The story of our journey through the CoViD-19 saga - part 1 - isolation. Weiterlesen
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  • Day 22

    22. April 2020 in Australien ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Slow day today. Little bit of painting - can’t wait to get the cataracts done so I can see what I am doing. Took a photo of some cows socially distancing. Paid some bills - looks like this is going to be a pretty expensive holiday at home - still, getting a few things done.Weiterlesen

  • Day 23

    23. April 2020 in Australien ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Main event today was delivery of the Tattlers to our local area. We treat it as an excuse to go for a drive and see what’s going on locally. Collected our bundles from the Pub and all is looking very quiet there. We deliver to O’Dea Road and drop off a couple of bundles to other “deliverers”. One of them, Jan, lives at the end of Upper Ryan’s Creek Road - just short of the Loombah Weir (Benalla Water catchment) so we took the opportunity (having got approval) to take some photos of the newly renovated and upgraded weir to put in next month’s Tattler. Hadn’t been there before despite it being so close and growing up with stories of it’s construction. We found it set in a beautiful valley and were well impressed with the structure.

    Darren from Hidden Valley dropped in a large piece of corned beef from a steer he recently had butchered. Looking forward to a meal from that.

    Have been advised that my cataracts might be done around 6 May. John’s back has been bad for a couple of days so will take things easy for a bit which is not so easy when there are lots of things you would like to do.
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  • Day 24

    24. April 2020 in Australien ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Good news. We have both managed to get an appointment to have our ‘flu jabs - John on Monday and mine is noon Sunday! Also received a call confirming cataract surgery for next Wednesday. There may be a gap in this blog. John to speak to the surgeon about his back on Monday after his ‘flu jab. I brought Lex’s ‘old fart’s chair’ (John’s description) down from the shed and it has been well used today. Hoping it will help.

    Had the last load of road surface mix delivered and laid this morning. Peter arrived so early that I wasn’t dressed and John was in bother getting out to see him. We are really happy with the result and tracks should be less slippery in the ‘hopefully’ wet weather.

    The Lipstick Maple tree has amazing colour this year. Gardening Australia presenter said tonight that once they start to change colour the more sunny the weather the deeper the colour.
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  • Day 25 - Anzac Day

    25. April 2020 in Australien ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Most people of our age grew up very much with Anzac Day and the Second World War very much on our shoulders. Family members were often returned service men and whilst stories of war experience from those who returned were rare, there were stories of hardships experienced at home (perhaps more so in the UK) and efforts made from those at home for the war cause.

    As tradition often dictates medals are kept by the older descendants, I cannot show family medals. These are in the best care and much appreciated by other family members. However, I do have a few photo’s and items for a little display each April.

    Photo’s of my paternal grandfather, father, uncle (Lex), and John’s Dad. Lex’s slouch hat and buttons from his uniform have survived. There is also some ‘trench art’ in the form of a salt & pepper shaker set made from bullets in WW2. This is not a family item but something found under a house John was renovating in North Caulfield and which the then owner did not want.

    Probably my favourite item is an envelope addressed to my mother (maiden name Devitt) which was posted in Bombay, India in 1940 - from my father. It has a sketch of a soldier looking to the horizon and home. Not sure that Dad drew the picture as there is a name “E Lambert” written in pencil below the picture. E Lambert could have been the artist or a censor. It is addressed not to her home which was a couple of streets away but to her sister’s millinery shop. Mum did the books for her sister in addition to her day job.

    There is no letter - I think the only reason it survived was because of the stamp as stamps were collected in that household. Bit of an enigma - it elicits more questions than answers.
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  • Monday 27 April

    27. April 2020 in Australien ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    Up and out early. John had his ‘flu shot early and then spoke with his surgeon by phone. He'll have another MRI to see what might have changed. We decided to do a shop for us and for Bev whilst in town. Took a couple of photo’s whilst we were at Bev’s as, whilst we were not dressed up, we were a bit tidier than when we are on the farm.

    Janette notified that she needs to be at the hospital at 12.15 on Wednesday for her first cataract surgery.

    We both did some mowing as we don’t want to do it later in the week. Hoping to cook up a few things so post cataract is easy.

    Getting a few enquiries from hunters who are having withdrawals. A neighbour reported a number of pigs near our bush recently. They breed up very quickly so we will be keen to get someone on the job soon. Photo shows a pig shot last year - that,'s why we worry. We would not know they were there but for the hunters.
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  • 28 April 2020

    28. April 2020 in Australien ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We are told it is the last fine day for a bit. Rain for the next few days. Need to check the drainage points and gutters as we can sometimes get a bit of flash flooding.

    John did his favourite activity for a while in the morning - he harrowed the driveway and tracks that have new crushed rock laid. It does give a good result. Whilst John did this I engaged in my least favourite activity - cleaning the combustion stove. This also gives a good result as once the soot is cleaned from around the oven you get a nice even heat and no hot spots.

    James (plumber) came by and will do the septic at the cottage in a few weeks. He will also connect John’s bush plumbing so the outlets go through the septic and not directly out on the paddock.

    Alex from DELWP came out to look at the wombat holes.

    John had to go to Wangaratta for an MRI at 4.15 in readiness for appointment with the surgeon tomorrow re his back.
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  • 29 April

    29. April 2020 in Australien ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    A real medical day today. First, John's appointment with his surgeon at 10.30. Yesterday's MRI showed a change from the previous one, four weeks ago. That one showed a narrowing just above the fusion done in 2011. The new one shows a bulging disc right below the fusion site putting pressure on the sciatic nerve on the left side. Booked in for surgery, 11th May.

    Then at 12.15 Janette had cataract surgery on her right eye at Wangaratta Private. Out by 2.30 and heading for home. She has a patch over one eye and says one side of her head feels numb. Does that mean she can be called numb-scull? Her surgeon phoned at 4.30 to see how she was. She has an appointment to see him tomorrow morning but he said that if she was confident, she can take the dressing off herself to save driving to Wang through any flood damage.

    We had 20 mm of rain overnight and while we were in Wang there really wasn't any more. The closer to home that we got, the more obvious we had received a substantial amount of rain while we'd been in Wang (50+mm). Water was flowing out of paddocks and across the road. The creek was running a banker. We checked the shed - no water through - phew!

    We can see that there's a lot of water coming over the 'little' falls. We'll check out the big falls tomorrow. We'll also see what damage might have been done to the road and tracks. Hopefully there's water in our new dams.
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  • 30 April 2020

    30. April 2020 in Australien ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    It rained a lot more overnight and as at 7.00am our total was 81mm. Looked out the window to see the cows most confused. A few weeks ago when replacing some fencing, John changed the position of the gate - only slightly. It hadn’t bothered them previously as they just walked through the relatively dry creek bed. Today there was so much water and they weren’t up for that!

    John went off in the tractor to check for any problems - trees over fences, washed out tracks, stranded animals etc. He was also keen to see if the two newer dams had filled - one has only been about one tenth full for about two years. Came home pleased there was very little damage and the two dams were pretty full.

    Joe from Benalla Council telephoned to say they had logged the job (our damaged road) but it had been put back a bit due to the amount of water damage to roads in the district after all the heavy rain we have had in the last 24 hours. Fair enough - just glad it’s on the list.

    I took off the bandage and cleaned “the eye”. Had no pain or discomfort and as the day went on took off the patch and could already notice a big improvement. Lit the fire in the study and started tidying up some paperwork. We took it pretty easy which wasn’t hard as it was so cold and wet outside. Hope to get some pictures of Lex’s Falls tomorrow.
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  • Friday, 1 May 2020

    1. Mai 2020 in Australien ⋅ 🌧 5 °C

    Cold and wet today. We stoked up the fire and headed into Benalla as John had an appointment with his GP to check previous spot removals. Checked the house in town and water had leaked into the shed. We were aware this happened in heavy rain and will need to put extra downpipes in.

    Home via Kilfeera Road and outside Andrew Muller’s (our stock agent for many years) the bitumen had been lifted by the heavy volume of water and floated off the road to the verge!

    Welcomed back at 10.00am by cattle near the front gate so John got a roll of hay and took them to a new paddock - plenty of feed there but for some reason not their preferred paddock.

    After lunch we drove over to the cottage to check and clean and put the power on. Got the ok to get help with the pig problem so thought the cottage would be needed. Not needed as change of circumstances resulted in the help not coming. It is so cold and wet we think this is a good thing. We were home again by the fire when we got the message so John braved the drive through the creek again to turn the power off.

    Must be Friday again - pizza tonight! We followed this with a sip of Benedictine and reminisced our visit to the Benedictine Monastery in rural France almost twelve months ago.
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  • Saturday, 2 May 2020

    2. Mai 2020 in Australien ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Yesterday we brought back the television from town so this morning we set it up with the dvd player in the study - mainly thinking of when John returns from hospital. The box also plays vhs and converts them to dvd so whilst it’s a bit old hat it has been handy converting family holiday movies, Christmas celebrations etc to dvd. We might watch a few of these if it stays wet. Trouble with Christmas film is that they are all much the same - kids are just taller.

    Heard a cow calling out persistently and went to see what was up. Calf was in neighbour’s paddock and there were two fences between mum and calf. Milk running on the ground from mum -we think they had been apart for about 24 hours. Tried to bring the calf home but had to get help. With the help of neighbour, Kevin, mum and calf were reunited in front of the house and both appreciated the good feed taken by the calf.

    Took Molly for a walk - so much water everywhere she just had a drink in the grass. The trees newly planted in the wetland area may have drowned - normally the water drains away. Still, you never know ....

    Eye is terrific. One fantastic eye and one poor one can be tricky. A great tip in this situation - pop out the lens for the good eye in your glasses. When wearing your “glass” everything then is much the same. Thanks for the tip Trish - it is working a treat.
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