Hazard Reduction Burns and What Have You

It's been a varied week.  Monday I went to a Hazard Reduction burn because I couldn't stand to be left out,  though am not a lot of use until I get some more red stuff back in my blood.   Still, I wandered up and down and turned on the hydrant for them as needed, and fetched dinner, so was, in another way, very valuable indeed.

The fire started out in the afternoon.  Andrew and sister Jen were both there, so that was nice.  Actually there were heaps of us.  A sign of a flourishing era for the brigade.  It meant that no-one got too tired and the fire was watched and managed very well.

Andrew manned the pumps at the 1.4, but did do a little light fire control over the fence.

Jenny got a bit hot. No she wasn't really getting wet.  It is an optical illusion. The tanks can get bacteria in them and are mixed up with a wetting foam at times, so we don't use the water to cool down and definitely not to drink!

Think she might need to tie her hair up a bit more.  She looks a bit flammable here!

I like this pic of Andrew.

As the sun went down, the night became a confusing mix of flames and flashing lights and reflective gear.

This is what it looked like from over the fence where I was, without flash.
 

And with flash, suddenly the fireys managing the fire show up, like aliens appearing out of the dark.

Andrew got this amusing bit of footage of myself, Jen and Michelle trundling our way back up the road, gear flashing in the lights from the truck.   

Tuesday we went to see a Gynecologist and the less said about that the better. Suffice to say, soon I won't be going on the fire-ground for a while, which sucks considering we are heading into fire season.  Ah well, hopefully after that I'll be good to go, and unstoppable!

Wednesday night was drumming, and I got a bit of video of Andrew laughing and messing around with some of the other guys, doing a pattern where they had to sometimes hit the drums either side of theirs.

I was a bit tired by then, but as so often happens, the others could hardly bear to stop, so interesting things often happen after we are supposed to be all done for the night.

This week I've also been doing some leatherwork to replace a broken whistle lanyard I made many years ago for a fellow Gundog owner.  It was good to bone up on the rusty skills.  I learned how to cut kangaroo hide laces, using just my thumb and a knife, from a marvellous old feller called Bob Cameron.  He taught me how to braid it too.      

Braided and partly spliced.

I've taken the Turk's hats off the old lanyard to put on the neck of the new one so she gets some continuity of luck. 

Next comes new Turks' hats to hold the ends of the splice and join neatly and prettily.  Of anything, I am pretty sure making Turks' hats has gone most from my memory.  The rest has come back to me as I worked, but will have to get the book out for this bit, methinks!

It's going to be hot here the next few days, and as you can see behind the next pic, our paddocks are dry already.  This Phoenicia is the best I have ever seen it, though.   I think they find it a bit dry here, though they are supposed to be locals, but with the extra rain this year this one has had a great season for flowering

I've begun work on the cover art for Land of Giants, though I haven't put pencil to paper yet. Still gelling my ideas.  It did mean reading a few bits of the manuscript, and oh boy, am so looking forward to diving in and reading it for the first time!  It's been 8 months since I began to write, and there is always an element of channeling that means you kind of write as a vessel for the Awen (divine inspiration) and don't really always notice what you are saying, so those first pages are almost as new to me as they would be to anyone else who picked it up.  I like it!        

Last night I went with mum to a singalong.  I knew nearly every song, which is a reflection of the fact that we often have the radio tuned to the local oldie's channel, Curtin FM.  I'm pretty eclectic with radio just as I am with any other sort of music, and we especially enjoy the mix of songs and the cheeriness in the mornings.

There has still been time for a bit of this too.

 
Summer's here!  Time for playing music in the gazebo while the mozzies buzz away frustratedly outside.  Jen came and played guitar with me one evening this week.  We sat out there and messed around working out, "Patience," by Guns 'N' Roses, but not for the first time.  Loved that band so much as a young tacker, and have great past associations with playing this song with sis, on good verandahs, with a glass of bourbon and coke close to hand.  These days it is water, but it is still blissful.