This is not the first time this has happened – in fact it is the third time. Once I can excuse, two I get interested and three I am positively irritated. I have, yet again, lost everything I have written over the last day or so. I had written about three hundred or so words then uploaded a photograph and everything I had written just vanished. I know I said that progress was halted because the hardware store does not have the treated pine edging that I need. It did have, but it’s run out and won’t get more in until next week sometime. I did think of calling the hardware store in Port Augusta ( about 50 miles SE of here) but I might just as well wait until the supplies arrive here. It’s not as if I have nothing to keep me occupied. I cannot remember what else I wrote. Today, (Saturday) I spent much of the day helping to run a fundraising barbecue on behalf of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. I am Secretary of the Whyalla Support Group. We didn’t do too badly and I think we cleared about $250.oo. Last year we donated just over $32,000.oo to Central Operations. I am always amazed at the generosity of people, particularly where the RFDS is concerned. We are a vast continent and there is no other way to get medical services to the inland regions. Some people don’t buy food but come over and make a donation. Others buy food, hand over a note ant tell us not to bother with the change. Tomorrow is Sunday and I am busy all day and on Monday I head off to Adelaide. I haven’t got a lot to do but since my son is going down I will come with him. He has company business and he will drop me off at one of the malls and pick me up later in the afternoon. Should be a pleasant day out – approximately 500+ miles round trip.
Freedom is a noble word!
Tuesday the bark was removed and it was my intention to go out and start the tidy up and levelling off. However, in the morning it was blowing a gale and in danger of creating a dust storm so I decided not to add to the problems by stirring my stuff up . I had to go out for a little while and when I came back I was horrified to see that the wind had blown open the gate. Chienna was still there but the little man, my Maltese, was gone. I secured the gate and took off in the car to drive around the area looking for him. Couldn’t find him so I came home, only to see him walking, unconcerned, up the driveway. I stopped the car on the roadway and went over and lifted him up. I was just so relieved to see him. I picked up herself from her meeting and took her to lunch – then the heavens opened up and we had a real good thunderstorm. Got back to the house and Chienna was going gaga. I had to medicate her to calm her down. The thunder terrifies her and the medication from the Vet is to relief the stress and calm her down. We find half a tablet is enough – poor thing. The thunder lasted well into the late evening.
The storm cleared and headed off to wreck havoc in Adelaide – or so the news tells us. Tomorrow is forecast to rain so I don’t know when I will get back into the garden and get things cleared up. A less than good summer and now an Autumn that seems to be headed in the same direction – cool and wet. I’m a simple person and I really don’t understand such things, but the weather institute tells us that the last two years are the coldest Australia has been in ten years – they also been the wettest, but overall we’re getting warmer. All very confusing. Interesting though that Wednesday lived up to its name ‘Wet Wednesday”
If it stays dry I should get the trailer filled this afternoon and get it ready to get off to the dump tomorrow morning – early – like opening at 8:30. I try to get in as early as possible when I am on my own because I am not really good at backing trailers. I’ll do the final measure for the edging shortly and order that for tomorrow after I clean the trailer. Should be another busy day.
All going to the dogs!
In all of the organised confusion (chaos) that goes on around here at the moment the dogs have been very good. ” There is a lot going on but the sun rises and sets, daddy takes us for walks and we get fed every night, so all must be well with the world, despite the confusion” At least if they could think – and who knows what goes on in a dog’s head – I should imagine it would be something along these lines. Today they will be inside for most of the day. Apart from work being done in the front, the temperature is to be around 38c and generally when it gets as hot as this we let them in to the cool of the laundry and I put down beds for them. I like my dogs but my long suffering wife tolerates them – she’s not really an animal person.
The backhoe – and driver – came today ad cleared most of the bark (about 97%) – or at least as much as he could get at. Over the next few days I will start the tidy up and levelling out ready for laying down weed matting and the new edging. I’m not sure if I should go with the treated pine sleepers or do as my wife and I discussed, ask someone to come and do concrete edging. I might get a quote for it, but I think I prefer the less expensive option – treated pine sleepers. I have already decided to reduce the inside area , which will make for easier maintenance and take away that little sliver of ground at the far side of the main area. I have not decided what to do with that yet but I have been thinking of rose bushes with the bird bath back in place at the centre – although the only birds we seem to have at the moment are Top-Notch Pigeons and Magpies.
Barking Saga
Since I started clearing the bark away things have come to a screaming halt. I have already decided that I will get the bark moved rather than move it myself, however, it will cost me extra because of the rocks. That being so I will move the rocks. Friday i had eye tests and lots of drops so I was unable to function out in the sunlight for most of the day. By the time I was able to go out, it was too late. Saturday I was in Adelaide, but I will get started tomorrow morning. Just as well it’s a public holiday so I won’t get called into work. I don’t have to dispose of the rocks at this time, just moved them out of the front garden so the backhoe can have a clear sweep through. The job should not take any longer than 45 minutes – and that’s being generous. However, it would take me the best part of a week to do- longer if I also get called in to work. Once it’s cleared I will be happy and I can take my time getting it altogether again. The rocks have been removed so I’m just waiting on the workman to come and clear the area.
Hoe, Hoe, Hoe
Yesterday afternoon I started clearing the bark away and within an hour so so I had filled the trailer. What surprised me was the small amount of space cleared in relation to filling a 6×4 trailer. With dump fees at $15 per trailer load, this is going to be quite expensive. I am now considering the wisdom of doing the clearing myself and wonder if it will be just as cheap to get someone with a backhoe to come and do it for me. That being so, I have arranged for this to be done. So what’s the deal about the bark? Well, it’s not just bark that has fallen from trees, this is pine bark chips that have been used as a ground cover. It’s cheap, no maintenance and looks good until the weather takes its toll and leaches all the colour out of it. Then it turns black and looks really dirty. It’s not something I would consider using. In a small area it’s managable but this is in a good sized area and I think it really detracts from the house. I’ll edge the area off with treated Pine Logs and use a particular wood chip that has been treated not to lose its colour. It looks attractive and is created as a decorative feature. However at $90 per cubic metre it is not cheap. In the back section I will have the area slightly raised and plant Roses and in the centre, the bird bath. I think it will look quite good when it is finished.
All quiet down here!
The rain continues to pound down in the Eastern States and the north of our State. The area under water continues to increase but at the moment, despite the chaos, only one person has been killed. . In the north of this state there may have to be food drops to people and communities cut off. Why such a difference in temperature and weather patterns – South Australia is larger than Texas. Sorry about that but there you are! At the moment it’s mild here but not as warm as it should be. Something I have been painfully aware of is that we seem to have an almost constant wind. I am surrounded by trees and I spend a morning sweeping up leaves and twigs only for the place to be just as bad the next day. Same when take the dogs out in the evening – there is always a wind. Summer’s end and I’m wearing a jacket already. Where does all the water from Queensland, the Northern Territory and the top parts of New South Wales and South Australia go and why do we not do floods over here? Most of it rushes down into the Lake Eyre Basin. The Lake Eyre basin is an area larger than France, Germany and Italy combined and for Lake eyre to o overflow would take a miracle of Biblical Proportions – really. However having said that it is believed that the flow from the Mississippi could fill Lake Eyre in about three weeks and about three days for the Amazon.
I realise that none of this has anything to do with my rebuilding the garden but with all the rain last week and the strange weather I have not really been able to do much outside other than attend to the weeds that the rain has allowed to spring up. But provided it starts to clear up and dry out, I will get back into it again – unless my services are needed and I get called into work.
Showers with a few dry spells.
Friday afternoon and the sun came out. It ended up being quite warm so everything has a chance to dry out – well at least here, not so for other places. We don’t do floods here – a few puddles, but no floods. Other places, particularly in New South Wales, are in serious trouble with dams about to overflow – and it’s still raining. This is not “normal” for this area – not for late summer early Autumn By the time the sun did come out and the day cleared up it was too late to get changed and go outside. I also had a pile of work to do for herself, who was hosting a Ladies Meeting at the church on Friday evening. We had about 75 attending the meeting, which was good. Today, Saturday, started off quite nice then started raining again although it didn’t last very long. When we start the new week on Monday I will have to wait and see if I get called in to work. If I don’t and it stays dry, I’ll move some of the rocks and see how much of the black bark I can get into the trailer. Amazing, great chunks of the country are under water and I’m talking about gardens and trailers. I really don’t have room to plant a lot of things and a herb garden and the shade house are just about my limit. Do I mean the place is small – no I don’t. The place is a fair size but designed as entertainment rather than “garden”. And NO, I do not intend to turn the front garden into a vegetable garden – I have no intention of going all ‘Good Life” :o) The photograph is the Warragamba Dam to the west of the city of Sydney. Not good.
Damp Thursday
Exciting – Wet Wednesday morphed into damp Thursday with everything still soggy and wet. The upper areas of the State are flooded and the rain is set to continue bringing more problems for an already flooded area. I think the sun came out today but I must have blinked and missed it. Summer officially ended yesterday – and wouldn’t you know it. Still we are not too bad in South Australia only just over one third of the state is flooded. In New South Wales about 75% of the State is flooded and Queensland is not off the hook just yet. Amazing, really – for all our modern technology a few days of rain and everything grinds to a halt and half the country floods. And here we are, Morphed yet again into Wet Friday. Still can’t get any work done outside. This is not usual at all..
Wet Wednesday
From about the middle to the end of last week the temperature was in the high 30c low 40c and hot outside so I did little work other than keep up the watering to the plants in the evening. This week I have been called in to work for the first two days and today – although I am not working and at home – it’s chucking down, and has been all night. Not a lot going on really.
Autumn is a commin’
Amazing the end of summer already. Apart from a few blasts of heat ( like this current blast) it has been a fairly mild summer. There have been a few days of extreme temperature when the mercury has reached the low 40c but all-in-all it has been fairly mild. Although, having said that, the mildness has been the companion of a constant wind, Unlike the northern hemisphere, in this part of the world a North Wind is a hot wind off the desert and right at the moment with the temperature at 41c. we have a North Wind. Here it’s not the heat that drags you down,it’s the wind that sometimes goes with it – like now. Needless to say, I am not really in the mood to go out in this heat and start swinging a socking great sledgehammer to break top the cement and start to remove the old washing line system. I’m not really keen to do much at the moment other than get up close and personal with an air-conditioner. Once a cool change comes through, I’ll
see about making a start again. Although having said that I did do some work. I removed the big bird-bath from the front of the house and brought it round to the back. Probably in the next day or so I’ll clean it up and have it ready for going back once I finish the front of the house. The think was badly leaking so I had it resealed and painted a light blue. The birds seem to like it, but then, I suppose they like anything that has water in it. In warm, but not hot days, I still take my laptop outside and I still have breakfast with the dogs, but when it’s too hot, we bring the dogs inside.
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