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Holiday unprecedented-isolated
  • Janette and John

Holiday unprecedented-isolated

The story of our journey through the CoViD-19 saga - part 1 - isolation. Read more
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  • Janette and JohnHoliday unprecedented-isolatedJanette and John
    Septic sitePeter, Kathy and John socially distancing

    Thursday 28th - prepping

    May 28, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Plumber has confirmed he can come next week to install the septic system and to go ahead and order the 20mm stone. That's to be delivered this morning.
    A hunter had said he might come in tonight for one night so that meant turning the cottage around in readiness. It has to be done for Joe at the weekend - he's staying for two nights with his wife and two of his boys. One person tonight would mean turning it around again tomorrow morning. Fortunately he's not coming tonight.
    The cottage took all morning.
    WOW! We must be dreaming! A council tip truck turned up with a load of crushed rock and a workman started filling in the water damage of years. It will take an almighty lot to fill all the holes. Hopefully they will do something about the cause. If they don't, this filling will follow the road surface down the hill to the creek.
    Kathy and Peter came for 'afternoon tea'. It's always good to see them and catch up with their news. John especially enjoys it because Kathy brings freshly baked muffins.    Read more

  • Janette and JohnHoliday unprecedented-isolatedJanette and John
    Coco meets Molly

    Friday, 29th and Saturday, 30th May

    May 30, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Friday saw a return of the council truck with another load of crushed rock. As happened on Thursday, several more loads were delivered and shovelled into the damage in the road. At some stage we will go and inspect the work to see if there's been any attempt to stop the water getting onto the road and causing the damage. If there hasn't, we will again notify the council that this needs attention.

    Friday also saw the Cole family visit. First time we have seen the Cole grandchildren since February. The morning was spent making up beds etc. then off to do some extra food shopping. They left Melbourne after school (which is still done at home but the boys tell me they do a full day with various classes much as if they were at school) and arrived around 7.45pm. They brought their new puppy, Coco, and when she was too energetic for old Molly, Molly just retired outside in peace as little Coco could not push hard enough on the doggy door.

    Up early Saturday morning to collect some new mattresses from Stolz Furniture store to replace the old ones at their Mt Buller apartment. We managed to get the mattresses safely up the mountain, then, with some difficulty and hilarity, up the lift and into the apartment. We then found the new mattresses were so much higher than the awful old foam ones that if you lay on the bottom bunk you could not turn over without doing an injury to your shoulder on the underside of the top bunk. Candice decided it was time for new bases and to dispose of the old bunks - much better to have great mattresses!

    On the way home stopped at a local winery. I had been told they were making room for the next vintage and had some reasonable wines selling at $2 and $4 per bottle. Two boxes should keep us going for a while.

    After a cuppa with John, who is showing improvement each day, the rest of us visited both waterfalls. This was followed by some driving lessons for Bailey and Hugo in the very old manual Toyota Hilux. Great fun. Whilst they found the clutch and gear changes a little tricky they did very well. I did set the ute in low range 4wd so it couldn’t go too fast but I was surprised at how well they did. Home for some home grown corned beef for dinner (couldn’t manage the crumble made with some home grown rhubarb) and a pretty early night.    Read more

  • Janette and JohnHoliday unprecedented-isolatedJanette and John

    Sunday, 31 May 2020

    May 31, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Tea, toast, and lots of chats were the order of the morning. Bailey and Hugo fed the convalescing cows and brought down some split wood to the back verandah. We decided to use the automatic ute for the driving lessons this morning and this was a lot more straightforward - and comfortable. We are limited in where we can drive as we have visitors at the lodge (our nic name for the old cottage). Next time we will venture further.

    After the Cole family left we spent a very quiet day doing not very much at all.    Read more

  • Janette and JohnHoliday unprecedented-isolatedJanette and John

    This time last year

    June 1, 2020 in France ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    6am Monday. Steady, heavy rain (ideal). First cuppa of the day. 1st June already. I started wondering where we were this time last year.

    We were on holiday. A cruise up the Rhone River from Arles to Lyon and then a cruise from Paris to Normandy return on the River Seine. Lovely cruises with some memorable times with terrific travel companions.

    I'll check the blog for that holiday and check what we did this day last year.

    1st June 2019. Docked at Vernon at lunchtime. 1.30pm, coach to Giverny, the village where Monet lived. Giverny is a pretty little village that Monet first noticed from the train. He and other artists moved there, and then others did the same. It became an artists' village. Monet was as passionate about gardening as he was about painting.

    Monet's house and garden is a very popular tourist destination so there were thousands of people there - French people as well as tourists.

    It is difficult to do the garden justice in words. We had, of course, seen Monet's paintings of his garden, but being there just brought them to life. Even with the number of people making it only possible to shuffle along the garden paths, we would do it again tomorrow.

    Monet started off drawing caricatures. One day a painter told him he had talent, put a paintbrush in his hand, and Monet never drew another caricature.

    Monet's house has shutters on the windows. They are painted green. It is said the you can go into any paint shop in France, ask for Monet green paint, and that is the colour you’ll get.    Read more

  • Janette and JohnHoliday unprecedented-isolatedJanette and John
    Measuring for new yards
    Taking Molly for a walk!

    Monday, 1 June

    June 2, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 4 °C

    Rain kept doings to a minimum yesterday. Our garbage is collected each Monday. When we went to put some in the bin later in the day, it was still full. We phoned Kevin next door to see if his had been collected. He told us that there was a tree over the road just past his driveway so the garbo couldn’t get through. We are the last stop on this road and he turns around here so no-one else was affected.

    We did go over to Tiger Hill Park to measure for some cattle yards we hope to construct there.

    Tuesday John turned a bit of a corner and all of a sudden took great strides across the big room. Compared to the small steps he has been sporting for so long now it took us a bit by surprise. Need to celebrate so called Kathy and Peter to see if they could come over for a cuppa. Not only would they come for a cuppa, Kathy would bake a chocolate fudge cake. Wow - it was serious chocolate, with a gooey centre and soooo delicious. We have a little left for today.

    Visitors left the lodge and came over to say goodbye. Joe’s wife was carrying a bottle of Moet and some chocolates and tripped over her shoe laces (the left one seemed to get caught in the hooks on her right boot). It was raining very heavily at this point but she managed to save the champagne. It felt like Valentine’s day with such goodies!    Read more

  • Janette and JohnHoliday unprecedented-isolatedJanette and John

    Tuesday, 2 June & Wednesday, 3 June 2020

    June 3, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    Tuesday was pretty quiet. We waited around in case the plumber came and John had over four hours sleep in the afternoon. I always enjoy pottering about and there are always odds and ends to do. Made a curry for dinner which we loved - just wish the smell didn’t linger in the house for so long.

    Wednesday morning we slightly slept over and were not quite ready for the day when the plumber and his crew arrived. They were very organised - one chap did the fit out in the cottage of the toilet and washing machine tap and all the related piping. Another had a small digger and a bobcat and he really got stuck in to digging the hole and to spreading the stones. The main plumber supervised and assisted and coordinated the truck and crane which had the tank on board which was to be dropped into the hole.

    The bobcat operator spread some stone for the truck to back up on to position it to offload the tank. Looked good ... but the tank was very heavy and the truck went down. We went home to get the tractor and John managed to pull him out. OK perhaps he should drive around the back of the cottage and come down the hill in the paddock where the ground seemed much harder. Almost there when down he went again. SOS to neighbours to bring their tractors in the hope that a tractor train would pull him out as this time he was down and on an angle. Darren away. Kevin Jaeger and Robert Erskine both at home - fingers crossed this will work.
    Rob and John managed with a two tractor train as Kevin was delayed. This did work. Once the truck was on firm ground the crane was used to swing the tank off and onto the ground but not into the hole ... that will have to now wait for Mick Pritchard who has kindly agreed to drop everything to bring his excavator and help out tomorrow. We are blessed with great neighbours and friends - something commented on by the plumbing team.    Read more

  • Janette and JohnHoliday unprecedented-isolatedJanette and John

    4th June - Grand finale - bye for now.

    June 4, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    Woke today and realised the cows were having a look at the septic site - they love to check out anything different. We enticed them away with some hay and closed some gates on them.

    Mick was due at 10am with the excavator. He was slightly delayed as he had to go to Benalla to get some hydraulic oil. Meanwhile, the plumbers cut two outlets in the gutter on the rear of the stone house. This gutter overflows with heavy rain. Now, these two new outlets will let excess rain to flow onto the back verandah roof.

    Mick manoeuvred into position over at the cottage, the plumbers attached the chains to the septic tanks and it was raised off the ground. With a bit of pruning of the orange tree, Mick lowered the tank into the hole.

    Two hoses were put into the tank to fill it with water. If there is rain, an empty tank can pop up out of the ground.

    The plumbers hooked up the inlet and outlet pipes, Mick backfilled and smoothed out the excess dirt a bit. It has been a long time coming and we are really pleased to have it, but what a lot of effort for a little flushing toilet!

    There are many more projects that we haven't managed to get to yet, but we've got to leave something for the next blog. On the drawing board - yards at Lex's on the prepared site - another yard at our existing yards - front fence for the house - and fencing, there's always fencing.    Read more

  • Janette and JohnHoliday unprecedented-isolatedJanette and John
    Mick
    John Treacy with JohnJohn CapewellJohn with Rob ErskineJohn with Kathy & Peter

    Post script

    June 4, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    Our life on the farm is not just about ‘jobs to be done’. Whilst we enjoy doing things which we hope improve the place, we also enjoy time spent with great neighbours and friends (including those who visit from Melbourne and afar). There are really good tradies here but also clever neighbours who problem solve on the run and they have always been prepared to help when help is needed. There are many not in this blog but they may appear in our next “episode”.

    We are looking forward to this next episode ...    Read more

    Trip end
    June 4, 2020
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