A Change of Duties

Its been a while since I posted. Two reasons, the first is that I have been really busy but the real reason is that I lost my internet connection for about a week. I feel so stupid, having called for a person with computer skills to sort out my problem, I found that I had used up $180 worth of internet data in a month! This is because I had not been compressing my photos I put on the blog and the size of them gobbled up my credit.  I have now purchased more credit and am back in business.  Hopefully my reduced size photos are still in viewable form.

I remained on fencing duties until Wednesday morning.  Here are some photos at the farm owned by Arthur who had broken his leg in 3 places 4 days before the fire.  He had been on his quad bike and the dog ran in front of it, tipping him out.  He was laid up in bed and asked some friends to come over and draft some lambs from his flock.  When they arrived, the fire was heading his way.  He told the mates to forget the lambs, but to go up to the back paddocks and bring in his cattle.  They did so, but in driving the cattle towards the front of the farm, the fire was on them.  Helicopters who were using his dam to scoop up water could see they were in trouble and kept blasting the cattle with water and made a path for them to get through. They were all saved.

Arthur who has been ordered to stay off his leg, because he did more damage, continues to work harder than all of us.  He hobbles and runs and drives his tractor and does more than humanly possible.  He works for the national parks and has been trying to get his property to the stage where it can support him without working outside.  He has two teenage daughters, one of whom joined us over easter in doing fencing.

The little white blob on the skyline is the Sidings Springs Observatory.    The top photo is our mob eating lunch which is about the only time when we get a chance to take a photo.

 

After leaving Arthur's farm, we went onto John's farm about 40 km away from town and on the exact opposite side of those rocky outcrops.  I have photos of the observatory on the same hills from the opposite side.

 

These photos are of John and his son Robert (drop dead gorgeous 23 year old) who speak with such strong  Scotts accents that no one can understand them.  Robert's is less pronounced and he was born here, but obviously very isolated from other Aussies on the farm with mum and dad.  John bought the farm 26 years ago.  Here we did fencing, but also another woman, Mary and I got to pull up the rabbit fencing that was surrounding a house that was completely burnt and had been removed as it contained asbestos.  This was hard work because firstly the fencing was very old and had barbed wire through it and also to stop the rabbits had been dug in to the ground and had lots of old stuff blocking it in, like big rocks, old pipes, old pots and pan and everything.  It was very hard to pull out.  A lot of the farms can't be worked on until all the asbestos has been removed.

 

 

On Wednesday morning, as I was about to join my group at Morning Muster, an advertisement went up on the notice board.  Two positions vacant - one for mornings to do washing and breakfast dishes and clean up the kitchen post breakfast and the other to do evening duty to get the kitchen ready for the volunteer community groups to come and cook dinner and then to clean up afterwards and lock up everything. The first job was from 7am to 12 midday and the second from 5pm to 8.30 pm.  I asked if I offered to do both, could I please be taken off fencing.  (It had been a particularly had day on Tuesday with being in the sun all day and no logs to sit on).  My application was accepted and my lot in life was eased.  I now have a big break in the afternoons in which I can do what I like, which means reading mainly.

One of the kitchen girls said they had to take a photo of me in my work gear before I ceased to wear it and so here it is. Don't all laugh at once. I got my jeans and my workboots plus socks from the opshop that is operated here from all the donated clothes and goodies that people sent after the fire. It is quite chilly in the mornings. People other than me all complain.  It has been about 6 -12 degrees, I am fine with that, I just cant take the heat later.  Mostly it is about 25 in the afternoons which is OK.

I will stay here until Sunday working and head off on Monday 8 April to go a little further north and then head east to the coast to slowly wend my way down to Sydney to park at Harriet and Bills by Monday 15th and to meet up with Thomas who is coming over with Myles on 18th April.  Myles flys home on Sunday after taking Thomas to a footy match and Tom will stay with me at Harriet's for the next week with Hannah and Finn for the school holidays and then when they go back to school, Tom and I will head to Canberra for a week before he flys home on Friday 3 May.