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Sunday 8 November 2015

Bracing for Summer

Andrew is, anyway.  I'm liking this back view of him in his new Firey's pants and braces.  I'm especially loving the red braces.  They're fireproof too, though as we've joked, if your braces are in a position to be on fire, you have more problems than just your braces!   

His helmet is here too.  It's a new kevlar one and it weighs a tonne.  Still, we've heard about one guy who had a tree fall over and pin his head between the tree and the truck, and he walked away thanks to his kevlar helmet, so here's to kevlar!  We'll just have to build neck muscles like rubgy players to wear them. 

Andyroo is still waiting for his own new fireproof coat to arrive.  You can't go on the roster to go to bushfires until you have all your own new gear. 

On Saturday, we popped into the local communications brigade to see what they get up to.  Andrew, being a radio nut, is interested in joining them too. He's got a bit of a sabbatical from work coming up and I think he plans to fill it with all sorts of interesting activities.

The local guys have a brand new vehicle. It's very high tech and comfy.   It looks a bit like this one from South Australia, and inside it reminded me of some high tech surveillance vehicle from an episode of X-Files. 

 
 As the folks there said, if you don't feel up to fighting a fire, you can still be of great help.  If they ever even see the fire, then they are too close, and they even have air conditioning in the new truck, so you could be doing your community a great service in comfort.  :)   They seem like a nice chatty group too, as you might expect from people in a communication role.

With things gearing up for summer here, our own Brigade is really coming to life.  On the weekend, nine of us went to a local dam and practiced drafting water out of it to fill the tanks of the vehicles.  They're a nice crowd to hang with, and it was very interesting.  It certainly is helping my brain to expand to be learning all these news things, and it will have to expand even more in the next few weeks, as I have a radio course to do this coming Saturday, and then the two weekends after that will be spent at the intro to fire fighting courses. 

It's worked out well, really, as Andyroo will be home to mind the dogs. I didn't like the idea of them being alone for two long days in a row.  They're too used to having me home nearly all the time.

In non-Firey news, I would guess Heroic Plans would be about three weeks, mabe a tad more, away from completion of the first draft.  I'm over the highest plot peak and coasting down the other side to a happy ending.  After that I can get into the first edit of Freya and the Hairy Goddess.  I'm looking forward to that! 

I'm having all sorts of fun making Amigurumi for Christmas, but I can't show you, and it's killing me!  I have such cute new characters here now, just waiting for their time to go to new homes.  Ah well, here's Red Riding Mouse and her Granny.  I made them a good while back but it was before I started blogging so I don't think they've ever had an outing on here.


I couldn't bear to part with them, so they sit on my windowsill by the kitchen table and watch me make more cute critters.

Not sure how blogging will go in the next couple of weeks, but I'll do my best to post twice a week as usual, even if it gets a bit hectic. I'd love to play you a tune I have recently learned on my Lyre, but need to check with its composer first.  It's a pretty personal bit of music.

For now, may your life be filled with purpose and may you find many things to do to keep your mind bright.  As Heinlein said, specialisation is for ants!       
            



           

6 comments:

  1. Good to hear from you! Sounds like life is treating you well, and awesome news about your hubby. He must be excited at the prospect of fire fighting. Sure hope he's careful. I'd think that would take a lot of stamina. Your little critters are just adorable!! Don't think I'd be able to part with them either. Thanks so much for your comment on my blog. It's been heart wrenching to see Ladde in such pain, and those seizures are just unbearable. I hope you have a mild and quiet summer - weather and fire-wise anyway! Summer is over here. It was a long, hot and dry one for the record books. And forest fires everywhere!! We've had a couple of frosts, no freezing yet, but already plenty of rain...which means there's no shortage of mud. *sigh* It does feel good to be wearing jeans, boots and cozy sweaters though! Take care my friend!!!

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    1. Word is that we're having El Nino this year, so that means hotter than usual but hopefully more rain, so maybe the fire season will be milder. We'll see! Yes hubby is pretty happy to finally be qualified. They tell us that actual fires are less tiring than burnoffs because there are more people available and you get rests while things get re-organised or while you follow bulldozers and such. We'll see. :)

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  2. Was just doing some catching up on your recent blog posts - some anyway, I'm at work and I keep getting interrupted. I want to come visit you and eat Mulberries and Loquats!! I've heard of mulberries of course, from the childhood song, but haven't eaten either!! Do Mulberries get baked into pies???

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    1. We really into pies here like you guys are. Mostly we eat them rihgt off the tree, or make jam. I did hear a friend made mulberry pancakes the other day and she said they were delicious. I had killer blackberry or mulberry jam, not sure which, at a Devonshire Tea the other day, with homemade scones and whipped cream! Yegods! They looked so good I broke my no dairy no gluten rule. Delicious!

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  3. At first I thought it was chainsaw gear. We had a good friend who recently tried to saw his leg off (and survived), and another local who wasn't so lucky. I know his is fire gear; but I just thought I'd mention it anyway.

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    1. Cro, we have his and hers chainsaws here, but in the Fireys you need special training to be cleared to use one, because they are so damned dangerous. Sorry about your neighbour. They really are deadly tools, which I constantly keep in mind while using one.

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