Crossing things off the list

The fire breaks were complete, not a blade of greenery in sight.(crossed off the list). The spraying worked very well and we are patting ourselves on our backs because this year we had to do it all ourselves as our spraying contractor retired earlier in the year. Our first attempt at spraying was hilarious - we have a big tank which we fixed on the back of the quad bike and Michael drove whilst I walked behind spraying, well that way the theory in practice the quad is not a true agricultural quad bike so does not like just idling along, it was either stop start or at it's slowest speed me running behind frantically trying to spray! Funny enough to do but must have been hilarious for anyone watching. So Michael rigged up a spray boom off the tank at the back of the quad bike. First attempt resulted in a poor spray pattern and the loss of a couple of sprinklers but after a couple of modifications, stage two worked a treat. He was able to drive around the block and we were surprised that one tank did the whole area - before we used a contractor we used to drag the tank around on a trolley and it took about 4 refills to do the whole area. The fine mist of this new spray boom is obviously more economical.

We borrowed a tractor from a neighbour and slashed the grass in the paddock, I cleared around the trees with my favourite Christmas present from last year - Honda brush cutter.
 After a couple of weeks all the weeds had died and I started my work - much harder than driving the quad around, I slashed the tall grass, tidied the edges of the breaks and then raked the dead leaves and rubbish off the break area so that it is free of litter. That took a week. We then had a couple of small piles of grass to burn, after applying for a permit to burn, and that was the completion of the compulsory 'gardening'. (off the list).

         This is Michael on his first drive of the quad, he's a lot more confident now, doesn't look nearly as terrified.

I took part in the National 'Birds in Backyards' count. Everyday for a week I spent 20 minutes noting the birds that I could see in our back garden. At the end of the week I had spotted 52 birds from 16 species. I was thrilled to have been able to include a Little Eagle that flew over the house one afternoon and then rested on an old tree stump and had a preen before slowly flying around the front yard before heading out over the paddock and being harassed by a much smaller Magpie Lark. After the week was up I noted another 4 species in the area. I couldn't include the Australian Magpies in the study because I didn't see them during my 20 minutes, we hear them every morning around dawn though and some evenings we can see them arriving 'home'.

We delayed our trip away in the motor home and got stuck into a couple more jobs around the place. A few months back Michael had installed a couple of LED lights in the motor home one was an awful colour and made everything look like it was on a mortuary slab, the other one was great. We didn't have a receipt but remembered that we had bought the good one from Masters home improvement store so we went back to get some more for the rest of the interior - they no longer sell that type. Typical.
So we bought one from a lighting store - didn't work because they're not enough oomph from the battery to start it. The solution - buy online. We not only found what we wanted but bought some other led lights to replace the reading lights under the shelves in the motor home.

Whilst we waited we decided to complete the job of closing off the orchard and back garden so that the kangaroos no longer steal fruit or bring ticks into the back garden. We loved watching them slowly hop along the back verandah and drink from the bird bath or frog's pond but they were rather clumsy, knocking over sprinklers and when they started to eat the frangipani leaves and then the plums off the tree we decided to act.

We call this one 'Blaze' 'coz of the white flash on her face. She won't go thirsty, we're installing a water bucket outside the fence so she can continue to visit (and bring her young).

Who would have thought that there were so many different types of pool fencing - flat top, spear top, loop top, cream, black, blue, grey or green, and there are at least 3 different heights (we know because we have panels which are 3 different heights!) We were looking for cream loop top to match what we already have and as glass panels are now the fashionable pool fence material and have dropped in price we easily found some in the northern suburbs.
Unfortunately Michael pulled a muscle in his back the morning that we were to go down in the late afternoon and collect the fencing but luckily the couple selling were both home and readily helped load the trailer for us.
The next day I managed to unload whilst Michael spent the day in bed, with painkillers. We're following the current doctrine with a day, or two, in bed resting with painkillers then up and gentle movements. So the installation of the fence was put on hold. There's always some little job to do and if not feeling energetic there's plenty of sewing waiting in my craft room or we could both retire to the recliners and catch up on our reading.

Whilst the fence is on hold we continue to enjoy our visitors, this year it's a little family - Mum, Dad and baby. We're definitely going to have to make water available outside the fence, somewhere visible from the house.

This year we 'discovered' Jo Nesbo books and the detective Harry Hole. We got them out of the local community library which has all bar the second in the series. They are so good, even reading them out of sequence does not spoil the enjoyment. They are 'stand alone' crime books. We are keeping our eyes peeled in all op-shops for that elusive second book. (Cockroaches).
We've also read nearly all the Vince Flynn books featuring Mitch Rapp and I've enjoyed some books by Marian Keyes. (I think of her as a cross between Maeve Binchy and the tv series Coupling).
We both really enjoyed reading a couple of books by Kate Atkinson but unfortunately the library does not have any more by her - I had to treat myself to one  (full price!)from the shop for my birthday. It's so good that I'll be keeping it too, not passing it on to the library.
The library is in a small building down by the foreshore in Guilderton and is manned by volunteers every Saturday morning from 10 to 12. They have a great range of books, all in A1 condition. It costs $5 a year membership and I'm very happy to be a member, we've certainly had good value this year.
I used to volunteer at another community library near Neergabby, Greenacres. It was started years ago by a local lady who put a few sheds on her property and opened up her book collection, it proved very popular and the locals and the shire added books to the stock but unfortunately the lady got sick and died. The library closed but a few years later her daughter took over the property and re started the library. Around this time the Guilderton library started up too.  Greenacres never attracted a large membership and the books were all donations but it had a steady 'core' membership, sadly the new owner passed away too (in her early 50s - lung cancer). So, thankfully Guilderton library is going from strength to strength and for the time being at least is providing us with some very enjoyable reading material.

South Australia is no longer on our itinerary for several reasons:- the weather in South Australia is HOT at the moment and every time I check online there's a fire alert or fire weather warning for the areas that we would be visiting, Flinders and Eyre Peninsula.
Michael's pulled muscle has meant he can't travel long distances, and to be honest the seats in the lounge area of the van are not the most comfortable, also that long list of jobs to be done is still sitting there waiting. If we go anywhere it will probably be the south coast of WA but at the moment the weather there is a mix of rain and hail, flood or fire warnings - the best place to be certainly seems to be home!

So we continue to order things online - finally getting around to buying a diesel heater for the motor home. We bought two, one for our good friends Ralph & Hanny. When they arrived we put them both in the motor home and headed down to spend a couple of days with R & H. We two girls could natter and shop whilst the boys checked out instructions and possibly got started on the installation of the heaters. The weather was pretty awful, more thunder and lightning but we set off southwards. Just before we left the electricity went off meaning that Michael had to disconnect the switch and open the shed door manually. In the distance we saw smoke and by the time we were ready to leave we could smell it. There was a rather large plume on the horizon, in about the same area as we'd seen smoke a couple of days earlier, nothing to panic over. We headed south - passing several fire engines  heading north. Obviously that fire was a large one. We had a lovely couple of days with R & H, the boys enjoyed themselves messing around down in Ralph's shed and Hanny and I managed to do a bit of Op-Shopping. (Hanny has the cast off her leg and is now getting out a bit more with a 'boot' on.)  We chatted and had a very convivial time without television or radio, blissfully unaware of what was happening in the world. Friday, two days later, we headed home. Once home we went online to see how long the power had been off, and what news there was of that fire that we'd seen.
OMG! What a shock, the fire had been out of control and at one point on the Wednesday afternoon our estate had been placed on a 'prepare to leave' alert. We had not seen any signs of a fire on our route home but  it seems that the fire was heading for the estate but had been brought under control. Ignorance was bliss - being south of the city we couldn't have done anything anyway but we were totally unaware of the emergency so were relaxing and enjoying ourselves.  We gave a silent thank you to the shire for making everyone more alert and aware this season, but no one could have predicted such an early damaging storm. There were 11 lightning strikes during that storm and then a mini tornado hit the area. Fingers crossed that this is our only fire emergency for the season.

Ralph has progressed with the installation of the heater and we have ordered more hose and Michael has been asking more people about their installation. Looks like we might be ready to do some work. We have finally discovered a disadvantage to living in Australia - the temperature is too high to check that the heater is working - the thermostat means that it won't switch on, it's too warm!!

So we didn't go away, not even to the south coast of WA.
 The time passed quickly and now it's almost Christmas. We have started the socialising and have caught up with a couple of friends for lunch. Next week our friends from Geraldton are coming to have a couple of nights 'stopover' on their way into Perth for a family Christmas. We plan to have a barbecue with them and a couple of neighbours, an early Christmas celebration. The actual Christmas days will be just the two of us, as usual, and then we'll get ready and head off for the NYE Celebrations in the country town of Dumbleyung.
They are celebrating 50 years since Donald Campbell set the world water speed record, in Bluebird, on Lake Dumbleyung in 1964. We are heading along in our motor home, with Ralph & Hanny and a couple of Citroen friends to join in the celebrations, camping the night on the town's oval.
We'll probably spend a few days touring around the south before heading home for the start of 2015 - another year of travel. This year will see more organised travel than free style motor homing,
 I wonder which we'll prefer when we look back at the end of the year!?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to us all!!