Tuesday 3 November 2015

Hay rolls and running

Hi everyone,
 
Yesterday was Melbourne Cup Day, which is a public holiday here.  I feel like I packed nearly a weekends worth of activity into the day (judging, at least, by how I feel today).
 
The day certainly kicked off to a peaceful start for me.  As usual, I gave the dog his breakfast (a dish of old bread, water and milk) and while I was doing so, emptied the compost bucket.  For a household with no Green orientation to speak of, we don't waste a lot: spoiled food is never thrown out but (if all else fails) is used to feed the dog.  And pretty well any organic waste is composted: in any given day we'd generate a bucket of peelings, tea leaves, coffee grounds and the like (which is why emptying it is part of my morning routine).
 
 
I'd bought Monday's Shepparton News and browsed it over my toast and Vegemite.  I've said it before but it bears repeating: I find the local daily a much better read than the Age or Herald-Sun.  The big metropolitan dailies always leave me with the feeling of being affected by things that I have no influence over, and (because of this lack of influence) even discussing which sounds hopelessly impotent.  The local paper always involved things and people that I actually know (or know of) and that I might be able to do something about.
 
 
 
Besides which, the News included a story and photo about the road crash on Saturday morning that I wrote about.  As you can see from the picture in the story, the car in question was pretty much totaled.
 
I don't recall if I mentioned that Former Brother in Law (FBL) came up on Saturday - he went back this morning.  At any rate, he and the old boy and I spent part of yesterday morning gathering rolls of hay from the paddock where the triticale was sown and transporting them back to the hay shed.
 
 
The job took on a bit of urgency as another band of storms and rain is forecast.  The advice from the Bureau of Meteorology condenses as follows -
Severe Weather Warning for heavy rainfall for people in the ... Northern Country ... forecast district... A low pressure trough over South Australia will cross Victoria Thursday. Thunderstorms and heavy rain which may lead to FLASH FLOODING are forecast for the ... Northern Country... forecast district ... for Thursday.
We were able to get them back to the shed in loads of 6 at a time on the back of the tray-truck, which took about two hours.
 
 
I had a Skype date with Grace and Rachel lined up, but it fell through because the mobile phone signal at my end was being pretty patchy.  This was annoying but God willing I'll be able to tee something up for later in the week.
 
In the afternoon I set off to get a decent run in.  I hadn't gone for a really good long run in ages, and as the old boy and FBL were over at the Violet Town property it was an ideal moment.  The loop I selected would take me all the way to the hill on Byers Road in Tamleugh and back, which I knew would be about 19 kilometres and also knock over most of the hills on the outward trip
 

It's all downhill from here!
 
I was feeling pretty good on the return trip and decided on a whim to detour through the edge of Tamleugh North, which added a little over 4 kms to the trip.  Partway into this detour my right knee started giving me Hell, and this put paid to the further detour I was thinking about, which would have added another 7 kilometres onto the journey.
 
After that fairly vigorous calorie burn (and a shower and cleanup) it felt good to kick back with a glass of wine and give my feet a break from being pounded.  Dinner came off the barbeque, helped along by my two favourite food additives -
 
 
Today has been a fairly quiet day at work.  Good news came in the form of learning that the meeting scheduled for next Monday is not a prelude to sackings, and that the involvement from Human Resources is simply administrative.  I'm sure you can imagine my relief!
 
Not much more to add for now.  Hopefully I can post again before the end of the day.  Hope your days are going well.

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