Day 184 Nubeena Sunday 31st July 2011

Morphine cleared the undergrowth through here for the fence



The mound to be included in the Stalag



Another view



The chicks learning their trade. Mum scuffs the ground and they rush in and savage anything that moves. Mum meanwhile savages any other hens that get close. Lucky our Rooster seems to have immunity though!


Hi there,
A short blog tonight on account of it's late and i have been playing with my new laptop! exploring the 3D function.
A regulation day today. Susan helped with the sorting of stuff from the shipping container. She also removed the dressing from her nose and it doesn't look too bad although I am not allowed to publish a picture.
I moved on with the electric fence. It was finished until a certain person who shall remain nameless suggested that it would be good to include the mound of dirt pictured inside the compound as goats apparently like to sit up on things and look around. No doubt to contemplate the meaning of life. Tomorrow this section will be reworked!
Tea for us was sausages and lovely fresh eggs another 2 of which were produced today.

Night folks
cheers Simon

Day 183 Nubeena Saturday 30th July 2011

Hi Folks,
It didn't really seem like Saturday today. That's the thing about here there are no markers for the weekend.
Susan's nose is sore but so far there are no mishaps although the dressing is driving her crazy. Tomorrow we might try to remove it.
Ilan didn't tether the goats last night so this morning Phoebe was wandering the carpark chewing on the proteas. Looks like we had three eggs yesterday but by 3 pm today we only had one.
My day was spent mainly sorting out the Brownbuilt shelving in the shipping container. One of those simple quick jobs that has a lot of sidetracks when you do it. The main problem was there were few clips so the shelves had to be bolted. However at the end of the day it looked ok. I also made a small start on making the electric fence three strand rather than one. A job that could be finished tomorrow.
Suzanne cooked community dinner tonight. We will miss her when she goes in just over a week. A lovely spinach soup and home made bread followed by lasagne all delicious. Morphine and Fan Fan tried their hand at sticky date pudding and did an excellent job with Susan's recipe. We had a quite a few laughs at tea with everybody contributing to the hilarity.

Night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 182 Nubeena Friday 29th of July 2011

Hi all,
Our day off well sort of. Susan did reception from 8 till 9 and i did a bit with the pools and animals before we left. We did make a reasonable fist of getting away on time only 45 minutes late. We drove to Hobart pausing at Sorell to buy some liquid for my dehydrated body which was struggling after the excesses of last night and some more electric fence components.
I read yesterdays blog just now with trepidation as I couldn't quite remember what was in it. My general rule is to never publish anything on the internet when I am a bit merry. It was actually ok.
In Hobart we trooped through the usual retailers of computers as I tried to firm up my choice of a replacement laptop. This one, a Dell 4300 has been fine but is starting to get a bit battered. I shall continue to use it whilst travelling but it really is not so good for a semi permanent set up as the keyboard and screen are quite small and it lacks ports. After a few stops and ideas we proceeded back over the bridge to pick up pieces of flue for the kitchen from Plumbtec and thence to Susan's appointment at the skin cancer clinic for her excision. I waited in the reception area doodling on the computer while the operation took place. The other room was being used for immunisation and there followed a constant stream of parents and 3 - 6 month olds through the waiting room. Each disappearance into the corridor followed shortly by infant howling.
Susan returned after an hour with a large dressing on the bridge of her nose. I was surprised at the size of the material in the jar to go to the pathologist. All up a total of 8 stitches to be removed next Wednesday.
In the waiting room I had made my decision. After consulting with the patient we popped back to the CBD so I could complete my purchase. This took longer than expected because the only one left was the demo model which had to be reimaged before i could take it. This meant we were delayed leaving and more of the anaesthetic had worn off by the time we arrived at Sorell to do the shopping. We completed it although Susan excused herself at the checkout to go and rest in the car. She did have a brainwave about tea though which was to go to the hotel at Dunalley on the way home. We did and the food was good. Home made bread, seafood chowder, lemon squid and flounder rounded out the bill. Susan had a glass of wine whilst I stuck to a soft drink. I was already feeling "tired" from last night and with a reasonable distance to drive decided to take minimal chances. Susan dozed and we arrived home about 845. As I type this she is resting comfortably under the influence of panadol. Hopefully she can avoid banging her nose while it is healing. She is having to wear her reading glasses perched on the end. Anyway fingers crossed. I have told her she will have to take it easy however the the chances of that happening short of applying physical restraints are slim. I don't know hat happened at the resort today i guess we will find out tomorrow!
night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 181 Nubeena Thursday 28th July 2011

Looks like a Salmo Salar being held by a stunned mullet



Finally a fish worth posing for!! Ok so it's only around 5kg but what the heck you have to start somewhere!


Hello all,
Tonight's blog is brought to you by several eminent persons. Mr Wolf Blass, Mr Bill Taylor and Mr William Penfold. We had community dinner tonight. Twas only four of us the two S's, Ilan, and Tony from the Hobart Mercury. The repast was a reprise of the potato and leek soup, followed by fresh chunky Atlantic Salmon fillets and finished off with apple crumble. My contribution? hmm very little, I filleted enormous Salmon, picked carrots, retrieved sultanas from storeroom, and arrived in time to finish cooking of salmon fillets to perfection. The rest was all Susan's doing!
The wines, Wolf Blass Riesling 2009. Superb. Too cold from the fridge but as it warmed opened into a beautiful floral bouquet. Grapes come and grapes go but you can't beat a good Riesling. The Taylor's chardonnay was competent as was the Penfolds reserve port. Hmm do Penfolds still make the Magill port? I must investigate,
Now to the days events. 3 eggs as per usual, well done girls! My main task of the day was erecting the electric fence for the travelling goat enclosure. The most difficult part was locating the star picket/dropper driver. I was having a man's look and of course it was where it was supposed to be. Once the fence was constructed Ilan put the goats in tethered by a short cord to each other. We had the fence power set to low which was good when Ella scrambled under and kept dragging Phoebe into the wire. Boy did she jump. Susan was screaming "turn it off, turn it off". We need a bit of a rethink with the cable height and an extra cable.
After tea i wandered into the cafe for a few more sips and to claim a rain check coffee from Amanda. It has turned into a late night after an 11pm spa. It's a tough job but some one has to do it. Tomorrow morning will be "struggle town"
Oh and the teaser from last night. Look at the pictures folks!

Night Simon

Day 181 Nubeena Wednesday 27th July 2011

The apple boxes and the trailer from yesterday.


I don't know that if they actually decided to move the straps would do anything



Boxes lined and filled in the skinless green house


Hello,
A chilly start to the day with our second day of a nice white frost and too boot the water in the chooks bowls had a good film of ice. However it is not overly cold here in the south probably because we are surrounded by water. Certainly it was colder when we were in Peterborough (SA) last year.
Today was spent mainly shuffling items that arrived in the shipping container yesterday. The big move was the large stainless steel kitchen bench from the shipping container to the games room. The rest of the project is proceeding with concrete being laid today and said kitchen installed on its plinth.
The rest of the day was fairly standard. The chickens produced 3 eggs. The goats annoyed me again managing to split the skin on my finger when they pulled extremely hard when it was trapped between a rope and a star picket. The bad news for them is it looks like we have all the components for an electric fence. We will move their old house inside the wire and move the fence as required which will obviate having to bring them in and out each day. I want to be a fly on the wall the first time they bite the fence cable like they do everything else! Whether it will contain them successfully remains to be seen.
We had cafe pizzas for tea very nice. The "Ellis" which has now appeared officially on the menu was very tasty.
Susan has given up alcohol, coffee, chocolate, cheese and is back on the fish oil and glucosamine plus mineralised water to try and improve her arthritic fingers. She reported that after day 1 there was a marked improvement. She was going to celebrate but the question was "how?"
The other surprise of the day was ..... no it can wait until tomorrow when we have a picture. This is what's called a cliffhanger in journalistic parlance to make sure you return
That's all for today folks

Cheers Simon

cheers Simon

Night folks

Day 180 Nubeena Tuesday 26th July 2011

Hello,
This morning I hitched up the yellow trailer to carry 6 large apple boxes back from Huonville about 120km away for use as greenhouse planter boxes. By the time i had fed the chickens, tested the pools, despatched the goats into the paddock and taken on the last minute instructions it was 1030 later than i had intended to leave.
Driving northwards I passed a truck with a light blue shipping container at Dunalley and correctly guessed it was Ilan's cargo from the farm sale.
I arrived at the country market at Sorell and picked up our order. I had to return to pay for it but that's another story. My next stop was Cambridge to view some laptops at Hardly Normal. It was fairly underwhelming but I did get some ideas. On the way out they had a couple of pairs of Gardena, Made in Germany secateurs $5 a pair in the bargain bin. I bought them both! I don't know what I will use them for, cutting my toenails maybe.
Onto Hobart and a fruitless exercise trying to find a park near or at Officeworks with the trailer attached. My one hope was the loading dock but that was filled with a Toll truck. Oh well they won't stop making laptops and next week there will be ones that are better cheaper. It was then onto the southern outlet road and down to Huonville. The road is quite hilly but relatively modern with few bends. It affords a good view of Mount Wellington. Mount Wellington was quite picturesque with its light covering of snow. During the "weather" that we had a couple of weeks back I think this road was closed by snowfall and I garnered the impression it would be a slippery icy road in winter. On the way back I passed a road crew driving along spraying what I guessed was a ice retarding liquid on the road surface,
The Huon valley appears to have 2 industries, wine and apples. The apples are mainly housed under enormous black nets presumably to protect them from critters. They don't seem to use them down our way. Maybe they have more barbarous methods.
The contact at the apple farm was friendly, helpful and competent as he loaded the boxes. I strapped them in and proceeded gingerly out onto the highway stopping to check the straps which required minor retensioning on the first stop but were fine after that. The higher the trailer is loaded the more paranoid I become. The rest of the trip back through Hobart, to Sorell for food and fuel was uneventful arriving back at around 5.
Susan had a busy day with the major tasking being unloading the shipping container to access the kitchen components required for the community kitchen. Looks like I picked a good day to go travelling.
Anything else? We had 3 eggs today from the chickens. That's about it.

cya tomorrow

Cheers Simon

Day 179 Nubeena Monday 25th July 2011

Good evening,
This evenings blog is courtesy of Mr John Walker. I became acquainted with him again after a separation of many years. He came to community dinner with Fanfan and Morphine after being left behind in their unit by Walther. In my youth I added dry ginger but not tonight. I expect to be having nurofen in the morning. Unfortunately due to Mr Walkers influence i don't have an overly clear recollection of the day.
As i recall it was pretty standard fare. Ella had pushed her head through the chicken wire to bite bark off the tree so one of the first jobs was some more repairs.
2 eggs were laid under the Hilton rather than in it but I'll take that as a win.
The rest of the day was spent doing unspectacular chores. The highlight was digging up some large flat weeds with a fork in the pen and watching the mother hen seize morsels from the dirt and toss them to the chicks who seem to be growing rapidly. Today was the first time they drank en mass from an upturned lid. The internet tells me they need lots of water.
After vacuuming and mopping the unit i put our washing on and attended tea.
Tonight's tea was a blend of fresh (Tasmanian Trumpeter) and frozen fish (PFD Trevally) prepared by Susan. Fish bbq'ed by me. A few laughs as per usual.
We ended up on youtube watching THIS. Then we moved on to some 50yo Beatles videos thanks to Mr Walker and then we were the only ones left!
Tomorrow i am off to Hobart and beyond with the trailer to pick up vegetables and some large crates to use as planters in the greenhouse. I will also take the opportunity to kick some tyres on some laptops I feel the need to upgrade!

Night Folks

Chers Simon

Day 178 Nubeena Sunday 24th July 2011

Hi All,
Quiet day at the resort. The weather started cloudy but fined up. Today was spent tidying up and making room for the arrival of a shipping container of valuable artifacts from Ilan's farm.
The chickens were kept locked in the enclosure until after lunch to encourage them to lay in the breeding box. They managed to find a hole in the fence and escape about 1pm. One of them did return after I opened the gate to lay in the box which was a pleasant surprise. Lucky our rooster is putting himself about a lot in an effort to increase his brood. If that means anything we expect a lot more eggs in the next few days. Working on the assumption he knows something about the girls that we don't. Mind you he might know nothing and just be a randy rooster. His brood of chicks appear to be thriving (touch wood). I keep the goats on short tethers when they are in the enclosure since they have both been acting particularly mental of late. They are not particular about where they tread and I don't want any squashed chicks. Today was Ella's turn to jump and run around as if she had rabies.
Ilan popped in for tea tonight. We had garlic bread along with reheated potato and leak soup from last night. After tea Susan and Ilan played backgammon whilst i fiddled with the old desktop computers figuring out which one will be the restored one and which will be the one wrecked for parts. Exciting huh?!
Anyway that's it for the day.
Cheers Simon

Day 177 Nubeena Saturday 23rd July 2011

The builder and his creation. All from recycled materials. Apart from the fasteners and a bit of paint. Base and walls are cement board.



Closer up view but not too close as I don't want anyone stealing the design!. The boxes have a flat roof. The sloping roof is a bit of core flute from a real estate advertising sign. The sole purpose being to stop the chickens landing and pooping on top



Installed note chicken doing the egg thing underneath. The egg below is in the second slot from the left.



That's what we want an egg in the box!



Hi Readers,
A glorious sunny day. Hard to believe the mercury did not break 10 degrees. It did seem warmer but then I did work all day with my jumper on too.
The first task of the day after removing the pesky varmints(the goats) was to clip the wing feathers of the chooks. The was accomplished without too much drama although "Lucky" our rooster can still jump the fence.
Everyone worked on outdoor projects today of the constructive variety. The chicken shed was raked out and the "Hilton" that I finished yesterday installed. Susan worked on terracing a garden bed and helped Fanfan with some tree planting. Whilst grabbing straw from the hay stack I came across 6 eggs which all passed the freshness test. The girls are really getting into the egg business. The chicks have increased in size and fingers crossed will continue to do so.
The highlight of the afternoon was when one of the "ladies" visited the hilton and laid an egg! I ventured in to take a photo and another was underneath the Hilton laying, so another 2 eggs.
Community dinner was potato and leek soup followed by roast lamb and vegetables and finished off with apple and raisin crumble. All cooked by Susan and bloody delicious. This was followed by further investigations of the intricacies of the English language with Morphine and Fan Fan. Plan, plant, plane and plate were the words in focus tonight with Fanfan trying to follow a sentence which Susan used them all in.
You had to be there.

night folks,
cheers Simon

Day 176 Nubeena Friday 22nd July 2011

Evening viewers,
Today was grey all day no sun.
A lot of pottering in the transformation of the shed to a super shed. It now has a large stainless steel bar. Well sort of. It is inside roughly in position.
I finished the egg laying Hilton with pictures to follow.
The chicks survived the night plus a visit from a local kookaburra.
We had tea with Ilan, Lynne, Ian and Sandra in the cafe. Much wine was imbibed including a bottle of 2004 Bordeaux Sec. A white, probably sauvignon blanc, very nice with a touch of oiliness that I put down to glycerine formation.
Tonights blog will be mercifully short due said alcohol consumption.
Good night all
Hic

Cheers Simon

Day 175 Nubeena Thursday 21st July 2011

Good Evening all,
Another day rolls past on the Tasman Peninsula. The day started with a phone call from the medical centre on my phone to tell Susan to come and receive the test results from the biopsy on the sore on the bridge of her nose. It's a BCC so she will be having it nipped out on Friday in Hobart with a prediction of 4 stitches.
Back on the farm the baby chicks are running around a bit now with mum. They slept overnight in the shipping container and after liberation settled down for the night next to the chicken shed. I piled up some hay next to them put an screen door over their heads and topped that with cardboard just to give them a bit of shelter. Fingers crossed they are ok in the morning. We don't have many predators as such down here. Foxes are rare to non existent so I guess it would be cats, quolls though i doubt they would be close to civilisation, kookaburras and maybe eagles. The biggest threat is probably the goats who blunder around destroying everything their path. They are on short tethers tonight to keep them from trouble. I was untangling their cable to bring them in this afternoon and if they are not pulling hard on the cable they are eating my clothes, sticking their head in my backside or jumping up and putting their feet on my shoulders.
Tomorrow Morph and Fan are off so it's just the three of us. I shall attempt to get the chickens Hilton finished. Their house has the exits blocked tonight so they can have their flight feathers clipped tomorrow. The idea being when the breeding boxes are installed we don't let them out of the yard until the afternoon by which time those that want to lay will have done so in the breeding boxes. That's the theory anyway. I am sure they will not relish the confinement to the pen after being free roaming for many weeks.
Community tea was Asian style chicken drumsticks prepared by Lynn and vegetables prepared by Susan. Another nice tea.

Finally it would be remiss of me not to note the final landing of the space shuttle. 30 years of technological innovation and bravery. When you consider the launch velocity is around 8km a second and the gravitational escape around 11km/s it's all fairly amazing stuff. Although not quite as amazing as chickens hatching from eggs!

Night folks

Cheers Simon


Baby chicks!

Day 174 Nubeena Wednesday 20th July 2011

Two of the babies


Hi Folks,
A Rainbow Day today. Rain falling in bright sunlight. I am sure we have more rainbows here than any other place i have been.
We were invaded by tradespeople today all 2 of them. Keith who does everything and Francis the sparky. The renovation of the games room and barn into the community kitchen come bar come space is proceeding. This leaves a lot of ancillary work for the helpers. At the moment mainly filling in trenches and painting.

However the highlight of the day is we now have 6 baby chicks! Morphine spotted them today. Only one dud egg. I wonder how many would have hatched if we had left all 29 there. The following conversation is not verbatim,
Morphine: "I have given them all names of the helpers one is called Simon"
Simon: "Which one?"
Morphine: "The grey one"
Simon: "Very funny"

They were out and about but spent most of the time huddled under mum which is why there are only 2 in the picture above. I didn't want to traumatise them just to get a good shot. They got enough of a scare when Ilan picked them up and put them in a plastic crate with straw. I went back to where they had been removed from not knowing they had been moved and there were quite a few of mums feathers on the ground and no birds. I thought momentarily they had all been taken by eagles! The next few days will be interesting. As will their gender although we won't know that for a while.

We went to the cafe tonight and had the best pita pizzas so far. Phil has written down the recipe and says he is going to call it the Ellis. I am sure there is a joke there somewhere I just haven't thought of it yet.

Night Folks

Cheers Simon

Day 173 Nubeena Tuesday 19th July 2011

Gold at the end of the rainbow



How big?



Rainbow over Pirates Bay



Pirates Bay



Pirates bay panorama. Click to see the big picture!


Hi all,
As if on cue for our day off it rained. A good excuse for a slow start to the day. However we did eventually leave Stalag 13 in good humour at around 130. We drove around the local area and up Firetower Road to find the Mount Koonya Walk. However we were unsuccessful we did locate Clark Cliffs circuit but that was 3 hours and rated medium so we kept driving up and down roads we normally drive past. Eventually we arrived at the Pirates Bay lookout the subject of an earlier visit at night for a moon viewing that was not possible due to rain and cloud. This time the view was good with the obligatory Tasman Peninsula rainbow. After snapping merrily we ascended back the sticky track tothe car and drove down to the Taranna Forest Walk which had well disguised signposts. The walk was quite pretty through the original vegetation, a marked difference to surrounding logged and reforested areas. The ground was quite soggy and the recent storms had felled trees across the path. We pushed through one lot of fallen branched but were forced to forgo the loop and retrace our steps. There were some very large specimens of Eucalyptus regnans or Mountain Ash up to 100 metres tall. According to our walks book that makes them the tallest flowering plant in the world.
The real excitement did not start until we were back driving on the track down the hill. Susan discovered she had picked up some hitch hikers in the form of leeches. There followed some minutes of panic and then paranoia involving grass seeds and any strange skin itch. I found one on my trouser leg and Susan had 3 or 4 including one on the dashboard. One completed the trip back to Parsons Bay until she discovered it on the door. Hopefully there are no more surprises lurking in the car.
Light rain has been constant most of the late afternoon and evening. I note from a cursory inspection Keith made progress on installing services along the trench to the new kitchen area.
The goats were bleating on dusk so I wandered out to retrieve them, Phoebe was loose and running around and returned to the enclosure. I gave her food but this did not dissuade her from jumping the fence and running back down to join her sister. Ellah was tangled and there was no lead so i let them run free back to the pen. My large blue and yellow umbrella scares the bejabbers out of them. They certainly run fast and had no trouble jumping fences as they bolted around the paddock. The promise of food lured them back to captivity where hopefully they remain.

This evening has been spent on chores like dishes, blogging, youtube and facebook.

Cheers Simon

Day 172 Nubeena Monday 18th July 2011

Hi Folks,
A day of some progress at the resort.
I have continued on building the laying boxes for the chickens. It's a construction that makes itself up as I go along depending on the what second hand materials I can find in our storage area. I must say it's looking pretty reasonable. It all depends what the chickens think I guess.
The 22 "off" eggs that were nestled under the sitting hen were buried by Morphine and Susan today. Susan broke them as they went in the hole and observed there were embryos in various stages of development. Be interesting to see what happens with the seven eggs remaining under the chicken. The hatching time is supposed to be 21 days so they must be just about due I guess. Morphine found another batch of eggs today 13 in all from a different chicken in a different location which all pass the cold water test. We have eaten some from the batch the other day and they were very tasty. Anyway if they all lay in the Hilton that will make things easier.
A nice spaghetti bolognaise prepared by Susan for tea. The meat was pork and beef minced and it seemed a better flavour and texture than pure beef so a note to do it again in the future.
Our day off tomorrow. Not quite sure what we will do yet but a local bush walk sounds like a good idea.

Night Folks

Cheers Simon

Day 171 Nubeena Sunday 17th July 2011

Hi Folks,
I took my day off today, after feeding the chickens, wrestling the goats and dosing the pool with chlorine of course.
I drove to the start of the Cape Raoul walk and headed off at 10. The Cape is part of the "3 capes walk", Cape Hauy which I have completed and Cape Pillar which is an overnighter so I am unlikely to do it. The walk started with some extremely boggy sections which were more hazardous coming back in the downhill direction. The walk had fairly standard views for this area i.e. Spectacular sheer cliff drops of 200 metres to the sea. The vegetation consisted of open forests to start with some parts dry and some very damp. This gave way to some low coastal shrubs and groves of Casuarina trees.
All up the distance travelled was 14.4km so a good days exercise. I arrived back at the car at 330. On my return to the resort I hosed the dirt from my boots did a few minor chores and cooked our tea. Included in the tea was the home grown eggs which were very tasty but with thicker shells than I am used to.
Another day off on Tuesday yahoo!

night folks
Simon

Cape Raoul Walk (19Mb)

Day 170 Nubeena Saturday 16th July 2011

Mount Picton. Same aspect as yesterday but clearer sky. An interesting cloud band draping over Bruny Island. The nets in the foreground are 2 of the many holding cages for the Tassal Atlantic Salmon farm.



L to R Suzanne, Fanfan. Morphine, Walther, Johnny



Hi All,
Another magnificent sunny day here today. So magnificent that yours truly decided it would be good for a bushwalk. Unfortunately by the time i would have been ready to go the day would have been a rush. All my gear is now ready for first thing in the morning. A bit of co-operation from the weather would be good to.
We said our farewells to Johnny and Walter as they head their separate ways. They took the van to leave at the airport for Ilan who returns on Monday. Comment was made about the badging on the van. Strange wording for Toyota, Sinister and SpyOptic Endo. I commented the latter sounded like a medical procedure involving the bottom which broke everybody up.
I took the bit between my teeth to make a nesting box array from recycled wood for our chickens. Trying to persuade them to use it might be a different matter but it would beat having an Easter egg hunt every day. Anyway it's being built out of my head as I go along so it will look like a dogs breakfast.
A small community dinner tonight woth fish cooked in foil on the BBQ brings the day to an end.
Cheers Simon

Day 169 Nubeena Friday 15th July 2011

View from the deck of snow on the peak of Mount Picton (I think) about 80km away. After travelling through Dover I think it is more likely to be Adamsons Peak.


Hello,
A split day off for us. I worked while Susan trundled to Hobart and Sorell to shop,lunch in a pub, attend a book launch.
Today's weather was magnificent with clear views to the snowy peak of what I have calculated is Adamsons Peak about 70km away.
Apart from the usual chores the day for me was spent digging the trenches with Morphine. The soil is interesting dense and dark to about 30-40cm deep but by 50cm resembles beach sand. Anyway the trenches are finished so that is one onerous job out of the way.
I found another 8 eggs today in a different location that i searched the other day when there was egg laying clucking going on but no eggs were produced. The nest pictured the other day has no new additions. Suzanne volunteered to do the egg float test on the batch of 22 gathered the other day. They all failed so will be buried in a hole somewhere tomorrow. The 8 I found today passed with flying colours. What to do with the remaining 7 in the nest? Leave them to see what happens i guess. They are marked with texta so any new additions can be hoiked out.
Anyway let's hope for more fine weather as I feel the urge to do some walking.

Night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 168 Northern Antarctica Thursday 14th July 2011

Star picket 1 PVC pipe 0



Repaired


Hi folks,
The days are clicking by frighteningly fast.
Today the main task was digging the trenches for the gas pipe and sewer connections for the new community kitchen. This suffered a setback this morning with the abysmal weather and then a person described by the perpendicular pronoun decided to bang a star picket through a storm water pipe while it was raining. Said pipe obviously discharges higher than the hole as there was considerable back flow. After considerable digging, the purchase of around $10 of fittings and application of the appropriate amount of swearing the pipe was repaired at the cost of about 2 hours of work. Lesson learned, dial before you dig or in this case think before you dig. Adjacent this hole there was also a buried electrical conduit plus what appear to be 2 black poly water pipes. Digging to find the sewer connection was more successful with no breakages of a poly pipe water supply or a mysterious white PVC pipe about 40 mm in diameter. With people leaving and days off the digging crew tomorrow will consist of the dynamic duo, Morphine and myself. Susan will take a well earned day off and travel to Hobart for a book launch by a Nubeena local plus visit a pub on business!
Community dinner tonight farewelled Johnny who leaves on Saturday along with Walther. We shall be just 5. Tonight's table discussion was again highly amusing and not fit to print in a family blog.
That's all folks.

cheers Simon

Day 167 Nubeena Wednesday 13th July 2011

Hi folks,
The Artic zephyr returned today with some slashing showers and roaring gales and I felt the sting of hail on my face a couple of times. It was all hands on deck over the house this morning for an express finish off. I must say the painting in the lounge kitchen area looks bloody good. The rest of the day was spent on various activities. The new wall in the games room soon to be community kitchen was under coated and tomorrow we dig the trenches for the gas and sewer weather permitting.
The hilarious part of the day was when I decided to take the little yellow sailing skiff onto the dam to try and get the ducks food container. I decided to keep the tether on the stern in case I needed a high speed exit. This was a great idea until the rope got taut and pulled the stern down allowing water to stream in a hole on top of the deck that should have had a plug in it. I grabbed the rope and hand over handed my way back to the bank as the stern sank lower and lower in the water. Hopping off I managed to fill one boot with water and muddy my trousers as I stumbled clear. I am glad there were no cameras to record my mishap. If I hadn't used the rope I think it would have been fine. However I am not inclined to do an encore but will use a more conventional boat.
As a treat and because I was too lazy to cook we had pizzas for tea in the cafe. After dinner Walther who is leaving us to go to Wagga on Saturday came over for a coffee and then returned with his bottle of JW red which is too heavy to go on the plane. We spent the evening chatting with him and finished off with a glass of port. Methinks it will be cramps tonight for me plus a headache in the morn. After Saturday we will be down to 5 helpers again. Pity to lose Walther he has good skills and speed. Ahh well tis life.


night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 166 Nubeena Tuesday 12th July 2011

Hi Folks,
The weather continues to improve. Painting and carpet tiling across the road has reached a logical stopping point. With some cleaning tomorrow and furniture shifting the house will be ready for tenancy.
22 eggs were harvested from the missing chicken leaving 7 behind. I was going to mark the remaining ones with texta so I could remove new additions but she beat me back to the nest.
I couldn't find the duck food container this morning. It is floating in the middle of the pond. Some brave person will have to hop on to the sailing skiff and paddle into the eel infested waters to retrieve it. No doubt cameras will be in evidence.
Keith out handyman has been working on building the new camp kitchen in part of the games room. We have to dig trenches for the sewer and gas supply. Should be fun for the helpers!
Tonight I have been reinstalling Windows XP on a laptop donated to the helpers by Ilan. I had forgotten how clunky this is when you don't have driver discs. With Windows 7 you just put the disc in a nick off. Anyway I will get there eventually,

Night folks
cheers Simon

Day 165 Nubeena Monday 11th July 2011

Eggs!



Suzanne!


Hello there,
Mercifully the weather abated somewhat today. The duck house which requires 3 people to carry had been blown into the dam last night but was retrieved by Johnny and Walter this morning.
Walter and I continued apace on the house repainting today. We have applied 2 coats to the ceiling and walls in the lounge kitchen area and Walter has put his tiling skills to good use managing to lay the carpet tiles which required trimming on 3 sides of the room due to the fact the room wasn't square. Our deadline for finishing is Wednesday so we will need to be diligent tomorrow as there is painting to finish and rooms to tile and furniture to move.
This morning when the missing chicken was off the nest I lifted the tin and took the photo. Remember yesterday I could see 2 eggs. I now count around 28!
Tonight's community dinner was cooked by Susan and was delicious. Red curry vegetables, chicken satay and rice plus a birthday cake since it is Suzanne's birthday tomorrow. The dinner was held in the salubrious surrounds of unit 2 our only renovated apartment.
The other news of the day was the return of Morphine and Fan Fan. They gave us a present a new Camps 6 book which is around $50 worth. We did lend them our Camps 5 book for their holiday. It was a lovely gesture on their part and much appreciated.

night folks

cheers Simon

Day 164 Nubeena Sunday 10th July 2011

Hi All,
from the roaring 40's. An interesting weather day today, temperature around 5C, wind around 70km/h, sunshine(little), rain(lots), snow(little), hail(some), power failures(several). Needless to say not much was done outside today. Walter, Johnny and I spent most of our time across the road painting the house. The pressure is now on a bit as we have a prospective tenant. However with the three of us working on it we should knock it over fairly quickly.
The highlight of the day apart from everyone complaining about the weather was the 5th and missing chicken. In one of my frequent returns back to the resort she came scampering and clucking across the carpark to say feed me. i did recognise her as she has the shortest comb of the older hens. She was alone at the feed bins so i gave here a good scoop. Johnny meantime showed up ready to paint. I told him his mission was to follow the chicken and find out where she went. He returned with his rain jacket and queried " did i get this job because i am useless at everything else". Reassured this was not the case he took up the challenge. He ventured to the house about half an hour later mission complete. Although it was a near thing as she disappeared behind the hay stack. He had visions of having to confess to the whole group that he had been outwitted by a chicken. Mind you he is welsh! However after searching he was able to locate her under the remains of 2 water tanks stacked on top of each other. I popped up for a look as I had searched this area. She was very hard to see, a hands and knees job and if you didn't know she was there you wouldn't have seen her. Peering through the crack between the tanks i could see 2 eggs. I will check the exact number when she comes out for her next feed. Tomorrow I shall attempt a picture for the archives. Failing that it will be one from Johnny's phone cam.
I am sure the weather will improve tomorrow. It couldn't get much worse. It is still diabolical outside. Hopefully Morphine and Fanfan are not having too rough a time on their holiday.

Night Folks

Cheers Simon

Day 163 Nubeena Saturday 9th July 2011

Hi Folks,
Weather cold and windy.
A broken queen bed base in Unit 14. We wondered how that happened. Walter started his first day of work at the resort. He looks like he will be pretty good value. Community dinner prepared by the two S's was excellent apart from the power failure. Fortunately we had about 30 candles in the barn to light up. It didn't last long anyway. I have been passed an old laptop and desktop computer to renovate for helper use in the soon to be renovated barn so spent the evening tinkering with them. That's about it. Oh my horned friends managed to escape their tether today. I am not quite sure how but it looks like they have forced the cable through the clip. They scored an early incarceration in their Colditz for their efforts.

cheers Simon

Day 162 Nubeena Friday 8th July 2011

Hi All,
Fairly average day again today. I was out early in my dressing gown and Crocs to retrieve Phoebe who had escaped from the pen and who escaped again 10 minutes later. When the goats get a distance apart they bleat loudly which is my cue to investigate. She has earned herself a tether in the enclosure now. The morning was spent unloading the trailer and the afternoon on maintenance duties in the motel. Quite a few items had built up. When I was finally finished for the day Susan informed me that the power circuit was out in the cafe again as a result of the double fluoro in the circuit being turned on which is how it happened last time. The question is why does the power come back on after time x when nothing is done to restore it?
Susan finished painting the office and is on the home straight to finishing reorganisation.
Tea was a rump steak, eggs, bacon, onions and toast cooked mostly by me.
A busy day but nothing extraordinary.
Today's video is of our unit, Susan has speculated I have posted a video of this before. It could be tidier and bigger but it's really all we need.

cheers Simon

Day 161 Nubeena Thursday 7th July 2011

Evening all,
Another cold blustery day in the deep south. A day of average happenings and the usual chores. Ilan and Lynne returned along with Walter a new helper as well as a trailer of gear with a shipping container to follow. Ilan is hobbling on a crutch after a ton of slate fell on his leg. We had a superb piece of roast beef rump for community dinner along with roast veggies and yorkshire pudding. Other than that not a huge amount to report. All is good.

cheers Simon

Day 160 Nubeena Wednesday 6th July 2011

Hi Folks,
The wintery day promised yesterday arrived today. The mercury struggled up to 9 and by 4pm it was between 5 and 6. This was accompanied by blustery SW winds and some good showers. The weather was such that even the hardy ducks retreated to the lee side of their house with a couple even inside. The goats are using their sandbag bunker. They don't have much choice since the door is closed on the chicken house. They get in there and cause general mayhem knocking things over and chewing on the boards in the walls. I have changed their tethering arrangement a bit with a long rope strung up in a tree at one end and a sliding wire cable at the other on their collars. It means they walk closer together and seems to give less tangles. However knowing them I am sure they will find a way to break it. The disappearing chicken reappeared this morning. I tried to keep my eye on here while she was eating but lost her when i wandered off for a couple of minutes. She has the smallest of all the combs of the girls so is easy to ID. It is still a mystery where she hangs out.
The electricity has been on in the cafe for 2 days in a row now and i just checked the lights are still on.
Not much else to report. We both were painting today amongst other chores.
Our tea group has shrunk down to 4. Suzanne prepared an excellent veggie lasagne and home made bread which we washed down with a glass of red. I bought a bottle of port at BWS yesterday and i think it is time to celebrate winter by partaking a sip.
so on that note

goodnight cheers Simon

ps did anybody notice my deliberate mistake with yesterdays month?

Day 159 Nubeena Tuesday 5th July 2011

The diminishing tribe, Back Row, eminent newly shorn blogger, lovable red headed golliwog, Suzanne (UK), Front row, Lian (Taiwan), Johnny (Wales)



Zamberlan's Baltoros (L) Vioz (R) exciting hey?


Good evening,
Winter settled over Tassie today on our day off. We farewelled Lian with the usual photo session and headed towards the airport. 30 minutes up the road I casually asked Susan, "Have you got Lins bag?". For a moment I thought she was joking and her acting skills were improving as she said, "Damn I forgot it" However they hadn't, she was for real so we turned about and met Johnny in the van halfway back to retrieve said bag.
Fortunately time was on our side so we made it to the airport in plenty of time for Lian's flight. After our good byes we headed through Hobart to Mount Stuart to our first stop to drop off Maels's package plus some sticky date pudding for Elodie. Our eyes weren't deceiving us there were snowflakes drifting down all of 10 minutes from the Hobart CBD. After a refreshing cup of tea and a chat we headed back into town for the purchase of cleaning supplies. I picked up Suzanne's shoes and Susan went to the bank. It was then off to Margate for lunch with Lin and Joel. A very nicely refurbished large house and some acreage. Unfortunately time constraints and the weather meant we did not get to look around the grounds. We headed back to Hobart but were unable despite many tries to make contact with our new helpexer that we were supposed to pick up.
From there it was the time honoured trek to Sorell to the fruit and veg market, Woolies supermarket, fuel station, BWS, ATM and Heat pizza bar before returning to the resort. A day away from the resort but not really a day off.
I did wear my latest hiking boots out to start breaking them in. I am sure you are all excited to see the pictures of both pairs I have bought here, They are both Zamberlan brand (Italian) The ones on the right are Vioz GT and the left Baltoros. The Vioz ones have a goretex liner to keep them waterproof. Their only drawback is that on the rocky paths here I am kicking the hell out of the toes and they are already looking scuffed. The Baltoros have the rubber protector on the toe. I guess my strategy will be to wear them on rocky paths and dryer days although they are very water resistant keeping the others for really boggy days, Anyway that's the theory. As a foot note i did see some pictures of the Vioz with rubber guards on the toes. Looks like they don't sell them here though.
Tomorrow our forecast maximum is 9! I think some work in the pool building will be in order! The lights and power have mysteriously returned to the cafe area without any known human intervention which is a bit disturbing. Maybe it is the Parsons Bay ghost at work!

Night folks

cheers Simon

Day 158 Nubeena Monday 4th of July 2011

Happy fourth of July,
Today started with Susan rounding up the 2 high jumpers who once again vaulted out of the enclosure (the goats) At least their poop is dry and round making it easy to sweep away unlike the chickens and as for the ducks we won't mention their faeces gees.
I may have exaggerated yesterday about painting a room in a day. Today i did the cutting in and realised that I could still see the previous paint colour through the new coating so applied a second coat. That was basically the day when all the normal chores were added in. Tomorrow we have a day off of sorts. Drive Lian to Hobart Airport, pick up cleaning supplies, deliver Maels hard drive and have coffee with he and Melodie, pick up Suzannes shoes, drive to Margate for lunch and to return Lin's property that she left on the weekend. Pick up Jonothan our new helper and do the shopping on the way back. Somehow I don't see day off there. More like a day of chores away from the resort. If it is a dirty windy rainy day I will feel better about it. Moan, groan, grumble, bitch.
Right that's it, catch you later.

Cheers Simon

Day 157 Nubeena Sunday 3rd July 2011

Hi readers,
For once the sun shone only briefly today and we had a few showers, which reminds me I better see how much they topped the tanks up being that the pump from the stream is still away after getting caught in the flood. Answer not much. Still no need to panic yet the motel is quiet although we do have 4 rooms in tonight and they are multiple night stays which is good since we don't have to make the rooms up tomorrow, which is doubly good because it is only Susan and myself on duty.
I had my customary wrestle with the goats this morning. They have the uncanny knack of doing exactly what I don't want them to do when I am moving them around. It has got to the stage where I am afraid to carry the 2kg hammer out to bang their stakes in in case the urge to smite them becomes overpowering.
Funnily enough the main stay of the paint I am using to "refresh" the house across the road is the colour "kid leather". Maybe it is prophetic. I almost managed to finish a complete bedroom in one working day not bad considering I brush painted the ceiling. The motel has accumulated many cans of paint over recent years however of the paint suitable for inside we have a small amount of a nameless colour we have used in the sleepout, a bit of stuff currently used in the motel which I don't want to use and about 60 litres of kid leather in 3 batches. 2 of which are the same and the other slightly different so the house will end up looking rather the same through out in the main living areas.
Susan has been painting in the office and observed today that it looks as if the walls in our unit which were wood panel have been painted with undercoat. Looking at them I have to agree. For some reason some of the beading and the beams that hide the seams in the hard wood ceiling have been painted with ..yup you guessed it kid leather. To say the painting is rough would be an understatement. In fact i would have to say the general standard of painting here as performed by helpexers is diabolically bad. I remarked how good the painting was in our original room and Susan commented "yes it was done by tradesmen" Therein lies the drawback of the helpex syatem. Most helpers are young and do not have the skill level required for many jobs. There are some advantages in being old. Chief one is to be able to recognise when you have reached your level of incompetence or even better the limit of your competence.
We had another good community tea tonight all 5 of us. Suzanne once again hit the spot baking a loaf of bread and making burgers from pork and beef mince. We also had the leftover soup from the drumming last night.
All in all a pleasant day of modest achievement.

Night folks

Cheers Simon

PS I think I better get some pictures for tomorrow to break the monotony of the writing.

Day 156 Nubeena Saturday 2nd July 2001

Evening listeners,
I am reminded tonight of scenes from old black and white movies where the colonials are being sent crazy by the constant jungle drums. So it is here this evening as the beat thumps from the confines of the shed. God knows what the vibration is doing to their minds! It is the last night of the drumming workshops and being light on for labour Susan has been running around like a madwoman making the soup (curried pumpkin delicious) and bread for the masses. My suggestion that she give the cafe 20 or 30 dollars from the takings to make it, fell on deaf ears.
The rest of the day was uneventful, painting continues slowly across the road and in the office. The cafe is still a bit blacked out along with the outside lights.
We could actually use a drop of rain just to freshen things up and wash some of the chicken poop from the roadways. I never thought I would say that in Tasmania in winter.
Hopefully we will both have a peaceful sleep tonight. I don't know what was in the curry we had for tea but we both had weird dreams. Susan dreamt I was doing nasty things to her and I awoke with her knee in my back trying to shove me out of bed!

night folks

cheers Simon

Day 155 Nubeena Friday 1st of July 2011

Hello,
Another brilliant winters day in Tassie.
First off I am not going crazy I saw the missing chicken again today and i have a corroborative reliable witness in Susan. She(the chicken that is)was with her peer group near the tennis court. However when they returned to the pen she didn't. I think she has gone native, probably fallen in with a bad crowd (the scrub hens).
The power was working in the cafe this morning which was weird since I was certain I hadn't fixed it last night but it didn't stay on so that's a weird one. We had the sound of chainsaws at the western end of the block as a crew moved in to remove a very large pine tree. I am not quite sure what the story is there. Other than that a pretty standard day. The painting continues slowly across the road due to people being on days off and the fact we don't have many people. When you have 5 people and need three to run reception 4 out of 7 days it doesn't leave much extra time for other jobs.
We had outr community dinner in Unit 7 as there didn't seem to be much value in lighting up the shed for 5 people! Hada few good laughs. I think we have missed out by not being resident in Unit 7 as it is the party room. Having said that after dinner the others went to the pub and we declined. The Nubeena pub on a Friday night is no place for non bogans methinks. Especially old grumpy ones like me!

Night folks

Cheers Simon

Maybe we will go live in a Yurt!