Questions to the Author... and Fireys, and Labradors.

 Poor old Angus.  Mum has decided not to breed with him, so he got to go and have his family jewels removed last week.  Right now he has to wear an Elizabethan collar to stop him pulling out his stitches, poor darling.   In a couple of weeks he'll be a happier dog, because he won't be always wanting something he'll never get, but in the meantime, well, he needs lots of snuggles and loving. Luckily Uncle Andyroo the best dog-patter in town, is always ready to give comfort.

He's handling the cone of shame very well, but since he's always a bit of a blonker who thinks he should only stop AFTER he's run into you, he is even more dangerous with this thing sticking out in front of him. Beware the Angus, or you'll be taken off at the knees!

"Comfort me! I is still your prince!"

I finally got round to making the video where I answer some reader questions about my writing.  Only took me a year, I think!   Heh, had to laugh at the Aussie accent, which one tends to notice more on recordings than in real life.  I missed my opportunity to say, "Dog's arse!" though, which I said for some reason yesterday (as you do) and cracked myself up at how strong an accent Aussies have when we come out with that particular bit of classiness.  :)   "Dog's Arrrrrse!"

Anyway, I hope it's of interest to you, especially if you write, or want to write, novels yourself.  I'm always keen to hear how other people do these things and I'm sure other writers are too.   

Dear Da, thank you for the wiggly eyebrows!  

Firey's was mega hot on the weekend, but we still did a burnover drill and then an exercise to see how far we could get our water using all the hoses and the pumps on both vehicles, plus a water truck at the end pumping as well.

From the water truck to the 1.4, at least a 100 metres, I think:

  

Then from the 1.4 to the light tanker, tucked away down the track there: 

All up, we got about 225 metres, with good water pressure.  Hope we never have to do this at a fire, but it is good to practice joining all the various types of hoses.  There were plenty of people there, luckily, so making up the hoses again was soon done, and back to the station for a cold drink!  

Andrew Branson going to check if they want the water on yet.

It's going to be over 40C for a few days in a row this week. That's 105 for you Fahrenheit people.  You can smell the super-heated eucalyptus volatiles in the air, just waiting for a spark to set them off into a fire. There is already one going, right back down near the one that burned the town of Yarloop the other week.  Not again!  The poor buggers!  Wish us sun-shriveled West Aussies a bit of luck and no more fires this week please!  

In the meantime, we do our outside chores early, and hide inside as much as we can during the middle of the day, though we do go outside for wanders, since it's not good to stay in the aircon too long. Makes you headachey and dumb.

My poor chookies are having wallows made to help them survive the heat, and of course the dogs and kitty come inside with us.     

Tuppence is a funny one when it comes to cuddles.  She has always been so highly reactive to everything, and she finds touching a bit too much for her very quickly, but she still craves it, a bit like some cats.  Daddy keeps trying.  Some days she relaxes into it for a little while.

We figure that by the time she's ten, she might start enjoying it all the time!