Yardwork and Skiving Off.

I made this!

It's been a stormy winter and so far we have three giant bonfires, nearly all from fallen trees rather than the planned grooming of the property that we do every year.  I made this one all myself! It is densely packed with soft green branches and represents hours of hard labour.  Who needs a gym? Hopefully they will be dry enough to burn before fire permit season begins at the end of August.

Today I finished piling up the last of the fallen tree, with the help of Gogs and Drew.  It would have taken me quite a few more more hours, but we were done in 40 mins or so and off to a cafe for cake and a chat!  What would I do without the Firey guys?!  I got Drew to take the above pic before they added any branches, though, while it was still genuinely all my work!

On Sunday, just for a change of pace, I took off in Andrew's Jimny, Timmy, to have a drive out to the old farmsite of Malmalling, where we had a lot of bushfires this year, and where I get lost every time.  I think it is because it is where two small rivers meet, so you tend to think you are on one river and suddenly realise you are now on the other one and facing a different direction.   It is very tricky, especially at night when at a fire and trying to get back for water or food.  Your GPS trail looks like spaghetti after you've done a few hours out there!

Despite being a good half hour's drive down gravel tracks into state forest, it is a favourite haunt of trailbikers, but I managed to find some peaceful places.  This granite outcrop was a great place to have my sandwiches for lunch.

I love Granite outcrops.  So much natural power.

There's Timmy waiting for me at the bottom like a good little Jimny.

The tracks were much wetter than they are in summer (Derrr, Tina!) and in places Timmy and I were up to our ankles in water.  I had a bit of a girly squeal to myself as we slipped a bit while crossing here!

Timmy did a great job though, living up to his rep as a good 4 x 4, despite being a miniature version.

I also came across the old farmhouse site.  These two magnificent old oaks stood sentinel over the rubble of the home that once they graced.

Their energy was so peaceful. I loved them at once and spent some time communing with them and thinking about the people who had once lived here.

These Friesias (?)  had grown all alone and unaided into a beautiful setting of their own.

   
Down by the little river (I'd call it a creek but it does indeed own the grand name of Helena River)  things were magically damp and a tad spooky.  I kept expecting to see a gnome, or the Oz equivalent of such, peering at me,

Google did this, and not sure if I like it or not, but it does better capture the green of the grass across the river, and the bright shimmer of yellow winter afternoon sun on the water.

Ahhhh, nature, how I love you!   Malmalling, I'll be back to visit again.  Maybe during the week, though, when I will have you to myself! 




 

Whoops!

See one lazy post and now I have lots to tell you!

Firstly here is my mad sis on her mad horse already. It was just a quickie, to ride him up from his paddock. and I'm sure she was partly doing it to to get that first remount over with, but still, mad.  Horses and horse people have this in common: Neither has any sense of self preservation!  :D

Fionn's leg is still not great but it is slowly healing.  It really was a very bad cut.

I saw these photos go by my facebook feed this week. Archie, my smart-arse young pony who went to be a trick horse, at his usual best, being a pain in the butt down at the beach.

 
And using a mattress for a head-rest in the gooseneck.

He was an odd horse to live with: He was truly afraid of nothing and if he saw something new, he would canter towards it.  Very unhorse-like!  He is having such an interesting life now with Louise Crosbie. It suits him far better than living here with me and one aged pony.

We had a lovely bonfire night at a Brigade friend's block on Friday night.

Although for a while it was more like Armageddon than a bonfire, because Gogs lit up all the Grass Trees.  Don't worry, it doesn't hurt them.  They quite like a bit of a tidy up of all the dead bits, and these hadn't been burned for a very long time.

This was an amazing scene:  Sun setting through a burning Grass Tree.

I was brave and played my guitar for a while while people chattered, then we ate an amazing dinner cooked by the young fellers.  I don't know, I've never met 20-year-olds like those two young blokes. They totally have their shit together, as I'm sure they would phrase it!

Saturday morning we had Fireys.  I haven't been to my bushfire brigade for a while. The joy is somewhat lacking lately due to the nasty politics, and there's been other stuff to do. It was ok, though. A lot of my fave people were there so that was nice.  I'm sure, come the season, I'll be ready to turn out to fires, but for now a bit of a holiday doesn't hurt.       

Saturday arvo we set off our own last bonfire.

It was the last day when our shire could burn bonfires without a permit.  It's good to have it all done.  (And let's not mention the three huge ones we have up the block. They can wait till next year!)

This was a weird photo of Andyroo.  Smoke, or his natural angelic radiance?  Maybe he had toothache?   :)

Sunday we had Incident Management Training with my other brigade, the Darling Range Coms brigade.  I got to do a new job for me; placing T-cards, which means you are welcoming in, and helping keep track of, every vehicle that arrives on the fire-ground at a big fire.  It was interesting and I got to see a lot more of the big picture than you do while working the radios.

Taken from my spot at the T-card entry desk.  It is not all serious at the training. There were a lot of jokes flying around!

This was my spot, but I was out of it to take the photo.  

Some Hazard Reduction burns have begun happening but I haven't put my hand up for one yet.  I've been feeling really tired and overstretched.

It's ok, don't think it is my lyme coming back, I just need to learn to pace myself better, and it would help if I could stay out of the chemicals more, because breathing perfumes, washing powder enzymes, outgassing plastic and all the rest just creams me.

Unfortunately, people equals chemicals these days, so if I want to not breathe lots of toxic stuff, I would have to be come a hermit again, but I really don't want to do that.  Just need to find a better balance, then take my knocks as they come.  That or start wearing my fire mask everywhere!  

I'll leave you with this pic of a mud-brick shack sitting abandoned on the block near Gogs's.  I wonder what tales it could tell?

  
 
    

What a weekend!

We had a very busy day on Saturday doing trail support crew for the local Oxfam Trailwalker.  It's the sort of fun extra stuff you can do when you are an emergency services volunteer.

It was a very rainy and stormy weekend, so bad that the 100km walk was cancelled, but the 50km one went ahead, and a lot of the 100km people went on that as well instead, so it was a very busy start with around 1000 people heading out in two separate shifts 45 mins apart.  Here's Andrew doing traffic and walker wrangling just after the first lot started.

Look for the orange raincoat!

Despite the weather everyone was in a great mood and that continued at least as long as our shift.

Some teams were dressed up, so it was fun keeping track of them as we went up and down the trail doing this and that and they slowly progressed.  This team was easy to follow!

We handed out lollies between checkpoints to cheer people along, gave muffins to road marshals, and did whatever other jobs came up.  Towards the end of our shift we got a call to go and shift a light tower.   Luckily I had Andrew there, because I'd have been too timid to tackle the job, but he read up on it and worked it out just fine.  Thank goddess for handy blokes!

Special kudos to the walker who handed me a lollypop with a handmade "You're awesome" tag on it as she walked by.   Carrying lollies 50km just to thank the volunteers you pass is a special kind of lovely!

Also special notice goes to the two lively street marshalls who wore cow suits and blew bubbles and rang cow bells to encourage people past their point!

Andrew just sent me this pic of me, taken between checkpoints, cold and wet, but no more bonkers than usual.  :D 

The trial support vehicle was a Prado.  Nice!

Sunday we met with some of our local druid friends and had a lovely chat.  In the afternoon we went out to check a local tiny house display.  On the way home the wet weather turned into weather suitable only for ducks, with buckets of rain and even hail coming down in an extreme sudden downpour.  

The little jimny handled it pretty well but the windscreen never did unsteam completely.

When we got home our front path was a stream, but the rain had gone as suddenly as it arrived.

The wet weather isn't putting off the local flowers.  Here's a trigger plant and some blue Leschenaultia in the forest

 Mum's wisteria glowing in the evening light.

Google did this animation for me, and it's a weird one because it starts with Tuppy and ends with Rosie.  Took me a while to work out why there was a lead and then there wasn't! They must have been standing in almost identical positions when I took the pics and google has joined them up!   Even technology has trouble telling black labs apart.   :D

I'm sure spring will be back eventually, but the longer the wet weather holds back the fire season, the happier I'll be!   

 

      


  

Sunshine at Last!

Woohoo and likewise yay!  Sun!

Plenty of time for this:

Plenty of warm spots for the chooks to do this:

Nothing looks much more contented than a bunch of chooks having a sunbake.  I love how they all cluster up to the first one who flops down, and throw themselves down as well.  A mass sunbake event doesn't last long, as they tend to be up and moving about pretty quickly, but they do love them.

I've started writing again in earnest now, and thanks to Andrew's technical help, I am now mobile with my writing.  Yesterday and today I took an ipad and keyboard down the block and wrote outside.  Lovely!   Got my word count in no time, and with good company too!

 
See the chooks in that second one?  They like it if I go down there, because they feel safer being out in the big paddock with me around. Not sure what I could do to thwart an eagle or hawk attack but anyway, if they feel happy that is all that matters.

A lot of our natives are flowering well now.  The Wavy-Leafed Hakeas:

The net bush.  To me their flowers look like tiny constellations:

  And the Bastard Bush (also known as Variegated-Leafed Hakea):

I've finished my chicken tea cosy for a good friend who also loves chooks.

And I've had two truck lessons in the 2.4 firetruck.  They were fun in a challenging kind of way.  Now if only I can remember to get a photo!

I did remember to get a photo of Rosie with her one broken bottom canine. I took these pics yesterday.  

The vet says the broken tooth is ok to stay in, luckily.  No need for an operation to remove it.  

  
But then, this morning, she was grinning up at me again, waiting to go for our walk, and bugger me if she hasn't broken off the other canine bottom tooth almost exactly the same way!  What the hell is she doing?  It can only be bones, or from messing around mousing in the chook pen.  She hasn't had her own bone in a while, but she did pinch one of Tess and Angus's yesterday.  Poor old snaggle-tooth dog!  She's only nine.  She won't have any teeth left at all if she keeps this up!

This pic gave me a giggle.  Phone used slow shutter speed because it was dark, she turned her head, and I ended up with a spooky eye!

Yikes!  :D

Still not great pics, but so cute. "Can we please have our walk now?"

"Please please please?"

I wonder how much I would walk if I didn't have dogs to get me out there? 


     
 

Silver Skies... and Labradors

How is this for a silver dawn?

The first dawn this winter that felt like spring was a-coming.

The day brightened up but stayed silver for most of the morning.

And when the clouds passed by, the sky was so very blue.

The chooks and I picked up branches to take to the tip.  They were so helpful!

I'm very much regretting that I chose not to cut these Lucerne trees down when they first sprouted. because they grew huge in no time!  There is underground water there, which is how the king Jarrah, The Shelter King, got so big.

It was a nice afternoon for branch toting.  The sun was bright but not hot and it shone down through the trees so pleasantly.   Mum came out to drag some bits of tree up to the horsefloat for me to put in and we chatted.  Very nice.

Old Grandma Tess is definitely silver-lined these day.  She is thirteen and a half, a good age for a Labbie.  Dear old girl.  Nothing like her fiesty granddaughter, Tuppy, there.    

Tuppy is back on lead permanently for walks.  She got wind of a dog she hates (it passes by our place on its walks and for some reason they all seem to dislike it, even gentle Angus.)  She took off out of my sight, a good two hundred metres into the forest to another track, and had a go at it.  She didn't do any damage but must have frightened dog and owner horribly.  I gave another dog owner my own nightmare scenario.  I feel awful.

I'd thought our training had come on so well, and her recalls were great, and all I'd have to do is call her back and put on her lead if I saw any dogs hove into view, but I never got a chance this time.  I never saw the dog at all, and she just went like a Greyhound, never even put up a hackle to warn me she had sniffed someone. There must have been a mortal enemy component to her beef, I think.  Ah well as we say to her often, "Shiny body, shiny mind!"  She is just so super sparky about everything, and fast as a whip with it too.       

No point looking at your mama and wishing you were off lead too. It ain't happening ever again! 

Gee some dogs are hard work.  Makes me very appreciative of my past dogs like Keech who were just so damned easy.

Tuppy's bro, Angus, is a very different dog too.  He is such an affectionate boy, loves a pat and cuddle, gets on with other dogs.  Tall and solid instead of small and nippy.   It's hard to believe they came out of the same mother, but since I caught 'em both it must be true!

Tummy rubs with Uncle Andrew.  What a sooky wooky!

A shame I can't actually step through this gateway tree and pop off to another dimension where you can walk in the bush and never meet another dog (or person).  I'd like to about now!

Please, tell me I'm not the only bad dog owner out there?