It's heartening to see how communities help one another.
A number of properties near us were affected by the fire. They had paddocks burnt and fences destroyed. By last Wednesday, a group of 80 volunteers amassed to help refence paddocks, especially those abutting the highway. They used large machinery donated by a local company (whose employee was burnt whilst helping neighbours) and by now, 10 days after the fire, there are new fences along these paddocks and one paddock is full of haybales donated by surrounding farmers.
At the hospital I work at, a woman gave birth on that terrible Saturday. She's from the north east of Melbourne and she and her partner lost everything - house, possessions, fencing and most of their stock. They only had the clothes they were in, and her maternity bag. By the Monday morning, there was a stream of Red Cross volunteers visiting her, bringing donations of clothing and accessories for her and the baby. Her partner spent his time driving between our hospital and another hospital 2hrs away, where his father was after suffering a heart attack. And he was also busy organising accommodation for his family, someone to feed his remaining stock - not once did he break down or was anything other than positive. He was very matter of fact and capable, and always had compliments for the nurses looking after his partner. It's wonderful to see such positivity after all the horror stories that are displayed on the news night after night. And the baby's name - Mackenzie Hope.
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Ballet Classes
Jemima started ballet classes on Tuesday afternoon.
She had a ball!! Loved it and can't wait until the next class. Of course, Mummy has to organise a tutu for her, because all ballet girls wear tutus! (Not) I've organised the standard uniform (leotard, tights, georgette skirt, crossover top for winter and slippers).
She's been practising her good toes, bad toes (I remember doing that same thing when I was little), standing straight with knees turned out and little leaps with straight legs.
She wore joggers to her first class - and tied her own shoelaces!!
She had a ball!! Loved it and can't wait until the next class. Of course, Mummy has to organise a tutu for her, because all ballet girls wear tutus! (Not) I've organised the standard uniform (leotard, tights, georgette skirt, crossover top for winter and slippers).
She's been practising her good toes, bad toes (I remember doing that same thing when I was little), standing straight with knees turned out and little leaps with straight legs.
She wore joggers to her first class - and tied her own shoelaces!!
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
It's been an interesting few days
First, on Thursday, we had the Monivae bus crash, where a young driver did a U-turn in front of a bus full of Yr 7 students on their way to camp. The driver was seriously injured and flown to Melbourne but luckily, mostly thanks to the excellent defensive driving of Bob, the bus driver, none of the students were hurt. Police have praised him with actually keeping the bus upright.
Because the garage tank was empty, and that's what's connected to the taps in the yard, we bought 10,000 litres of water which was pumped into the tank on Thursday. It was very fortuitous, as it happens.
Next came Black Saturday with the fires. Hot as Hades and windy, it was a disaster waiting to happen. One man received 50% burns to his body whilst trying to help neighbours save their stock. Apparently the wind changed suddenly and he got trapped. No further news on how he's progressing.
Sunday was a quiet day, with much attention being paid to the news and the increasing death toll in north eastern Victorian. It started at about 25 confirmed dead but has quickly risen to over 170!
Yesterday (Monday), I spent the day in trackies, uggies and a jumper! It was cold! Two days after a heatwave, it was freezing! Of course, the pump in the grey water system decided to pack it in, so we had to get the plumber out, yet again. It'll take a few days to fix, so until then the toilet is being filled by lovely drinkable rainwater!!
This morning, taking the dogs for their morning ablutions, I witnessed a beautiful "moon set", just before the sun rose for the day.
Because the garage tank was empty, and that's what's connected to the taps in the yard, we bought 10,000 litres of water which was pumped into the tank on Thursday. It was very fortuitous, as it happens.
Next came Black Saturday with the fires. Hot as Hades and windy, it was a disaster waiting to happen. One man received 50% burns to his body whilst trying to help neighbours save their stock. Apparently the wind changed suddenly and he got trapped. No further news on how he's progressing.
Sunday was a quiet day, with much attention being paid to the news and the increasing death toll in north eastern Victorian. It started at about 25 confirmed dead but has quickly risen to over 170!
Yesterday (Monday), I spent the day in trackies, uggies and a jumper! It was cold! Two days after a heatwave, it was freezing! Of course, the pump in the grey water system decided to pack it in, so we had to get the plumber out, yet again. It'll take a few days to fix, so until then the toilet is being filled by lovely drinkable rainwater!!
This morning, taking the dogs for their morning ablutions, I witnessed a beautiful "moon set", just before the sun rose for the day.
Where the fire went
looking east towards the neighbours
looking north east over the back fence
where the fire jumped the highway
Sunday, 8 February 2009
End of an Era
We received, and accepted, an offer on our Kedron property. Hopefully, providing pest/building and finance are okay, we will settle in early March.
Caitlin is traumatised by this. She wanted us to buy a lotto ticket before signing the contract, just in case we won a million dollars and didn't have to sell.
A huge thank you to Mum, Dad and Margaret who spent weekends over at the place, cleaning walls, windows, lights, blinds, shampooing carpets, fixing holes and painting them, installing new laundry tub, cleaning up the yard and even spraypainting the pots green! The place sparkled!
Still, it's a relief that we won't be paying two mortgages and we'll have some spare change available to do things ... like replace the electric hot water system with a solar or gas one, replace the "how burnt do you want your food" oven and "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can boil water" cooktop, and repair some fencing so the sheep don't wander across the highway again!
Caitlin is traumatised by this. She wanted us to buy a lotto ticket before signing the contract, just in case we won a million dollars and didn't have to sell.
A huge thank you to Mum, Dad and Margaret who spent weekends over at the place, cleaning walls, windows, lights, blinds, shampooing carpets, fixing holes and painting them, installing new laundry tub, cleaning up the yard and even spraypainting the pots green! The place sparkled!
Still, it's a relief that we won't be paying two mortgages and we'll have some spare change available to do things ... like replace the electric hot water system with a solar or gas one, replace the "how burnt do you want your food" oven and "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can boil water" cooktop, and repair some fencing so the sheep don't wander across the highway again!
A Lucky Escape
To all the people that have texted or tried to contact us, we are all safe. But only just! The fire missed us by under a kilometre.
The day started off as normal, the dogs were exercised before it got too hot and I checked the water tanks to see how much extra water we'd gotten from the shower the night before and was pleasantly surprised. We were prepared for a hot day.
Michael went into town to get something for lunch, he got home about 12.15pm and all was normal. As it was a hot, windy day, we made lunch and retired to the lounge room where we closed the doors, windows, curtains and put on the air conditioner and The Blues Brothers.
Half an hour later, we heard a pounding on the lounge room door. It was our neighbour across the road, Cathy, telling us that a fire was going through her paddocks to the east. Her husband was busy moving stock but she wanted to let us know in case we didn't. Because the winds were strong northwesterly, we couldn't hear or smell it. And with the curtains closed, we didn't see the large plumes of smoke.
Michael and I went out to investigate immediately. It had come over the hill in the neighbour's property and taken out their hayshed and $50,000 worth of hay. Their house was spared. It had moved east, very quickly and burnt out the hills between here and Balmoral Rd. Just as it got to Balmoral road, the winds changed to southwesterly, which saved the town! The CFA (country fire authority) contained the fire quickly and cannot be praised highly enough for their work yesterday and last night.
view from our garage
view of the highway from our property
We had 10 minutes of panic - the house insurance was due yesterday and I couldn't remember if I'd paid it or not. After a mad scrabble through the bills, I discovered that I had actually paid it - we could burn down now :)
Luckily, the only house that was lost was an empty house up on a hill. One man was allegedly taken to hospital with burns and some stock was lost, and about 700 hectares burnt, but no human lives lost. We were all very lucky! The Premier, John Brumby, was a bit frantic... he couldn't contact his parents who live in Coleraine. They were okay, the fire stopped 500m short of their house.
The fire jumped the highway just down the road, and a power pole fell across the highway, closing it off for the rest of the day.
This meant we were without power, or phone for the rest of the day. No power meant no water (tanks need water pumped into the house). We felt reasonably safe from bushfire as the CFA were on high alert and planes were doing spotting sweeps, but we couldn't flush toilets, refill water bottles or have showers. Dinner at the pub was a must!
As the highway was closed, we had to go down Huggins Lane, across the dry creek bed and into town through the back street. Came home before it was dark and pretty much went straight to bed. Power came on around midnight but the phones didn't come back on until this afternoon.
Considering the disasters happening in other areas of hte state, we were very lucky! It has been touted that yesterday was worse than Ash Wednesday; so far 49 people have been confirmed dead and the toll is set to rise.
Bring on the rain.
This was the neighbour's hayshed
Only part of the devastation
Heroes of the day
The shed flares up again
Still working throughout the night
A beautiful sunset to end an horrific day
The day started off as normal, the dogs were exercised before it got too hot and I checked the water tanks to see how much extra water we'd gotten from the shower the night before and was pleasantly surprised. We were prepared for a hot day.
Michael went into town to get something for lunch, he got home about 12.15pm and all was normal. As it was a hot, windy day, we made lunch and retired to the lounge room where we closed the doors, windows, curtains and put on the air conditioner and The Blues Brothers.
Half an hour later, we heard a pounding on the lounge room door. It was our neighbour across the road, Cathy, telling us that a fire was going through her paddocks to the east. Her husband was busy moving stock but she wanted to let us know in case we didn't. Because the winds were strong northwesterly, we couldn't hear or smell it. And with the curtains closed, we didn't see the large plumes of smoke.
Michael and I went out to investigate immediately. It had come over the hill in the neighbour's property and taken out their hayshed and $50,000 worth of hay. Their house was spared. It had moved east, very quickly and burnt out the hills between here and Balmoral Rd. Just as it got to Balmoral road, the winds changed to southwesterly, which saved the town! The CFA (country fire authority) contained the fire quickly and cannot be praised highly enough for their work yesterday and last night.
view from our garage
view of the highway from our propertyWe had 10 minutes of panic - the house insurance was due yesterday and I couldn't remember if I'd paid it or not. After a mad scrabble through the bills, I discovered that I had actually paid it - we could burn down now :)
Luckily, the only house that was lost was an empty house up on a hill. One man was allegedly taken to hospital with burns and some stock was lost, and about 700 hectares burnt, but no human lives lost. We were all very lucky! The Premier, John Brumby, was a bit frantic... he couldn't contact his parents who live in Coleraine. They were okay, the fire stopped 500m short of their house.
The fire jumped the highway just down the road, and a power pole fell across the highway, closing it off for the rest of the day.
This meant we were without power, or phone for the rest of the day. No power meant no water (tanks need water pumped into the house). We felt reasonably safe from bushfire as the CFA were on high alert and planes were doing spotting sweeps, but we couldn't flush toilets, refill water bottles or have showers. Dinner at the pub was a must!
As the highway was closed, we had to go down Huggins Lane, across the dry creek bed and into town through the back street. Came home before it was dark and pretty much went straight to bed. Power came on around midnight but the phones didn't come back on until this afternoon.
Considering the disasters happening in other areas of hte state, we were very lucky! It has been touted that yesterday was worse than Ash Wednesday; so far 49 people have been confirmed dead and the toll is set to rise.
Bring on the rain.
This was the neighbour's hayshed
Only part of the devastation
Heroes of the day
The shed flares up again
Still working throughout the night
A beautiful sunset to end an horrific day
Ready for School
Caitlin returned to school this week.
Mim was extremely jealous of her. On Monday afternoon, I discovered Mim had prepared her outfit to pick up Caitlin - school uniform, school shoes (thanks to Mumma) and white socks.
She looked a treat.
It's a pity the uniform is so thin you can see the pink undies underneath!
On Thursday, she got to return to Kindy, she was soooo excited to be back there. She packed her own lunchbox and drink bottle.
Mim was extremely jealous of her. On Monday afternoon, I discovered Mim had prepared her outfit to pick up Caitlin - school uniform, school shoes (thanks to Mumma) and white socks.
She looked a treat.
It's a pity the uniform is so thin you can see the pink undies underneath!
On Thursday, she got to return to Kindy, she was soooo excited to be back there. She packed her own lunchbox and drink bottle.
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