Day 276 Nubeena Sunday 30th October 2011

Good evening,
Our last night at the resort. Well that's the plan unless something untoward happens.
The packing is just about complete although there seems to be some clutter in the room still. The packing news is the new roof bag looks pretty good. The old roof bag now contains the swag and will be strapped on top of the camper. I shall take a picture tomorrow. The only sour note was I managed to almost flatten the battery in the pajero. It was struggling to turn over. However I was able to operate the overide for the 2nd battery and there was just enough oomph to start the car. Both batteries were boosted on the charger.
This evening encapsulated the attraction that holds people here. Just before the appointed time for this evenings drinks, Selina, Doris and Aisling knocked on our door and gave us a video to watch. It is presented below. They apologised for the sound quality. The opening music is supposed to approximate Fawlty Towers and the whole thing is a bit of a take off of our training video "How to clean a room". It is one of those special presents that money can't buy. They are funny girls. Phil and Amanda provided drinks and nibbles as a farewell to us. The food was good. The highlight though was the UNO game with about 9 or 10 players. I wish I had taken a video. There were so many laughs. The helpers are what we will miss most. There are not many bad eggs amongst them. Remembering of course my Chinese nickname of "lau haui dan" which is politely translated as old bad egg but in fact is less polite. It has certainly been an interesting experience.
On to tomorrow and we don't have a plan of where we will stay tomorrow night but I am sure we will find a place for the swag. Selina also leaves tomorrow and if we have enough space we will drive her to Hobart. We won't know until we load the last bit of gear.
Farewell Parsons Bay and to the people we met here who made it fun and interesting. We hope to return in the near future.

Cheers Simon

Day 275 Nubeena Saturday October 29th 2011

Kitchen activity



Doris (HK), Romain (Fr), Conrad (Reynella), Alison (Can), Selina (Taiwan), Aisling ( Eire), MIA Alec (Geelong) due to sickness.


Fuzzy group hug!



I don't know why I was pulling this face as I lifted up the carving knife in it's scabbard.

Hi Folks,
Today we started packing (in theory). I did haul the trailer up to outside our unit and reverse it into position. We did a little bit but our unit is resembling a minefield with boxes everywhere. Tomorrow is going to be a big day. I spent time this morning chatting to the guys about the ins and outs of the pool. Mercifully Susan found the pages from the procedure and they are laminated and in the pool room. For her part she spent the day mostly tidying up loose ends for the handover. This is made more complicated with the big school visit in a week or so. Tomorrow we must concentrate on packing. We came away from Adelaide at the start of the year in a rush with stuff chucked in vowing to sort it out when we got here. This hasn't happened yet!
Ilan and Lynne put on a nice dinner for us tonight along with the helpers and a few local people we have got to know although not as well as i thought. I didn't know Chris had a doctorate in geology and had lectured at Flinders University. He and Kate lived in SA for some time and had many locations in common with Susan and I. It was a good night with some excellent food and great chat. Ilan said some nice things about us and Susan gave a heartfelt emotional speech. I gave a random wandering speech reflecting the preparation that didn't go into it. We received a home made card from the "staff" plus a water colour scene and card painted by Helen Gee.
We will return to this area at some stage to catch up with the people we have met and who have offered us accommodation. Whether we return to The Resort will be a decision we take along the way. It is nice to know there will always be a place here for us.
We have drinks and nibbles tomorrow night in the cafe so that we make three evenings of imbibing in a row. No wonder we are feeling tired!
From my reading of the coffee machine paperwork it has a 2 year replacement warranty so as long as there is stock it should be a straight swap of the main unit. Fingers crossed. We need our expresso. Lola's (the yet to be born offspring of Phill and Amanda) college fund has been swelled by our attendance at the cafe for our caffeine fix. Tonight's images are a bit fuzzy as for some reason Susan's flash was off

night Simon

Day 274 Nubeena Friday 28th October 2011

Hi All,
Our last working day at the resort to be followed by 2 days of packing up.
What a day for the last day. 16 rooms to clean. With Susan organising and issuing commands and the helpers applying themselves it was all done. The constant rain did not help. However by the afternoon the sun was out and it was a balmy 24 degrees.
We had dinner in the cafe. The main being a spicy tomato dish of octopus, prawns, mussels and pasta. Washed down with a nice drop of the house semillion sauvignon blanc and followed up in my case by too many beers. While Susan tidied things up at reception I wandered over and chatted to the inmates of unit 7 (our fellow helpers).
We retired to bed after midnight. I have to walk the guys through the pools in the morning at 9 so there will be no room for a sleep in.
The major news of the day was of the bad news variety. Our coffee machine has karked it. I was steaming the milk and there was a pop and the steam that was supposed to be coming out of the nozzle was venting inside the machine. It is in warranty but it is a major dislocation to our morning routine not having it. Plus we will have to take it to Hobart to be repaired and then pick it up from our next HelpX assignment at Nowhere Else. Thanks Mr Breville.

night folks
Cheers Simon

Day 273 Nubeena Thursday 27th October 2011

Hello from the blogosphere,
A long day for me and even longer for Susan. She nodded back to sleep after the 5am alarm and sprinted to the cafe at 515 but still had the breakfast ready to go at 530. I was oblivious to all this apart from waking when the alarm sounded.
I was not rostered on until the afternoon. However i took the opportunity to check the pools, water the seedlings and take the Toro for another spin. I built a small bridge over a drainage ditch to access more area to mow and then investigated the damaged bridge over the creek to see if i could get over to the back corner. Definitely a no go. I didn't want the mower falling 2 metres into the creek and certainly not with me on it! My main task of the day was cooking the BBQ meat for tea. This went smoothly and the meat and non meat was delivered right at the desired time. The helpers new and not so new put in another sterling performance and there is no reason this shouldn't continue after we leave.
After the school had departed the cafe at 7 we availed ourselves of a left overs tea and then continued with the clean up. 45 people make a lot of dishes. I was finally back in our room at 940 with Susan 20 minutes later. After 11 a further disturbance with some of the local adolescents deciding to come and lob stones against a window of a room that girls were staying in. They had been hanging around earlier in the evening. The forces of law and order were notified. Unfortunately the policeman who lives next door is on leave and I can't see a squad of cars tearing down here to sort them out. Hopefully an undisturbed nights sleep will follow.

Night folks

Cheers Simon


Toro man! and yes I did stall it in the long grass at the end of the video.

Day 272 Nubeena Wednesday 26th October 2011

Flash back into the "old" helpers kitchen. L to R Selina, Romain, Alison and Conrad.



Part of the school party in the cafe.


Hi All,
My feet hurt. It has been a long day. I started off with another animal and pool introduction this morning with Josh. The rest of the day was gopherism for Susan as she arranged the myriad of tasks required for the school visit for the next two nights. Forty five people, two dinners, one lunch and two breakfasts. This will be followed by 16 rooms on Friday! In the lull this afternoon I hid for two hours on the Toro mower down by the creek. What a great little machine. It has hydraulic independent hydrauliclly driven wheels via two levers so can turn on its' own diameter. Down the hill looks a lot tidier. I would have done more but I didn't have the will to build some bridges over the drainage ditches.
The party from Castlemaine arrived on time. Dinner was skilfully executed thanks to Selina, Alison, Romain and Conrad. The kids ate in the cafe since we didn't have the chairs and tables to seat them! Phil popped in to help out and to make sure we didn't destroy the kitchen. 45 people make a shipload of dishes! but many hands knocked them off. The helpers were able to enjoy the fruits of their labour for tea. After they retired Susan Karen and myself set up the breakfast for the morning. An early breakfast since they have to be on the boat cruise by 7. Susan will be up at 530. Then it is on to sandwich making in time for the bus driver to pick their lunches up by 9. I am on dinner detail and theoretically don't start till the afternoon. It's an easy dinner, BBQ. Well there is coleslaw and apple crumble to make.
Night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 271 Nubeena Tuesday 25th October 2011

Hello,
The days draw to a close here at Nubeena. After work today i hauled stuff from the trailer to begin the sorting and packing process. We have Saturday and Sunday off so plenty of time to pack. There are items in the trailer that i forgot we had. A bit of a groundhog day today. After giving Conrad the tour the other day I showed our new helper Romain around the pools and the animals before leaving him to cart and split wood. Tomorrow i will do the same with Alec who arrived today from Geelong. He immediately impressed by cooking 2 stir fry dishes and rice for tea for everyone. Other than that not much to report. Susan is having caniptions trying to organise for the 45 or so school party that arrive tomorrow. As i type this at 1055pm she is still in reception working. However after looking at her plan as long as the food arrives as scheduled we should be fine. We have an influx of helpers just at the right time swelling our numbers to nine. Other than that not a lot to report. One of Romains first jobs was burial detail. A numbat that expired out in the paddock and one of our white ducks, that had some facial injuries the other day, was dead at the waters edge in the dam.
That's all for now

night night

Simon

Day 270 Nubeena 24th October 2011

L to R, Selina , Romain, Doris, Alison, Blogman, Susan, Conrad, Nick, Aisling, Alan.


Camera test before the "official" photo

Evening all,
The clock has just tipped over into Tuesday as I write this. A long day which started for me when the pool heater repair man lobbed at about 845. The news is a new control board total all up $1600. With Nick on a day off before his departure tomorrow I was on full animal duty followed by the pools and repairing some recalcitrant taps.
The days big event was shuffling the beds in unit 7 to accomodate new helpers later in the day. Conrad and I assembled the older wooden bunk beds in one bedroom. As I was watching it rekindled the thought I had about the roof being very low over the bottom bunk. Selina had nominated herself for the bottom bunk but when she saw the height she was not amused to say the least. I summonsed Susan who is the chief bed organiser and Selina explained her her displeasure. It was a a mix of australian swearing in a heavy Taiwanese accent. Susan was laughing so hard i thought she was going to wet herself. Plan B was dismantle the bed and assemble one of the new bunks that are for the next school visit. I did this and am now firmly of the opinion that the Marquis DeSade is a Chinese bunk manufacturer. The bunk was finally ready at 715. It is nowhere near as sturdy as the existing metal bunks.
We welcomed Alison from Canada and Romain from France late in the afternoon. We had a community tea to welcome them and to farewell Nick. The picture was taken tonight since no one will be around when Alan takes Nick to the airport. They leave at 4am!
Susan is continuing to try and set things to order before we have the chaos of the school children on Wednesday afternoon for 2 days. She was still working at 11pm tonight folding washing in the laundry. Only a few more days to go.

night folks
Simon

PS I finally fixed the eternally scraping pool room door. I finally figured why it didn't hang straight. Cracks in the diecast hinges. Swapped two over for ones on the internal reception door that weighs only half as much.

Day 269 Nubeena Sunday 23rd October 2011

Hi Folks,
This is a belated blog for Sunday as it seemed to have slipped my mind. I was late to bed on Saturday night and spent a couple of hours this morning on Saturdays blog with the videos and also posting them to facebook. Today was my day off but I would be scratching my head to list what else I achieved. I did a small amount of tidying up and some paperwork. I watched a replay of Real Madrid versus some French side whose name eludes me, ok I googled it it was Lyon and in a scintillating display kicked them off the park.
The choir wrapped up their activities which included leaving the spa rather murky! It's like a big hot bath really. Unfortunately you don't have the luxury of pulling the plug and refilling it. I shall try and coax it back to crystal clarity.
The evening was an extended community dinner with people from various backgrounds. The food was good including fresh salmon and some nice desserts. Chris from Hobart did most of the cooking. At the end of the night tiredness and alcohol wiped blogging thoughts from my brain. Well that's my excuse and I am sticking to it.
Cheers Simon

Day 268 Nubeena Saturday 22nd October 2011

The new chicks



The growing ducklings



Choir in the shed



Selina, Aisling and Doris



Nick, Conrad and old grey head


Hi Folks,
The end of a long day. I look across at the bed and Susan is propped up on pillows hands on the laptop, mouth ajar, sound asleep. It reminded me of the scene from Fawlty Towers where Basil has a conversation and serves a guest breakfast in bed without realising he is actually dead.. Anyway she is entitled to be tired as she has organised and worked a whole day. This is the way of the special events weekends and this one was no different today. This weekend is the choir group. Tomorrow will be even better with 16 rooms to clean. Thankfully there are things to lighten the drudgery. We get to be seagulls with the leftovers from dinner and we get to watch the performances this evening.
In other news. The latest batch of chickens hatched and are out and about. There are at least ten. I learnt something from a young lad who was telling a young girl they are freshly hatched since they have their egg tooth which I guess is what they hack their way out with. I don't know much about chickens. I had to speak gently to a mother allowing her 18 month old to handle the babies so firmly as to nearly crush one to death.
I thought I knew something about computers but after today I am perplexed. My highly expensive 2YO, high speed 32Gb SDHC memory card that goes in my video camera wouldn't work. Put it in the Dell laptop wouldn't work(It has worked in both every day since we have been on the road). $135 down the drain I thought. Tried it in the Toshiba laptop it works faultlessly. Formatted it, put it in my digital camera works perfectly but it still won't work at all in the other two. Beats the hell out of me. I now have the card in my camera that can hold 6500 hi resolution pictures. The camera card an older slower small one is now in the video camera and works fine. 3 hours in my day wasted.
An aside to the broken pipe yesterday was the discover by the guests in the room adjacent that there had been water seepage onto the toilet floor. This was a bit of a surprise but was easily cleaned up. Obviously something is amiss in the lay of the land/building integrity.
The evening was a pleasant meal in the cafe followed by relaxation in "The Shed" listening to the music. I shall let the video clips speak for themselves.
Another long day tomorrow. Fortunately I have the day off, in theory.

night folks.

Simon


Chicks


Sonic


Sonic


Kate

Day 267 Nubeena Friday 21st October 2011

Hi Folks,
One of those days today. It started off with me explaining to Conrad the intricacies of the various simple tasks I perform. You never know how much you know until you have to explain it to someone else and how many words it takes.
The wheels started to fall off right after I checked the gas heater for the pool. Ilan had turned it up for the children this afternoon and it wasn't heating. All the usual tricks failed but I did get it to work by manually lighting the pilot. However the next time it stopped nothing would restart it. The gas technician comes from Hobart on Monday. The pool will slowly cool over the weekend.
While I was whizzing backwards and forwards down the access way as I have done 100's of times the leg of my shorts became hooked over the 25mm plastic air inlet pipe for the spar and ripped it off breaking it in two places. The inlet was now below the water level and a gush of nice 38C water flowed onto the ground. About a 1000 litres worth. There was just enough pipe left to to make a new inlet connection. I wrapped it with epoxy putty for support although I don't think it will stick. Anyway the spa is refilled and reheating and the pipe survived one cycle so hopefully it will last at least a while at least until after we leave.
Conrad, Nick and Doris cooked us dinner tonight even though it wasn't a community dinner night, which was appreciated. Susan was training Karen today and trying to keep tabs on the weekends events. Hopefully things will run smoothly. We have a dinner gathering on Sunday night for around 30 people on top of the choir people hanging around until 4pm. I have booked Susan's rubber room already.
Night folks
Cheers Simon

Day 266 Nubeena Thursday 20th October 2011

Emperor Gum Moth (link to Wiki)





Hi Folks,
Another warm day in the far south. I think we got to 27 today but as I type this it has been raining steadily for a couple of hours.
A standard resort day. Watering, feeding and chlorining. Followed by collecting some exercise mats and chainsawing/splitting wood for the comfort of a choir group staying here on the weekend.
We had a new helper arrive today from Adelaide (Reynella). Conrad who will hopefully stay for a while. Alan returned with Nick who had been helping him on his property. Karen a prospective tenant also returned and Susan has been giving her induction into the reception/housekeeping role.
Other than that not much to report. We had the most crowded with helpers community dinner we have had for a while. The moth in the pictures was out front of the cafe this morning.

night folks
Simon

Day 265 Nubeena Wednesday 19th October 2011

Susan with her new oven mitts courtesy of Selina. I got 2 bottles of wine and a Melbourne souvenir spoon.



These guys i spotted through our partially open door when i was brewing coffee this afternoon. Maybe they all wanted a laté!


Hi Folks,
Normally we resort to talking about the weather when there is nothing else interesting to talk about which is a problem I face when trying to blog.
However the weather is the main topic of the day. It is 1130pm and the temperature outside is nearly 20 degrees. Today the maximum according to my trusty weather station was 28 with the official Hobart reading 29.4. This means that today was the hottest day we have experienced on the little island since our arrival at the end of January. It was so hot I had to drink 2 beers after work to quench my thirst.
A day of regular chores with Susan working a ridiculous complement of hours so she can get things "finished" before we leave. My day was just chores. A big session in the pool room along with the animals and watering and being Susan's gopher and my day was done. My most useful act today was helping Aisling. She was in a bit of a tizz unable to find her camera and case which most importantly contained her bankcard. Since I am always losing things I have a good routine for finding them again. I walked her back through the chain of events and after searching the van on instinct looked under her bed and there it was. She was much relieved. My second success this year after finding Weiting's phone.
I was out on the deck having a beer in the afternoon sun when the Tassielink bus went by prompting me to hop in the car and go pick up Selina from the bus stop. It was warm and she had a bit of weight to carry including presents for Susan and myself which was nice and unexpected.
We had a late tea. I made pizzas and shuttled one over to reception where Susan was still toiling. An interesting chat with Selina and Doris with a few insightful moments into the psyche of the new age Asian woman. Plus of course a few laughs including the fact that if a Taiwanese woman is ticklish she is a virgin. Speaking of laughs, last night Susan managed to plunge her hand up to the wrist into the honey bucket. I will try and get the picture Doris took for a future blog.
Onwards to tomorrow with the days flying by.

night Simon

Day 264 Nubeena Tuesday 18th October 2011

Hi Folks,
Absolutely grand weather day today. Checking my weather station I was very surprised to see it was showing 28 at 4pm. The advancing season caught me out as the outside probe was again in the sun. Moving it to the shade gave 24 which ties in nicely with Hobart's maximum today. I noted the maximums in the north of the state were a lot cooler around 16 which was a surprise probably due to the light northerly wind blowing.
Susan took off in Ilan's car with Nick and headed to Hobart for her day off working for the resort. I ventured down to the camper trailer and spent some time repairing the lock for the hitch pin. When it came time to unfurl the canvas I needed to turn the trailer and found the brake master cylinder was seized. This also happened before we left Adelaide this year. I did the same as last time which was pull it apart and use wet and dry to clean up the corrosion. After 2 hours it was ready. I should have covered the thing in plastic to protect it from the elements and operated it once a fortnight by hand. Next time I am near a parts shop I will pick up a replacement as I may not be lucky enough to get the plunger out a third time. Must remember to bleed the brakes tomorrow, Susan remind me please.
Erecting the camper I found a small amount of water on top of the ground sheet for the tent. This dried fairly quickly. The canvas didn't smell too musty. I put it up and on close inspection it looked pretty good with a possible couple of small areas of mould which I cleaned with super dilute bleach solution. With the canvas duly aired I packed it away. Next job is the inside of the trailer to sort out all our stuff. We still need to think about the kitchen issue.
Speaking of thinking. Ilan has presented us with a couple of scenarios for a return here after some time away. Susan and I have talked about them a bit but I don't want to finally decide until we are not here. This should help our objectivity plus provide a contrasting environment to here in which to consider our options. Clear as mud? Yes I think so too!
Night folks.

Cheers Simon

P.S. Looking at the feedjit gadget I am intrigued to regularly see "A visitor from Eppelheim, Baden-Württemberg". I would like to know who it is. Pop a line to simoncurlytoo at hotmail and let me know!

Day 263 Nubeena Monday 17th October 2011

Hi All,
A belated blog for Monday which means it will be a thumbnail sketch since the days events are already fading.
First up I forgot to mention Susan bandaging unsuccessfully a broken chicken wing yesterday. The reason I didn't mention it was i didn't know until today!
99.9% of the people who visit The Resort are terrific however yesterday we had someone who decided to urinate against the wooden wall of the sauna. I am 99% certain I know who it was. Anyway yesterday I swabbed the wall down with beach. However this morning the smell was still there. I located some commercial odour killer and used it as directed. it worked well however the fumes were a bit eye watering so I put the "sauna closed" sign up. By the afternoon it was much improved. I also managed to achieve the required 31C in the pool for the swimming lessons. Easy if you start heating at 10 you make it by 3.
The ducklings are still alive although mum managed to hop out today so i was able to practice my duck catching skills. She was not happy.
Community dinner was cooked by Doris from Hong Kong. It was pretty good. She copied something her mother makes. I have mentioned before it is a big thing for some of the eastern girls to cook since they spend most of their lives eating out.
Anyway that's it for today. We are off tomorrow however i am thinking since Susan is driving to Hobart in Ilans car to take Nick and do some shopping I will unfurl the camper and see what atrocities lay within.
Night Folks
Cheers Simon

Day 262 Nubeena Sunday 16th October 2011

Hi Folks,
Today was the Tasmanian example of April showers bringing May flowers. We had lots of wind and some belting showers and a little hail interspersed with some sunshine. The showers were of such velocity I was forced to do some impromptu gutter cleaning. The rest of the day was the usual chores with nothing of note. The ducklings are still alive. We had a non community dinner together tonight and a few good laughs around the table. I spent time undeleting some of Doris's photos from a couple of months back. An automated but lengthy process taking around 3 hours for 3000 jpegs of various sizes.
Anyway that's it for today zzzz time
night all

Simon

Day 261 Nubeena Saturday 15th October 2011

The littlest chicks huddling down for the night in the corner of the bunker



The two in the middle are from the first batch of chicks and are almost as big as the rest.



The next batch of ducklings hopefully we won't lose these ones



The makeshift duck pen. Blue poly string is the new cable tie!



An absolutely enthralling image of a hose clamped to a star picket.


Hi Folks,
Today was one of those days where a job that needs doing but wasn't planned gets done.
On Thursday I suggested moving the next batch of ducklings to the chicken yard and using the old screen doors for fencing. Nick did this yesterday and today expanded it. Ilan requested a big white bin of water in the new cage for the duck to splash in which is a bit of a logistical nightmare unless you install a water supply which is what I did today.
Of course no job here is straight forward since we have different sizes of poly pipes and different sizes of fittings. Of course the fittings don't match up to the pipes which made for an interesting day. I was able to scavenge just enough bits and pieces by pulling up an old pipe to complete a run to the chicken pen and as a bonus a run to the garden bed with click on hose fittings. No more carrying watering cans for the helpers!
The weather was also interesting. It was windy this morning then about 1 a thundery heavy rain band swept through. By 3 the sun was bright and there was barely a cloud in the sky.
The pictures in the blog show the fairly rapid growth of our chickens. The latest babies are on their own now and huddle together in the bunker to sleep.
Community tea was chowder made by Nick including the mussels he and Doris collected on Thursday.
The Resort internet is running like a dog so we have been using our connection. Of course the Telstra usage meter is broken again so we have no idea how close we are to the limit where they start charging an arm and a leg.

night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 260 Nubeena Friday 14th October 2011

Aurora Australis



Tasman Bridge


Hi Folks,
Today we motored at 900am to Hobart with Annette our book keeper and Darryl her husband to go on the Peppermint Bay cruise. This was a promotional outing i.e. free apart from refreshments. We had a minor hiccup with the parking but the cruise people fixed us up with a pass into the ports authority area so all was good. We cruised out of port at around 1035 and headed south down the Derwent and into d'Entrecasteaux Channel. On the way we fed a sea eagle and appreciated the descriptions of various natural and man made features.
Lunch was at Peppermint Bay at Woodbridge. A 3 course buffet of good quality. We purchased a couple of glasses of wine each to aid the digestion. After lunch we had a quick stroll into town before returning to the boat for a hop to Bruny Island to pick up passengers. On the way we had a close up view of the salmon farm. We the returned to Hobart going past the wharf to motor under the Tasman Bridge with the story of it's demolition by the ore carrier in 1975.
Back on dry land we motored to Cambridge in time to drop our passengers at the crash repairers to pick up Annette's beloved Pajero. We journeyed on to Sorell where we stopped for half an hour to do some little tasks before moving on to Dunalley Hotel for a light tea of chowder. Returning to the motel we had a quiet evening. Water travel does tend to have a tiring effect. It was quite breezy on the way back heading into the brisk northerly. I spent a fair bit of time outside where as Susan was mainly in her seat controlling her motion sickness. However it was a good day out with minimal cost!
Night folks.
cheers Simon


Sailing out from the dock


White breasted sea eagle


Under Tasman bridge

Day 259 Nubeena Thursday 13th October 2011

Hi All,
A flying typing of the blog as it's 1141 already and I want to get to bed. A glorious sunny spring day here. I was out the front marvelling at the heat. However a check of the thermometer showed it to be 14 degrees. I think I have become acclimatised to Tasmania. Mind you other days this week with the gale blowing it has been around 8 degrees at the same time so it does seem like a heat wave.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened today except that Susan had me pick up Nick and Doris who had gone walking at Lime Bay. This was not on my radar as I had planned to repair the interior light in the car and wet the roof bag. I did achieve both of these but at a fast pace.
As I was driving to the pick up Nick rang me on Doris's phone to say they were going to be delayed due to some geographic confusion. They did make it back to the car park about 40 minutes late. I always have a sense of trepidation when the helpers go on walks. One day we will be ringing the SES for a search I am sure. Another community dinner tonight. Aisling made quiche and Alan a visitor a salad. Susan knocked up a dessert of ice cream, honey and nutri-grain.
Before pool close Aisling and I hopped in the spa, me because my knees were sore (probably from too much praying) and her because she tried out the gym playground next to the bike park.
Tonight has been a frustrating one as we both had internet business to do and the ADSL service here is in one of its diabolical moods. We have been using our Telstra dongle/wireless router in the car and that has been good.
Tomorrow I was supposed to be here catching up on repacking the camper and also playing with my new toys. However I am now required to join the Peppermint Bay cruise in Hobart with Susan, Annette and Annette's husband. It is a freeby offered to Tourism operators. Originally i was not invited. Anyway it sounds like a great cruise so its a win win. Except there is now one less day free to sort our stuff out.

Night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 258 Nubeena Wednesday 13th October 2011

Hi Folks,
My day off. Selina and I set off for the airport at 10 and arrived without incident. She is off to Victoria for 10 days of arts and the Great Ocean Road. I shall miss her grumpiness in the morning. It is good to have another non morning person here!
I proceeded to Cambridge and thence on to Hobart to start my retail therapy. I finished the day with, a new roof bag for the car, a portable UV water steriliser and bottle, a pair of noise cancelling head phones, some leather gloves and some lock cleaning spray. I had a bite to eat in town and toodled back to Nubeena.
Susan knocked up a mini community dinner in the space of 15 minutes, pasta with bacon, mushroom and cream.
I unpacked the roof bag which is impressively constructed. It came with a storage bag which reminded me of those cheap tents you used to get in the 80's that you could never get back in the bag. Except that I did. According to the instructions the canvas part has to be thoroughly wetted and dried three times before use presumably to complete the water proofing. Anyway it was a pleasant relaxing day.

Night folks

Simon

Day 257 Nubeena Tuesday 11th October 2011

Hello,
I am invoking the mercy rule on you my poor suffering readers. Tonight's blog will hopefully be too short to be boring.
First off the weather report. Strong SW winds with lashing showers, some hail and sunshine. It was cool, 8 degrees at 11 o'clock. I did put my shorts on this morning but abandoned them for one of my 50 cent pair of Op shop trousers. Not much to report just the usual chores, filling the pool, a few repairs and that was it.
Nice cups of coffee from our machine, nice avocado sandwiches in Lawsons bread for lunch, lovely atlantic salmon for tea a gift from a guest. Tough life hey.
Day off tomorrow. I am travelling to Hobart to pick up the new roof bag and parting with the best part of $500 for it. I am taking Selina to the airport as she is going to Victoria for a 10 day break.
In blog news, I have added adsense the google advertising program to our blog. I used this program on my old webpage. It tracks click throughs to the adverts and pays me monies when a certain accumulation is reached. I am not allowed to encourage you to investigate these adverts so I won't. I have also added feedjit which displays the locations of the last 10 visitors. I am not sure how well this will work so it may disappear if it is useless


night all

cheers Simon

Day 256 Nubeena Monday 10th October 2011

Hello,
Not much of note today. The new water filtration aid i bought the other day cleared the cloudy spa in about an hour which pleased everyone.
I connected up the Ilan's alkali/acid water maker and it seems to be functioning which he is happy about.
Our pool has to be at 31 degrees for the little kids in their learn to swim. This caused a minor ripple when the instructor bought her own thermometer and declared it was too cold at 28.5 with the heater set to 31 or so. There is some differential between the indicated water temperature on the gas heater and the actual in the pool when heating up. Tonight i turned the gas heater back down so it didn't heat and its indicated temp and the pool temperature were the same. An equilibrium issue? There were a lot less children today so no shouting or broken banana trees.
Doris and Selina cooked us a nice dinner tonight which we were eating before 7. Susan cobbled together a dessert featuring vanilla ice cream, honey, nutri grain and passionfruit(from a can).
We are still in the grip of showers and are hoping for some warmer spring weather soon!
Was your day as mundane as mine? I reckon even Neil Armstrong got a bit bored having to sweep the dust out of the lunar lander every day. Until he looked around and realised he was doing something a bit different. Being here still beats driving up and down South Road everyday! and for that i am thankful.

night folks

Simon

Day 255 Nubeena Sunday 9th October 2011

Pity i didn't have some arboreal viagra


Hi folks,
your writer is somewhat tired tonight a legacy of too many late nights and daylight saving.
I spent time in the pool area this morning. We have had cloudy water for the past few days. The filter aid i purchased on friday seems to be doing it's job as the water was a lot clearer today. This lasted until i vacuumed all the grunge that had settled to the bottom. However i feel we are winning and that the pool will be crystal clear tomorrow (fingers crossed) ready for the bunch of grimy urchins in the swim school.
The picture above is of the banana tree i splinted yesterday, rivetting stuff hey? I had a lot more tape than this on it so apparently our leader must have felt it was mummified.
This afternoon i did some more sorting/tidying of the shipping container. A tour around the animals collecting eggs feeding goats and picking up the poop and my six hours was complete.
We had an unscheduled community dinner tonight where we were actually eating before 7o'clock and i think i was back in the unit just after 8. Last night i think we started eating at 845. Makes the evening much more productive. The weather today has been pretty breezy with bouts of fairly heavy showers. A typical Tasmanian spring apparently.

night folks,

cheers Simon

Day 254 Nubeena Saturday 8th October 2011

Post repair picture. Not very exciting as pictures go. The lights are $80 each!



Hi Folks,
Some sad news to start the day. The ducklings seem to have disappeared. It seems inevitable that they have met a grisly fate although there is nor direct evidence. Te duck pond is at the wild end of the property where ravens, kookaburras and probably cats abound. The mother did not seem to thave the same protective inclinations as the hens which can get quite savage. The hens are also in a more civilised area. There is a duck still sitting on a nest so we may get another chance. Next time we may have to intervene and provide a safe haven.
This mornings job was replacing the lights at the entrance. Unfortunately two of the bases were broken so this prolonged the task. It was then on to cooking the bbq for the open day. The turn out was small but the bbq was good as was the wine and the beer.
Showers and rain put in an appearance this afternoon. i happened upon the start of the Wales v Ireland rugby match which i thoroughly enjoyed. Aisling our irish helper was watching it in one of the units. I was looking for her about 10 minutes from the end to ensure she wasn't doing any self harm.
We had another BBQ for tea from the the left over meat which was lamb chops ,an unheard of luxury and steaks. Topped off with Susan's sticky date pudding served with with cream and ice cream. A nice relaxed evening.

night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 253 Nubeena Friday 7th October 2011

Hi Folks,
Allegedly a day off. We left belatedly and drove to Hobart. We called in at the Cambridge shopping precinct where we combined our own shopping with the resorts.
We visited K&D Hardware where i picked up travelling essentials such as 5 minute Araldite, epoxy putty and and 28AA Duracell batteries for $12. Susan bought goods the resort. We then journeyed to Anaconda looking at replacements for out drifter kitchen. We are not quite sure what we are going to do in this area. The wooden kitchen is heavy but once set up very stable and works well. However it is a buggar to store stuff in when it is packed away. We were thinking a light fold up unit and a couple of storage boxes but it is still up for discussion. I bought a couple of cheap retractable gizmos to use on my Swiss Army knife when it falls from its pouch. I have come close to losing it a couple of times. No journey to Cambridge would be complete without a trip to the Hardley Normal bargain bins. I picked up some cheap items that may be useful one day.
Onto Hobart pausing to pick up new lights for the Resort entry to replace the vandalised ones. I almost feel like drawing a target on them. Susan managed to sort out the bank and Optus in the same hour truly a miracle. She also bought some groovy shoes that will no doubt feature in a picture shortly. I kept my hand in my pocket for a change. We filled the car fridge with meat for tomorrows BBQ.
We decided to have an early tea and almost ventured to the Drunken Admiral until I read some less than glowing reviews online. We went to Mures a fish place on the waterfront. Downstairs was a a bit busy and they took down the whole rainbow trout with salad and chips sign for $19.90 while we were queued so we went upstairs to the restaurant which was nearly booked out. We had a pretty good meal, the service was excellent, our chowders were a bit on the cool side, however the white wine was served at the right temperature for a change. We both had prawns of different flavours and sorbets for dessert. We left and arrived a Sorell for the joys of food shopping around 8. Woolworths were out of bread so I was detoured to Coles. We then headed home. A suicidal possum did just that with Susan driving. It was sitting on the right hand side of the road, Susan slowed and moved to the left prompting it to run straight under the drivers side wheel which was followed by the bump as it passed under the back wheel.
Not the most exciting of days off.

cheers Simon

Day 252 Nubeena Thursday 6th October 2011

More mouths to feed!



And more bottoms to poop!



Hi All,
A damp but not unpleasant day. The rain ranged from drizzle to steady but with little wind it was quite mild. The usual jobs today pools, animals, the recycling/rubbish plus mixing three different types of animal food together for the goats.
Today's highlight was the appearance of ducklings. We knew there was a duck sitting but consensus was too much time had elapsed. An excuse to take some pictures and video.
The helpers went out on the boat tour today and saw whales. As I write this it occurs to me I don't know the details and as Susan is snoring her head off in front of the laptop I can't find out. Before dinner Selina was showing me video of a distant whale and with the sound of whale noises. Before i could ascertain the full details we were being roused to the dinner table. Dinner tonight was a chowder prepared by Nick based on some mussels and clams he gathered at Eaglehawk Neck today. It was good.
The selling of the apartment units is progressing well the total being up to 7 I think.
Our day off tomorrow.

cheers Simon

Day 250 Nubeena Wednesday 5th October 2011

Hi All,
A weary hello although not through over work. My day off. I started the roof bag/storage container exercise. This lasted until i stepped on one of the roof bag clips and broke a tang off. This was the final straw in it's coffin as it is now approaching knackered status. I had previously found a better replacement so I have ordered one and should be able to pick it up in a week or so i hope. The rest of the day was spent tidying up my technology and a few other things. The weather was ok but apart from sitting out in the sun for a snack lunch i didn't really make full use of it. Susan drove the helpers down for kayaking this afternoon.
I am owed a couple of hours so hopefully i can take them tomorrow. That's all folks nothing very exciting i am afraid.

night folks.

Simon

Day 249 Nubeena Tuesday 4th October 2011

Yum, an eel



The old hole cover (galvanised steel)



The new hole cover (stainless steel) water couresy of Nick the human splashing machine.



Bracing (decking board) under the cover


Good evening,
Welcome to tonight's edition of "Let's try and remember what we did today!"
Today was pool day. After the hordes of children from yesterday tramping in dirt and general crud it was time to clean the pool area. Mats out to dry in the sun, mop up the loose water and open the doors to dry the floor. Roll out 50 meter extension cord to rainwater tank pump to fill spa. Repair the broken vacuum cleaner head while floor is drying. Vacuum the dry floor, sweep up leaves from pot plants, perform chemical tests. Vacuum pool and repair brush pole, backwash pool filter. Make new cover plate for hole behind skimmer box and fit, mop entire floor. Run out of time to fill spa, roll up extension cord put all tools and materials away. Work over! No beer in fridge aaargh!
Pull yabby pot containing a medium sized short finned eel from creek. Take pot to reception to show Susan and Aisling and get chastised for eel slime dripping on floor. Susan was training Aisling on the mysteries of reception as she will have it to her self on Friday! Release eel into dam when retrieving second empty pot
Susan cooks tasty omelette for tea. Watch final episode of Doctor Who in this series.
I am off tomorrow. This has been an on and off day off but it looks like it is on now. Time to get the roof bag out to work out the best size of lidded storage boxes to keep our gear dry when the bag leaks. It is now midnight...again!

Night Folks

cheers Simon

Day 248 Nubeena Monday 3rd October 2011

The new nest under the slippery dip.



The UNO game




Serving Tea L to R Selina, Doris and Aisling


Hi Folks.
Average working day here if such a thing exists. Unboxed and installed a brand new convection microwave in unit 19 to replace the one that the burning smell came out of last week. Spent some time repairing a mop bucket that had cracked around the base using aluminium strip and rivets. Time will tell if it is successful. Mopped the pool, mopped the back decks and mopped some verandahs day over. The brooding hen was off her nest this morning prompting me to race back to take the photo of the approximately 19 eggs. There is going to be chickens coming out of our a err earholes.
We have a new helper a girl from Ireland named Aisling (pronounced Ashling). She looks like she will be good value and makes her first appearance in the blog in tonight's pictures.
Daylight saving has not helped the timing of dinner. Susan cooked again tonight a good lasagne. It is now 1030 the rest of the helpers are sitting at the kitchen bench playing UNO and I am contemplating going down the creek and dam to check the yabby traps I set this afternoon. My fear is that they have been mutilated by eels.
I'll check them after I have published this so you will all be on tenterhooks until tomorrow. Stay tuned eager listener.

Cheers Simon

Footnote: Might as well get the anticlimax over and done with now. Yabbies are a feral species in Tasmania with fines up to $25000 for moving them around. They do have several species of freshwater crayfish all of which are protected. So I shall wash and dry the nets and put them away tomorrow.

Day 247 Nubeena Sunday 2nd October 2011

The adjustable height chicken feeder






Heath Robinsons goat feeder






The wooden stick in the middle is to stop it tipping over


Hi Folks,
The first daylight saving morning wasn't too bad. First up was to repair the bedside cabinet in 13 that had it's top ripped off. Apparently the staples in this high quality piece couldn't handle whatever the guests were doing to it. A few nails and some glue and it was back together. Next job was to make a goat feeder at Ilan's suggestion. This was 2*4 litre ice cream containers screwed to a plank with an eye in the end and matching pole with a hook. The idea being that you can fill the containers outside the electric fence and slide it under. I also rigged up a chicken feeder on a rope for Ilan as well. It has just struck me that rather than trying to describe these items a picture would be better. I'll attend to it in the morning.
We have another broody hen under a discarded slippery dip. It's one of the three salt and pepper ones. Probably the only one that hasn't had a brood yet! I think we need to mark them somehow to be able to tell them apart.
At 7 I drove along with Selina and Doris to pick up Nick who was doing a walk from Remarkable Cave. We took the opportunity to visit the cave and while we were returning Nick took the opportunity to jump out of the bushes and scare the bejabbers out of the girls.
We returned to a delish chicken pasta carbonara prepared by Susan and after dinner settled down to play UNO. A lot of laughs as usual. Doris picked the game up quickly. It is now midnight so tomorrow will be bleary eyes especially for Susan who has 7 continental breakfasts to prepare in the morning.
We have chosen our next HelpX near Sheffield in the shadows of Cradle Mountain. 10 acre non organic farm with capsicums in greenhouses!

Night Folks

Cheers Simon

Day 246 Nubeena Saturday 1st October 2011

Hi All,
This mornings task was to change the pump over that supplies the rainwater to top up the pools. We use rain water to top up since the creek water has a tannin colouration.
The job went reasonably smoothly since there were about 500 different fittings on the old and new pumps. The only hiccup is the electricity supply was faulty so at his stage it will have to run off extension cords until the sparkys next visit.
After mopping up the mankiness from the myriad of children in the pool area yesterday while i filled the pools with the newly functioning supply i ventured down to fit the pulley tensioner spring to the Toro ride on mower. This turned out to be a fairly simple job which did not fix the rattley sound when the blade drive was engaged. It was off with the covers over the drive assembly. I couldn't get the grub screws out of the gearbox to check the oil since some leakage was evident. The coupling and universal joints had a bit of slack so i greased them not expecting to achieve much and i was right. I adjusted the cut height to maximum to avoid collisions of the blades with the ground and headed out into the tussocky paddocks much like the one shown in previous pictures. The mower cut surprisingly well until one of the drive wheels disappeared into a heavily overgrown drainage trench. After an hour or so of crowbaring, digging, sweating and getting covered in mud I decided to do what I should have done first up. I pulled it out with the Pajero with Susan at the wheel and me driving the mower which took all of 10 seconds. Such is life.
I managed to catch the last quarter of the AFL GF after dropping in to check on the scores in the afternoon.
We officially let Ilan know today that we will be departing on the 1st of November. Susan has some suitable helpers lined up to replace us. The place ran before we were here and I am sure it will do so after we leave. We do have the option to return as well.
Community dinner was somewhat late tonight. It was the official welcome of Doris our new helper from Hong Kong. Her English seems pretty reasonable. We are scheduled to have 2 new helpers early next week also.
Anyway that's today's news.
night Folks
Cheers Simon