NSW Deployment - day 1A

Hi everyone,

Here I am in Lismore, NSW.  I actually typed this entry on the road and tried to post it from my iTouch, but there were tech issues that stopped it.  All my photos are on the iTouch, by the way, so this entry will be textual I'm afraid.

Anyway, we got to Melbourne airport this afternoon for muster at 3pm. It was explained that a BIG rain dump is expected in northeastern NSW over the next few days - hence the request for more crews.

A chai latte later half of the volunteers present were boarding a Virgin flight and the other half on a Qantas flight. I was on Virgin, and seated with a nice chap named Ian from the north-East RSU and a volunteer from a unit near Geelong; we all talked happily for the flight up.

We hit a little turbulence coming into Brisbane. Once in the ground it was explained that volunteers from the country units would go to Lismore (a fairly rural area) and the city-based units to Tweed Heads, a more urban area.  Coaches were supplied to get us to our respective towns over the border in NSW.  By this stage it was getting a bit late: dinner was a (surprisingly good) lamb and feta wrap from the McDonalds at the Coomera BP.  We're all bunking in different motels.  Rain was falling pretty much all the way and is still falling now.  Looks like the forecasters will be right.

Don't think I said in the last post that I didn't get the job at ANZ.  Apparently I got very close but no cigar. I'm a little bummed about that: feels like I'm banging my head against a brick wall some days.

Anyway, you never know.  Eyes are coding so I'll post this now. Need to sleep!

More later.

NSW Deployment - day 1

Hi everyone,

Typing this in an SES vehicle bound for Tullamarine airport. I had a call from SES this morning asking me to report to the Benalla office at midday for dispatch to Brisbane and deployment to NSW for storm damage assistance. As best I can tell, I've been allotted to the imposingly named Taskforce Echo-C and to be sent to Lismore.

I'm a little nervous, I'm not going to lie, but also excited. I guess I kind of need this: after feeling like a bit of a loser for some while now it's a relief to do something big, that I can be proud of and that hopefully Grace and Rachel would be proud of their daddy for doing.

Battery's low so I'll post this now. Will try and put updates up in the days ahead and generally tell you what's going on.

Wish me luck!

Failure to Start

Hi everyone,

How are things?  It's been a bit of a non-starter day here today.

Took the dog for a good long walk in the morning - about 5 kms.  Kind of struck by how different our side of the fence looks compared to the neighbour, who had crops in last season

Looked for work on the computer. Feels kind of futile is the truth of it: one of the baddest sides of the constant knockbacks is that eventually you reach a point where in applying for work you feel like you're just going through the motions. A couple of good jobs have shown up, but I feel like "what's the point?".

Reading and a few other things in afternoon.  The old boy got back about 5pm with heifers to unload, and then asked me to come round the rest of the cattle with him. This was fine but messed up my plans for a run or a ride; planked and did weights for a bit instead.

More tomorrow.

Adventures in gardening

Hi everyone,

Sorry there was no post last night: truth is I was utterly tired and passed right out!

So yesterday I had some work for the gardener I've mentioned previously.  I met him at his place sand we headed to the job in Mooroopna.  The job itself was to remove about 15 sword-grass shrubs from the garden area. It was nowhere near as hard as I'd been led to expect.  Cutting under the roots with a spade worked effectively, followed by levering the plant up in as few pieces as possible with a mattock.  In about 5 hours we went from this -

... to this -

And from this -

... to this -

The only downside was that we had to keep trekking back to the far side of Shepparton to drop the cuttings at the tip.  Pay not great but I've still declared it to Centrelink.

One thing that made me smile was stopping for fuel and seeing the swap-n-go gas labelled as propane. I can't see that without thinking of Hank Hill!

In good news, the cow in the yards is now consistently (if a little unsteadily) on her feet.  Praise God for small mercies!

Today has been much more settled (bordering on inactive). I've applied to go up to Sydney as part of an SES relief crew after the storms up there.  Some paperwork in the afternoon, and volunteering at the Legal Centre in the evening. Not sure how much longer I can be a legal Service volunteer for. I always feel like I'm giving people bad news or always needing to be 'Dr No'. We'll see.

More tomorrow. Think I'll sleep well tonight!

Mo' labour mo' muscle...

Hi everyone,

Typing this on my phone before I flake out.

Shortly after I finished the preceding post, Michael showed up. We spent the next couple of hours rejuvenating a fence on his place, he tasking me with removing an expanse of ringlock from the line. This was a fiddly job of cutting wire and manipulating it to free it.  This post reflects what I had to untangle each end to get it free -

Anyway, I got it all off and rolled it up. This was what the end product looked like - 

I repeated the exercise with the length of old broken down barbed wire and ended up with something that looked like a colossal Crown of Thorns!

The wire attended to, we moved on to driving steel posts in next to the old posts to bring the fence back into line

The posts themselves were a mixed bag: the old style cut from a single piece of eucalypt with the wire threaded through.  That said, they were old and the white ants had eaten into some of them. 

I headed back to my place about 4pm, then over to the property at Nagambie to bring the steers in to go south tomorrow.

Oh, and we have a small calf with trouble feeding, so we're bringing his mother into the crush and holding her in place so he can get a drink from her.  Tried to get a photo but phone died.

Have some paid labouring work with a gardener lined up tomorrow.  Truly looking forward to it.

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Morning on the Bike

Hi everyone,

I'm typing this on my phone at my brother-in-law's place at Violet Town as I wait for him and the old boy to get here.  The barbecue is on and I'll cook up some  schnitzels for lunch. Mmm, protein!

It's been a full morning for me. I think I said yesterday that I was cycling in Ride the Ranges 2015 today?  It was for that that I wandered over to Euroa this morning.

Because I haven't been cycling long I registered for the 30km route, rather than the 80km or 130km routes.  It was a dirt cheap ride to enter and the registration area had a really friendly feel to it. It was even a pretty place to wait to start, just by the floodgates in the middle of town.

The 30km route was nice and flat and all bitumen aside from about 100metres of gravel. Basically, a recreational track.  I did feel a little underdressed: nearly everyone else was in Lycra with cycling jerseys; I was in running shorts with my short-sleeved Melbourne Marathon shirt. I can only deduce that runners are either dumber than cyclists or feel the cold less!

The route took us on a bit of a tour of the edge of the Strathbogie Ranges.  The countryside is rocky -

but every so often a hill would be wrapped in trees and I found myself singing 'Jerusalem'

And did those Feet, in ancient time,

Walk upon England's mountains green?

Runkeeper tells me the final distance was 26.6kms, which I did in 1:19:35. I'm pretty happy with that and had a great time.

The local Rotary club had a barbecue going when we finished and a steak sandwich was included in the entry fee (score!). I had mine and a bottle of water and got on the road for Michael's place, where the plan is to spend the afternoon stringing fencing wire.

I stopped in Violet Town proper as I passed St Attracta's church: it was open and I didn't think I'd get to Mass anywhere else today.

As it turned out the priest was rostered at another parish this morning (ergo, no Mass), so this was a worship and prayer service for a dozen or so of the local laity. I was happy to be there though: nobody seemed unhappy that I'd come in in my sports clothes, and afterwards a couple of people asked how I'd come to be there and so on. Honestly, it felt like a nice welcoming congregation, and I'll see if I can get a Sunday Mass in there at some time.

Which brings me to the present: I'm waiting for the others to show up, which may be a while as there seems to be a problem with a calf back at the farm.

Still, the sun's coming out and I'm in no hurry. Time for a cup of tea with honey and maybe some planking. And maybe googling up this piece of décor set into the wall of the house:

I'll update you on the balance of the day this evening.

Rain, new boots and fencing

Hi everyone,

An outdoors day here in the Goulburn Valley.

The day started, in a way, at about 3:30am with a short sharp storm that rolled through and woke everyone up. It dumped about 9mm of rain here. Michael tells me it dropped about 20mm at Violet Town and Barry that there was over an inch at Mansfield.  No callouts for SES, interestingly (I kept waiting for my beeper to go off).  Destructive or not, it's beautiful to see the paddocks putting in a green garment of new grass.

I got the day underway with feeding the cow in the yards. She's still down and not able to fully stand up. This worries me with the weather getting colder and the ground being wet - she could easily get sick (in addition to injured). I've been giving here generous servings of oaten hay, and her appetite is good, but if she's not up by Monday the vet may be in order.

After I'd attended to the cow I dashed off a quick note card to an old and dear Canadian friend, to go along with some correspondence to Grace and Rachel, and to Centrelink (a feedback form to say: you guys actually do a great job!, which I'm sure they'll find a change to endless complaints).

I'd agreed to go and help Muchael fencing at Violet Town, and I decided this was a good day to break in some new boots to replace my old ones which (at nearly two hard years old) were starting to come apart.

Fencing at Michael's place took the form of stabilising the more decayed wooden posts with star pickets and fitting standouts on the fence to run electric wires. Good robust work.

Michael and I came back over here about 3pm.  Barry had also come over to lend a hand with getting the seeder running and we pitched in till day ran out of light.  Cool evening and glad of a fire.

Off to Euroa tomorrow morning for a cycling event ("Ride the Ranges"). Looking forward to it. It'll be interesting to see if cycling events are different to foot races! 

More tomorrow.