An interesting week and a Survivor.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Part of the Wetlands today (Monday)

After  our shopping trip this morning, (Monday) I helped Annabell get things sorted out them took Benji off to the Wetlands. It has been very cold here these last two days and this morning Benji  didn’t want to get out of bed and go for a walk in the cold at 6am. With the temperature at -2,  I can’t say I blame him, so we didn’t go and stayed in the room with the heater on. By the time I took him to the Wetlands

Benji at the Wetlands

it was a bit warmer and he was quite happy to  go out. We had a good walk  around the wetlands – bit of a breeze and cool, but not too bad. The Kiosk is closed down for alterations but it should be up and running again shortly. The rain the other week has helped to make the wetlands look a bit more visually pleasing – as you can see – but we do need a lot more rain. In our walks recently there have been a lot of Kangaroos wandering about looking for water again. They have even been seen in Nicolson Avenue, which is a fairly busy road. At the moment it is a fairly mild day in that the last few days have been mornings of  – degrees while today (Tuesday)  was 4c,  still a bit on the cold side but ok for a morning walk. Benji and I will be out and about most of this week as we endeavor to keep out of Annabell’s way. This weekend in the Ladies Brunch, so she will be busy baking in the kitchen. Apart from keeping out of the way,  Benji and I will be ‘gofers’ and drive to the various shops to get anything she needs, if and when she needs it.

Went for a walk to the Wetlands this afternoon and  had coffee in the Kiosk with Jennifer, Milan and Max.   The usual sniffs but at least  Benji didn’t snarl at Max and we had a peaceful time with coffee and scones. The day was warm and sunny and 21c but I can see that already the water  is starting to evaporate. There is supposed to be some rain on Saturday – in nice time for the cuttlefish and the Cake Stall – will not interfere with what Annabell and the ladies at the Ladies brunch but it could interfere with both the RFDS events.

Rejoice with me!  Today is Friday – the end of the week – an entire week without a single hospital visit nor a doctor visit. Is that something  to rejoice about or what! Next week is different, and will include an ECG for her,  but we’ll deal with that when it’s next week. In the meantime, it’s been a good week.  Saturday and it’s all happening. It’s 6:30am today is the Cuttlefish diving, the RFDS Catering out there, the RFDS Cake Stall at the Hardware store and the Ladies Brunch — and —- it’s chucking it down. Isn’t that fun. It will be ok for the Cuttlefish Divers, they are going to get wet anyway, the ladies Brunch will be indoors, but the Cake Stall and the Cuttlefish Catering are currently at risk. Right at the moment I am being hassled  but I am not taking him walking in the heavy rain, so he can just go

The last surviving Mandevilla.

back to his bed for a bit;.

The rain faded away by about 7:30 and it turned out a fine day – almost. Everything went well, the Cuttlefish Catering, The  Cake Stall and the Ladies Brunch. The cuttlefish catering we wont know until  the  end of today and we get the two days  and the cake stall calculated. The Ladies Brunch was good but not as good as it has been. We think there was just too much on this weekend – something the ladies are going to have consider if they decide to continue next year. I did say almost a fine day since the rain came back about 3pm but only in the form of a few quick showers. Not enough to cause much concern. The Cake Stall had sold everything by 11:30 and they had nearly three full tables of home baking – and it all went.

Taken at 10am as the heavy, wet mist was  slowly clearing.

Tomorrow (Monday 1st July) is the AGM of the RFDS here and my last  time as Secretary. There is some doubt as to whether or not  the  Secretary Elect will  go forward to election but either way, I will not. The Secretary elect was elected as Secretary but not without some controversial maneuvering. Members of the “In Group” wanted their man to be Secretary but the  Coordinator from Central Operations in Adelaide who was chairing the meeting, ruled this as Out Of Order, since the person concerned was not at the meeting and therefore unable to agree or not to his election.   Oh, yes, and we were told at the meeting that the RFDS Jet, which was to make a visit to each of the areas, will not be coming. Central Operations decided to  send the Jet to the properties of each of the major corporate sponsors instead and since it is now in operation, there is not time for any regional visits.

John’s wheels, Benji and the WaWa

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Took the dogs to the Wetlands this afternoon. The rain we have had over the last week has had  a reasonable effect but it still needs more to bring the ponds back to capacity. The boys were very good and walked well – like old pals, in fact. Pity they could not behave like that at home.  Still to be fair, it’s not the fault of Max – Benji is the culprit here and as I said, for some reason he does not like Max. On Sunday, Max went home.

I have just returned from a trip to Adelaide. My son’s car has “given up the ghost”so he needs a new car. He asked me to take him to Adelaide since there was nothing here that he liked.  There is only one car dealer here and private buys are a bit “dodgy”  I took him to a decent dealer, “Adelaide Auto Sales”at Mawson Lakes. We spent some time there looking at various SUV models and he finally settled on a Ford Territory. Personally I preferred the

John’s new Wheels

Sliver-Blue one, but he settled on the Black.  The reason for the SUV is the high clearance which on the back roads could get him out of any trouble a lot easier.  I had booked two hotel rooms but having got his vehicle, he decided he wanted to go home, so I led him back to the Port Wakefield Road and after a stop at Bolivar when I asked him to call me from Wakefield,  any other stop and to call me when he gets home. I went back into town and did some shopping before heading off to the hotel for the night. John called me from Wakefield, Tin Man and when he got home. I had intended to head out to Bunnings this morning but decided I would follow John and head for home. I started out at 6am expecting to be in Wakefield by  sunrise and continue the rest of the way in the daylight.  I did, of course, but it was not without its interesting moments. There is a lot of reconstruction and road works  at the bridge where the Northern Express branches off. It was dark, I was unaware of  the situation so I followed what I thought was the right traffic cone-lined lane and ended up on the Northern Expressway. My GPS, which I had programmed for home led me off the Express to the Penfield Road, exit then to Virginia and back to Highway A1 – The Port Wakefield Road,  and all of this was done in the dark and I don’t like driving at night. Still the Port Wakefield Road if a fairly large, well divided  four lane highway from Gepps Cross in Adelaide all the way to Port Wakefield and I generally  drive this in the dark to be in Wakefield for the sunrise  so that I can  continue by daylight. Wildlife on the Port Wakefield Road is unusual.

After my unscheduled  detour I drove directly to Port Wakefield and stayed there for  breakfast before heading off to the Tin Man.  I decided, since I had sufficient fuel,  not to stop and drove

Benji and Bowtie

directly to Port Augusta, did some shopping there and headed for home.  Crazy Benji went gaga and I eventually had to sit on the floor with him for a bit until he settled down. You would think I had been away for weeks instead of just a day and a half,.  After I emptied the car and sorted out my case, I took Benji out for a walk. That made him happy, just him and me together.  I actually do miss him when I am away. However, all being well, I wont be away again until August and then only for a day and a half.

I have been looking through some old photographs and I came across photographs of Kongsoon ( the WaWa) and oddly enough, I do miss her and wonder how she is. We never hear from them

The WaWa

so we’ll probably never know. Sad, but there you are.

Birthday, drug test and Max going home

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Sunday June 2nd, Today is our grandson’s 2nd Birthday. Last year we had a big Birthday Party and took over part of the local area park and the Barbecue Units. This year was very much low key with only family invited to the house for cake and presents. So much has happened in the last two years that the time has  just flown. Indeed, it’s almost time for the ladies to start work on organizing the Ladies Brunch, their main charity fundraiser for the year. This is always well advertised and generally well attended. This afternoon I completed  the posters for the function and gave them to Annabell.  Next she will give me a list of the addresses they have to be sent to and I’ll make  the address labels, then take down to the Post Office.  This is a long weekend for us ( Queen’s Birthday Weekend). On Monday we will still do the grocery shopping since the supermarkets are open even if everything else is closed. Son is still having problems with his car so he telephoned and asked if I could take him to work. As I said before, he works about 20 klms. out of town. Anyway, I picked him up at 6am this morning and was stopped at the Security gate for a random drug and alcohol test – and – since I was not an employee,  had to do an induction test  to be allowed to drive through the Steelworks site. They own all the land. All that done and we set off to his company and we were driving along at the 40kpm speed when he decided to tell me that this was the part of the dirt road where he had damaged his car –  “Oh but it’s been graded since then”  Well thanks John, I  really needed to know that. Made me feel so much better!  I really enjoyed  driving 40 kms at 30kph. Well, at least when they finished the drug and alcohol testing it was light, which was a bit better, wasn’t any warmer but at least there was light.  I picked him up again in the late afternoon and then took the car to the carwash and gave it a bath to get rid of any salt from the saltworks. The steelworks own all the land in that area and that borders the beginning of the land owned by the army for its play-pen, but there is only one road through and that’s through the steelworks site and aloingside the saltworks – hence the bath.  John’s place is right on the very edge of  the  army Play-Pen.  After  several years, farmers who farmed and kept sheep on that land are still fighting the Defence Force ( Fed. Govt) for  fair compensation for the Compulsory Purchase Order the Feds imposed on them. They left us a sliver of land for the Wild Dog Hill Conservation Park.

Wednesday: Was awake at 1:36 this morning. A thunderstorm exploded overhead, woke the dogs, which woke me. They started barking and  I had almost all the lights on and unsure of what was happening: the noise of the rain pounding down was incredible. Got the dogs settled down but it took me ages to get back to sleep – lying in bed and listening to the  heavy rain.  I slept until the alarm went off at 5:45 but it was still raining so no walk this morning. Of course, I was willing but those two went all woosie on me  :o)  Yes, it’s still “dogs” but Max will be going home either tomorrow,  (Thursday) or Friday. At

Giant Cuttlefish

the moment (7:20am) it is still raining although not quite so heavy.   Telephone call today and Max will not be going home until Sunday so we have him for three more days. Well, he’s been here for three weeks so we can manage three more days.

The Cuttlefish season is upon us again and I have to organize the volunteers for the catering for four dates – two at the end of this month and a further two at the start of the following month. I believe this is the last I shall be organizing  and we should ( better have!!) a new Secretary  after the AGM on1st July.  Will be quite a change but I feel it’s needed although I will still be doing some things until the new Secretary finds her feet and takes over everything. She’s a clever lady so that shouldn’t take her too long and I might see about me talking to the traders and getting her telephone number with them instead of mine, but we’ll see.  I have organized the Cuttlefish people so that’s ok – the next two dates will not be organized by me – at least, I hope not.