of our friends, an older lady called Dell who has not been in good health herself has been making dinner for us on Friday's. I don't generally have a lot of time for Christians but the activities of Global Care and Dell represent the very best of Christianity. I thank them all.

A neighbour Graham with a bobcat let me borrow it to move a load of roadbase up onto the flat. I repaid him by running it out of diesel. Fortunately after a bit of a ring around I worked out how to bleed it. Thanks Sean! All I need to do now is get enough fill to make a road so I can get up to the flat without needing to use low range locked diffs on the LR when its wet.

And finally both Phoebe and Angus are a year older - they are now 4 and 6

Some Have a Gap Year - We had a Gap Week and a bit

A Little History - 7/7/09
Back in 1962 I met a young chap recently arrived from Liverpool and a member of the 1st Alberton Scout Troop. He and a bunch of his mates were camping at Scott's Bottom - I think at Gumeracha in SA. I had been invited to attend by one of their senior members Bob Evans, who was working in Woomera and had been participating in scout meetings of 1st Woomera. To cut a long story short Greg Keegan and I have been best mates ever since.

Last week, Ian Lawrence another of our scouting mates, Greg & I all turned 60. Due to a complete inability to get anything organised in time, I had a quiet and most enjoyable dinner at Mercers in Eltham, on the 25th with Ros Cait,Ben and Ema (Nicco was doing an exam) to celebrate the occasion. We decided we'd have a big celebration in 2010.

Ian's party was on Sat 27 and Greg's on July 4 so we decided to travel to Adelaide on the Friday and stay with my brother Strachan and his partner Karol at Morphett vale and go to Ian's party on Sat, stay with friends at Kapunda, catch up with another brother Digby and his wife Lynn at Ngapla, party on at Greg and Sylvia's and return home on Monday July 6.

We had a few things to bring back so decided to take the LR on a road trip and see how we all coped. Also decided to take Angus the dog as he had demonstrated that travelling in the rear section of the cab was much to his liking. It was an uneventful trip and despite my hip/back/muscles/numb foot etc., reasonably comfortable.

Got up on Saturday morning and after breakfast headed out to the LR to find the front rhs tyre as flat as a pancake. Ros who was already sitting in the cab was removed post haste as I called the RACV .

To my surprise the RACV operator said she couldn't help me but after a pause which was just long enough for me to have almost decided to give her an earful about Total Care and reciprocal arrangements..... she said, " ....but I can call someone who can!". I reckon she's been waiting to use that one for years. She put me through to the RAA operator who said that a service vehicle would be there within the hour. To my surprise he turned up in less than ten minutes and we quickly discovered a common interest in LRs. While he changed the tire we talked about varius marques and he asked if I'd "Chipped it up yet?".

Apparently when the motor was first built in England it didn't comply with EU pollution control standards so LR not wishing for reasons of cost to fit a catalytic converter, detuned it and were able to sell it in Europe. In Australia, all new cars are fitted with cataltytic converters so some bright spark realised that the engine managment system could be re-programmed to improve performance to the original specs. The RAA guy gave me the name and address of Triumph Rover Spares in Lonsdale and reckoned that they'd be able to tell whether or not my model could be upgraded and would also be able to do it.

The good news is that they were only 15 mins away. The better news is that they could do it on the following Monday. The best news is that while Ros was sitting in the cab, it occurred to her that as they are probably the biggest LR wreckers in Australia, it would be worth asking if they had any rear seats and as luck would have it they did. So on Monday morning while they were putting in the new chip in the engine management system, I wandered around the yard inspecting every Defender they had. I chose the best set and about $900, I had a complete set of seats, a vehicle that felt like it was supercharged and the promise that they would see if they could find and put together a set of rear seat belts before we had to return. True to their word we left Adelaide a week later with a complete set of belts and bolts. Very pleasing indeed!

Sat 27th
Began well as above and apart from a little navigational difficulty in finding how to get to the Leicester pub and discovering there was a singular lack of parking at the venue, Ian's 60th celebration was a very successul event. I took a roll or so's equivalent in digital pictures and a grand night was had by all.



On Monday we tracked up to Kapunda to stay with Norma & John. Back down to Westlakes for lunch with Greg, his wife Sylvia and sister Stephanie. Nearly forgot grandson "Jack" Jackson Keegan who of course stole the show. Should probably mention in passing that at this stage, I don't think we'd seen the sun since leaving Vic and some of the worst winds and temperatures in a long time. The company at least was very warming.

That's it for tonight ... more tomorrow - got to go and turn the genny off.

Good Things Around Us 20-22/06/2009

Jenny & Macca Got Married

I met Macca while doing the Horticulture Cert lll last year. He's a bloody nice New Zealander who came over here to be with the love of his life Dr Jenny. Apparently he's a persistent chap and the two got married at Chateau Yering on the weekend just past. It was a great ceremony with lots of friends and relatives from Australia, Europe and New Zealand, and was followed by a most enjoyable reception and a breakfast on Sunday morning at their house in Nth Warrandyte.

A young Kookaburra and Kiwi get introduced at Breakfast.
These two young characters were keen to get aquainted - a mutually satisfactory experience.


Snapshot of Camp Little Wood & Ducks
- which according to Ros are really geese because they graze on grass. Must get to the bottom of that one day.




Just got back fom a meeting and shot this old fellow in the dam paddock = approx 22:30


just in case there is room for doubt - with my camera!

Cheers! Q

Some Other Good Things

Wednesday June 17

Well tomorrow finally came a day later, funny how often that seems to occur! I'm able to spend the time writing this because my work normal remote connection is U/S at the moment and I'm waiting for an alternative that one of my colleagues is fast-tracking.

Some of you may remember that  few weeks ago I hurt my back - no specific cause just a fair amount of pain which eventually went away, mostly after I had a really good massage from Nicole. Anyway about a week ago I started to get some quite severe pain down my left side from my buttock all the way down my thigh, calf and under my foot which eventually developed a numb spot.  I put up with it for a while thinking like most males that it would go away if I ignored it but it was sufficiently annoying and painful for Ros to say that I needed to get my back checked as it was obviously something impacting my sciatic nerve. Saw my GP and was sent off for a CT scan which occurred yesterday. Earliest I can see him is Thursday afternoon so I'm living on panadeine and neurophen and not moving around or sitting or sleeping much. That's just to let you know that I'm a bit over my body even though I recognise that the current situation may have something to do with it. 

The good thing is that I'm just going with the flow and dealing with it a day at a time or sometimes its 5 minutes at a time.

Last Weekend

While Cait and the kids were here helping with Ros' shed, mulch etc., Ros got a call from one of our friends we haven't caught up with for a while. Shona a nurse and former work colleague of Ros invited us over for a meal, shower and stay over if we wanted and not to forget to bring the washing.  We immediately cancelled whatever we'd been planning to have for dinner and said we'd be there at about 6:30.

It was a fabulous evening, no pressure, pleasant conversation, hot showers a great dinner and several glasses or more of good wine. Eventually drifted off to bed and managed not to sleep for a good part of the night due mostly to the sciatic pain. Woke up in the morning feeling decidedly whacked!  Geoff went off for a ride and Shona and Ros went for a walk and coffee and I took some more painkillers and flopped slowly back into bed.

Three hours later I woke feeling almost human and while not pain free, it was not grabbing at my gizzards. We had planned to wander around and have a look at some of the display homes to get an appreciation of  what you got for the $$$ but due to the lateness of the hour,  we settled for lunch and a quick departure as we had a meeting to attend in St Andrews at 3:00 according to me and 4:00 according to Ros. 

While Shona was organising lunch, Geoff took me out to the toolshed and put together a bunch of metric spanners for me. I subsequently managed to leave them sitting on the bench and even though Geoff chased us for about 1500m, I was obviously not focussed on my wing mirrors and he gave up and brought them over yesterday morning.

It was a perfect way to spend the weekend and we were most grateful to be reminded that Kiwis living in Australia have lost none of their friendliness and ability to create and share a relaxing environment. 

The St Andrews Recovery Committee Election

We arrived about 10 minutes late (it was 3:00pm) and just managed to find space in the crowded Community Hall. The whole process was extremely well managed and facilitated by a woman from Panton Hill whose name I didn't manage to find out.  There were a number of  potentially complex issues which were dealt with in a most professional and inclusive manner and at the end we had been through the background and creation process, met all the candidates, added a new one from the floor endorsed the creation of an incorporated body and elected the Committee.  This was followed by  afternoon soup, tea, coffee, cakes , biscuits and date loaf as well as a multitude of other goodies. All in all a most satisfactory conclusion to what has been for the people involved quite an intensive period of work.

The next step is a public meeting next Sunday to discuss what it is that the community needs.

We came home picked up a few things and I drove Ros over to Cait and Nicco's as there is school in the morning and I don't want to get up too early. Didn't want to stay for dinner as the day was catching up with me and my pills were back at the farm, so Angus the dog who has settled into his role  as Landrover guardian and I climbed aboard and dieselled off home.

And finally - Jan phoned up and offered me dinner which she brought up and ate with me. 

What a great end to the weekend.

The Building Commission

Last week on Thursday mid-morning I received a visit from a team from the Building Commission, Anne, Kate and Dean their photographer. They  were in the process of updating their Temporary Accomodation Booklet and wanted to meet with people like us who were in temporary accommodation on site and  tell it from their perspective rather than just some bureaucrat's idea of how it should be. 

As our site is very visible from the road they decided to drop in and see if anyone was at home. I had previously met Anne at one of the first Bushfire Standards Seminars that the Commission had presented some months ago and she remembered me because of the questions I'd asked about the barn.

We spent some time talking about our experience and what specific issues I had relating to rebuilding and also living on the site. I talked about the fact that most people including us, even though reasonably insured had not really considered the possibility and costs associated with total destruction of the property and the need to start from scratch including all services. As things stand we look to be anywhere between $50K to $150K short of what it may ultimately cost.

I expressed my frustration despite their best and positive intentions that Council's Planning and Building departments did not seem to be able to agree on apparently simple things like the size of sheds that didn't require planning permits. And when they did, it was something ridiculously small like 10sqm. I can have 50 of the bloody things as long as they are not joined together! 

While I was very pleased to be in the process of receiving $50k from the bushfire fund it seemed that it left an awful lot of money for infrastructure/councils etc which didn't seem to have been the intention of the people who had donated it. I'm grateful but another $10-15K  in the form of a barn or shed would, together with a relaxation of the current rules about living in same temporarily, would have made our lives a lot easier. 

I also raised once again the issue of  centrally provided shower and toilet blocks that council seems to be totally disinterested in. 

New Logo & Website

I'm sure there were a few other things but they've got lost. Throughout this discussion Dean took a bunch of photos including one of me washing up and also of the general site.  

It turns out that he's the creative director of a company called KissChasey and works at www.logoloco.com.au (worth a look) and when he learned that I'm just kicking off the Little Wood Consulting Garden design business, offered to design a logo and business card gratis. 

The outcome is fantastic - and inspired me to put it on my website which until yesterday was just a name and one thing led to another so now I have a functioning website which courtesy of Mr Google is "free".  It's here for you to have a look at - have to say I'm pretty pleased with the result and would like your feedback - good or bad.

 http://tinyurl.com/2335LittleWood

Cheers

A Reality Check

Sunday May 14

Where have I been for the last two weeks? Hiding is not quite the right answer but it comes close. Mostly I've been feeling tired,  depressed and generally being unwilling or unable to hold or perform a coherent thought, sentence or action with any degree of capability.  I've upped my medication, thought about quitting work about every five minutes, been more grumpy than usual and have avoided as many issues and people as possible while at the same time feeling like crap because I wasn't getting anything done. More importantly I've been a pain to live with and fortunately Ros has been mostly staying at Cait's where she's doing the full on Grandy thing while Cait is back at work full time for a few weeks as acting manager.

On the day I got fed up with the whole thing and decided to have a chat with my GP, I read an article by Dr Rob Gordon in the Bushfire Recovery newsletter. Rob is a psychologist and one of the top disaster trauma experts in the country. Apparently most of what I've been feeling is a fairly typical transition response which occurs some 3-4 months post event.  I reckon that saved my GP about 20 minutes of additional listening and certainly made me feel that there was/would be an end to the current chaos.

I'm not 100% but the direction is up not down - most of the time.

What's been happening around me?

Notwithstanding the black cloud which has probably been hovering over my head these past few weeks and certainly permeating my brain - lots of good things have happened.

A Fabulous Day's Effort!

Cait's Mates - who in no particular order include Nicole & Michael, Angela, Sean & Becca, John and Naomi, and all their respective children numbering about 11, as well as my fellow Defender owner Stephen, came up to the farm and built a retaining wall below the water tank, put in the posts and cross bars for the clothesline, cleaned out and repaired Fort Chook, emptied rocks and bricks out of the old fishpond, picked up a bag full of filter tubes, piled up assorted junk, moved heaps of mulch, began landscaping the front garden, had a ball running wild around the place, sliding down slopes, climbing on logs, riding Hugo's mini-motorbike and finally collapsed around the campfire before dragging exhausted kids and themselves off home. A fantastic effort!

Ros Get's a Shed

One of the things I'd planned to get done during the working bee was to erect the second 10m2 shed that I'd bought from Stratco for Ros. Unfortunately digging the holes for the retaining wall took a lot longer than we'd anticipated so last weekend, son Benjamin and grandson Willoughby arrived and we completed the retaining wall and got almost all of the shed completed on the Saturday before the rain started. I finished the roof on the Sunday and this Saturday I got the door on and doorbolt attached with the assistance of Willo and Cait. Cait and Phoebe also shifted several wheelbarrow loads of mulch and Angus spread it in all the wet and hollow spots. Place is beginning to look quite civilised. Mind you I had to spend quite a bit of time digging trenches to catch water at the low points and direct it over the edge of the slope. Hopefully the next downpour will demonstrate that I got the levels right.

Caravan Renovations:

The fairly heavy rain we have recently experienced threatened to collapse the caravan annexe until I took the pump off the tank and used it to drain the water and pump it into the main tank. While this quite a good way of collecting water I was seriously concerned about the structural integrity of the annexe, particularly as we've just begun winter and the pumping is a very manual processs and relied on me being there at the time to prevent a disaster.

A call to Sydney and a quick discussion with Ros' sister reminded me that there are some special struts designed to prevent pooling of water. Somehow this information had got lost and they were obviously just what we needed. Getting them into place was the stuff of which divorces are made. Eventually after dismantling most of the annexe sides, several evil exchanges between Ros & I and a significant amount of frustration, I discovered how to unlock the roller mechanism which enabled us to  rotate the roller into the correct position and slot everything into place. It is now a thing of beauty and looks like it will withstand anything short of a tropical storm. 

In an ideal world I'd finish this catchup tonight but I'm determined to get some sleep, so that's it for now. I'll publish this and do an update tomorrow.

Cheers 

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.