Water, water. Or things we do to fill our tanks

It has been very dry here in Crookwell for some time now so on our second day back from Rathmines we were delighted to wake to rain. Good solid soaking wet stuff. Delighted because it was very close to necessary for K or his son-in-law get buckets of water out of the dam for the dogs and rams and also because the new water tank on the shearing shed was ready for use at last

Being  ever practical I was even more excited to be able to collect water off our caravan.

As you all know by now, our daughter and son-in-law are kindly allowing us to camp on their property. We are able to do this because we are relativity self contained in our set up.

We have a mini solar panel farm connected to our batteries. These and the gas bottles keep us going on all but the greyest days when we run the generator.

But water is truly the limiting factor. If you ask caravan owners how long they can stay off grid, the answer starts with power but always ends with water.  

So when it rained out came every bucket and tub strategically positioned under the key places where water runs off ... the back corner of the van, the two corners of the annex and along the shade cloth. We filled the caravan tanks with 160 litre of filtered rain water, we always pump through the filter, and still have 50 litres ready to pump in and another lot ready for clothes washing.


Just in case you have a picture in your minds of us sitting inside a warm caravan, sipping hot chocolate and delicately nibbling on choc chip hot cross buns...the only proper flavour in my opinion...let me paint you a picture. There's K in his swimmer shorts and a rain proof coat diving out into heavy rain every 10 minutes or so to transfer water from buckets to tubs and then pumping the whole lot into the van tank every 5 trips or so. Or me, when the rain slacked off shuffling buckets to get the best drip speed landing in the tubs.


We filled the caravan tanks with 160 litres of filtered rain water and still have 50 litres ready to pump in and another lot ready for clothes washing.
There is now the slightest hint of green on the paddocks. And there is water at the shearing shed too. A luxury we all enjoyed when the next lot of crutching was done on the weekend.

I had to include this shot of miss four year old stomping the wool down in the pack. She and her grandfather make good team. She directs. He does as he's told.

Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move

A seniors week. Or being the youngest again.

Flew back from Adelaide last Saturday straight into Newcastle and now we are packing up from a week of fellowship with a group of 120 seniors, many of whom were influential in our early married life, and some people I had never met until this week. Discussions were lead by various speakers and we loaded into busses to visit the Hunter Valley Gardens and Old Morpeth Town.

I am used to being in the senior range of our get togethers since we are grandparents, but this time I was in fact the second youngest attendee.  So of course I grabbed the other younger nearly 60 year olds and their just a little bit older partners and headed to the teenagers seats at the back of the bus. Spent some time reliving past glories and shared youth, heckling the people in front and generally revelling in the allusion of youth.
 I had to ignore my sore knee and pretend I was leaping not levering myself out of the seats but it was a nice feeling.
 

Boy can oldies... I mean senior citizens.... eat. Endless cups of tea, and cake. No kids on the playground under my window though.

Sitting amongst the crafty ones I finished my latest afghan, and sold it to a good home.  Hope you enjoy it Fay.

Cheers Sue




A Ferg on the Move

Who runs the house? Cats rule.

 

Rascal the kitten is very interested in everything that happens here at mum's house in Lyndoch. He helps the Great Dane get comfortable on his bed, even testing it out for softness at various times of the day and allowing the dog to lie down around him.

 

Rasal is also up with manners. He greets everyone, including the other dog very politely, rubbing noses and batting paws.

 

He guards the fish water when the tanks are being cleaned. The sign he is drawing my attention to  on the bucket says Fish Water Only. I wasn't looking so he rubbed his nose on bucket to get attention.

 

The hoses for filling and emptying the fish tanks are important too. He sleeps with them to make sure no one uses them for something else.

 

 

 

Appropriate behaviour around mum, who is recuperating from an operation is enforced as well. cuddling is ok.... but don't sit on the sore knee.

 

 

Rascal is also entertainment officer, chasing fluff on the floor, flies, dog tails and hiding in boxes. Better than TV really.

 

Cheers Sue

 

 

 

Crafty feline. The kitten helps out

A quiet evening at mum's watching a movie with my brother and beginning my new crochet project.

 I flew over for a week to help out after mum's operation. After a bit of thought I didn't pack the nearly finished double bed afghan in my luggage. (K has it ready to put in the car so I can do it in Newcastle when I fly back there to join him in a weeks time.)  Instead, dedicated crochet-er  that I am,  half my suitcase was filled with a lovely green yarn  that I decided to crochet in  a new stitch from Kristin Omdal's Seamless Crochet: Techniques and Motifs for Join-as-You-Go Crochet. All joined up and no need to thread a needle at all. I bought this book from the Kindle site. I love to find new techniques and then use them in my afghans.

So I'm sitting in mum's chair.... I have the use of it for the week 'cos she won't be able to get in and out of it until her new knee can bend properly..... I've got one eye on the TV and half an eye on the pattern and half an eye on the hook and yarn. Doing quite well I thought as the first row of  circles dropped off the end of my hook.

Rascal, the resident kitten, was fascinated by the new project and took on the role of quality control officer; creeping up to ensure that my yarn was in fact pulling from the ball in a timely fashion,


grabbing it for me when the ball moved,

checking the stitches to make sure they were correct,

assisting with tension by standing on the  yarn,

and making sure there were more balls in the basket for future use.

Apparently he is an expert knitter as well assisting mum to hold her needles as she works.

I think animal antics might be very entertaining here this week.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg  on the Move




 

Of markets, lost phones and hot weather

Lagan markets were on last weekend. In this district there is a market in one of the local towns just about every weekend. We have often packed up and headed north by the time they restart after the holiday season so we were keen to pop across and have a gander.

K did his usual and topped up on chutney and sauces.  

There was a bloke selling chilli products. They are pretty good too. We grabbed a few gluten free baked goods sold by a couple who are just up the road from the farm.

There were the usual mixture of home grown and cooked goods, second hand things and knitted and crocheted baby items. I had a long yarn with a lady discussing finishing and edging afghans and we swapped stitch ideas. Add scones and coffee and it was a fantastic morning.

K made friends with a leather worker who makes and repairs watch bands.

 Today was really hot and K fired up the generator to run the air-conditioning in the caravan. I am very grateful K solved the generator, air-conditioner mismatch earlier this year because instead of hunting shade I was able to turn out cupboards and pack for a quick trip to Adelaide to mind mum, mine that is, after an operation. Found a few things to repair, a few to throw out and reorganised the yarn stash so I could take something to do with me.

Mr Fix It showed his age today. Had to make three runs to the hardware supplier for bits. Didn't do the part buying equivalent of measure twice , cut one. Think twice, drive once.

I showed my age by leaving my glasses in a shop yesterday and by misplacing my bright orange phone twice. (I bought an orange phone cover to avoid just such an incident. Works well doesn't it) I guess we are about even in the absent-minded stakes, although the sight of me with my posterior in the air scrabbling under the car to find my ringing phone probably rates a bit higher as entertainment.

Catch you all from Adelaide soon

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move  

 

Gas bottle woes. Or they don't make things to last

Just a gentle winge about parts. The gas tap that switches between gas bottles is not working again. Mr Fix It has had it apart to clean twice already.

Tried to get a new one again today. Hope it will live longer than its predecessor.

Don't know why it is so hard to get good quality replacement parts these days.    I have noticed that replacement computer batteries never work as long as the first one did. Filters never last long.

On a much happier note I am well into my next crochet project, a bed spread sized afghan in a clever combination of ripples and diamonds I found here http://stitcheryprojects.com/2012/11/25/crazy-ripple-blanket/


Cheers Sue


A Ferg on the Move

Mobile phones. Or I had 3 bars once upon a time

You might remember my blog about the vagaries of phone service generally and in country areas in particular. In it I described the things I have to do to stay in touch.... http://fergsonthemove.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/staying-in-touch-or-things-i-have-to-do.html?m=0


Mobile phone service remains sketchy on the farm. K has his aerial on the shearing shed and a couple of times a day plugs his phone in to check sms. My phone doesn't have a spot to plug in so I still have to catch up on the drive in to town or go up to the gate and stand in the middle of the road.


The mobile phone gods must hate us. Two o'clock in the morning seems to be the "ok the phone is gonna work now" time. Emails and sms arrive to the tune of  his and hers matching beeps.

So imagine our utter shock and not so quiet delight when the signal on both our phones didn't flicker and die as we drove in the farm gate late at night returning from Crookwell. We were both so excited that our daughter got a celebratory SMS from both our phones. At 11.45 pm. Its not just teenagers who can't tell the time.


I stayed up even later reading blogs expecting the signal to disappear any moment. I even sat in bed the next morning downloading a few books with 3 bars on my phone. I could have been in the big smoke. A real place with real communication services.


Alas this excitement was all for nought as the Telstra service went into melt down the next day and I haven't seen a phone bar on the farm since. Oh well...back to standing in the middle of the road. Or I could hike down to the dog pen. K gets messages there.

Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move