Day 54 Brooloo Tuesday 31st July 2012

Hi Folks,

Sharp eyed readers may have noticed the name of our location has changed from Brulee to Brooloo which is correct! We started our HelpX today under brilliant sunny skies after another 5 degree night. We are paving an area out the side of the house so the kitchen equipment can be placed there while the kitchen has a concrete floor installed. We are boarding up the area so we can level it for the paving. I doubt we will get any laid tomorrow. However we will see.

This afternoon we set up the camper and packed away the swag. I cleared some cow pats out the way this morning and we waited until the grass had dried. We are probably colder since I am sitting under the canvas of the tent typing this rather than the car. It is another 5 degree night.
Susan's set up was interrupted by her first try at cow milking. I wasn't there to take a picture however she tells me she failed. If she has another go I will be sure to document it.
The other item of note is we get to drink fresh milk here straight from the cows via a bucket and jug of course.

Tomorrow we will be working unsupervised early in the day since Peter has to go help milk 300 cows at 5 am and Annie is house sitting over night. We should not be able to create too much mayhem in this time I hope.

Lagoon adjacent the house

Our swag this morning, washing soaking in the black buckets

View of the outside kitchen with house behind

Night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 53 Brooloo Monday 30th July 2012

Evening folks,

We have moved 15km or so up the road. It took most of the day. We had a leisurely breakfast and pack up today. The longer we stay in one place the longer it takes to rectify the chaos. We found one tick on the swag when we packed. We are now paranoid about every little spot on our sleeping gear. I sprayed the swag with Aeroguard Tropical when we packed it away.

We had nice warm showers in the paddock before taking the trailer up the top of the hill to refill the water tank. Since Pete and Annie were otherwise engaged we drove to Noosa again. This time I visited BCF to replenish my fishing rods. By the time we returned, picked up the trailer and headed to Brulee it was just on 6 and dark. That being the case I set up the swag . We will decide in the morning if we use the camper. I am inclined too since the weather forecast is good and it is about time it had an airing.

Susan and Pete knocked up a stew tea while i set up the swag and awning. Tomorrow Susan learns how to milk a cow. Looks like it will be an interesting few days here looking forward to it!

It is still pretty cool at night here down to about 5 but the days are glorious and sunny in the low 20's.

Here's a couple more pictures from yesterday at Sunshine Beach

Night night

Simon

Day 52 Imbil Sunday 29th July 2012

Hello,

Mercifully wind free night tonight but still a bit cool We are sitting against the chimenea which is blazing away so one side of us is warm at least.

We had a decadent sleep in not arising until 830 this morning. By the time we had breakfasted and used our expresso machine plus a good session on the net it was 11 o'clock. Susan was dismayed and we rushed up the road to Eumundi for the market, Susan hoping that we weren't too late. We were too late by 24 hours since the big market that gridlocks Eumundi is on Saturday and Wednesdays. We tootled around the town. Susan ventured into the hemp shop and I now have a new shirt. She bought a hat and a top. The hat is visible in today's pictures. After visiting the market square we had some gourmet pies for lunch and headed off to Noosa.

On the Noosa road Susan spotted a road side sign advertising an "Eco" house for inspection. It was a private opening and the owner showed us round. It was Eco from the point of view of avoiding "chemical" finishes inside the dwelling. The price was a stunner $690K.  The Domain.com link is Here

Front view of new hat

Rear view of new hat

Entering Noosa i drove into Bunnings and  purchased  a Gas fuse to let me know more easily when our bottles need refilling. They are clamped in the trailer so it is a bit of messing around to take them out and weigh them by hand to see what's left. Noosa I found a little bit disorientating. It is sort of like the Gold Coast canals but with the whole lot screened by trees. You know there are light industrial areas and housing estates but they are hard to see through the trees. I guess you could say they have done a much better job of preserving a natural look than many other Queensland coastal resorts. We drove down the coast road to look at the beach but were undone by the lack of parking and general access. We U turned and called in at Sunshine beach for a quick look. We visited Coles for groceries and had a coffee before returning via Cooroy to Imbil.

Sunset views driving home

As mentioned previously we have been sitting around the fire this evening. Tomorrow we will pack up and move. Peter and Annie who live a bit up the road expressed interest in us giving them a hand HelpX style so we will go and check it out.

night folks

Cheers Simon

P.S. Susan seems to have no ill effects from her tick bite the other day. I was able to identify it as a bush tick (as distinct from the cattle and paralysis ticks) from an information poster in the vets window at Kenilworth the other day.

Laguna Lookout Noosa

Sunrise Beach

Day 51 Imbil Saturday 28th July 2012

G'day folks,

A very windy evening here. We are sitting adjacent the kitchen with the "pig" roaring away but with the wind the greatest warming is generated by splitting the wood with the axe. We were up at 7 this morning on the alarm. After breakfasting we headed to Mandy's (a friend of Dan's) house northwards up the road past Kandanga to take up her offer of a shower, which was most welcome. After our showers and goodbyes we drove back into Kandanga  for an expresso.

Trackside Kandanga Station

Track repair buggy

Road side Kandanga station

It was then southwards to Kenilworth. Susan spent time in the Nepalese Op shop and we both took tours of the main street. Susan joined the library which has a big selection of audio books. Hopefully she will manage to return all her borrowings before we depart. We visited the cheese factory for a tasting and purchased what we desired from their seconds rack. The price was around $18 per kilo compared to the $80 that Bruny Island charge. Incredibly good value. Hunger had set in so a visit to the local burger bar where we had a speciality gourmet burger for $10 each. Again good taste and value. Back to the cheese factory for a waffle cone with big scoops of delicious ice cream for $3.50 more good value. During our sojourn Susan discovered anafternoon market was being held at Dagun which was back north of where we went this morning. I fuelled up the car and we headed off becoming reacquainted with our talking book.

Blue faced honeyeater on the scrounge at the cheese factory

The Dagun market was small and at the back of the railway station being held on Saturday afternoon when the elusive train does short trips between Gympie and Dagun. The word was the train was not running. We were somewhat surprised sitting in the car when it rolled in. It was Diesel hauled so not a great loss. We returned to Imbil and the supermarket for supplies and back to our camp area.
I washed the car which really needed it having been at least 51 days since it's last clean.

The evening has been spent catching up on administrative chores and goofing off on the computer. Mercifully the wind seems now to have dropped a bit. We will do some more touring tomorrow maybe a bit further afield. We might even get a sleep in. Since we have power I am thinking we will haul out the expresso machine in the morning. Now that will be a delight!

Night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 50 Imbil Friday 27th July 2012

Evening folks,

We are sitting here alone at Dan's place, which is a kind of strange feeling after being surrounded by people all fortnight.
Today was Dan's last day and in typical Dan fashion things had to be finished off. This generally involves Dan doing lot of rushing around trailing people behind him. He is the first to admit this saying today "this place is a lot more relaxed when I am not here"

Today's main task was to invert the water tank over the pole frame constructed this week. This was always going to be problematic with the number of people here today, not so much because of the weight but the sheer size and lift height required. We did manage to get the tank up there but it would not drop mainly because the frame was built for a 3.6 metre tank which was in fact 3.4 metres. Dan was a bit embarrassed by this since he did the measuring. However after some chainsaw work, some pushing of poles and whole lot of cursing, sweating and grunting the tank was fitted!

Ok so it's up there now it just needs to drop

That tank angle doesn't look good

This picture was posed after we had given up, note tank height,
Dan, Kurt, and Michael

Same picture with Susan and Harley

In position! note the crew staggering home up the hill

It was then just a matter of packing up for those leaving. We did help a bit and they finally managed to depart just after 2. They said there goodbyes leaving us as the sole residents for a couple more days. We took the opportunity to walk around the block back to our camp and found some nice areas we hadn't seen before. We then headed to town for a real coffee. We also had a stroll over to the library. Returning to camp it was back to the reality of scrubbing the dirt from our washing. I took the opportunity to dismantle our gas water heater to find out what senses the water flow as it turns off the gas too readily for my liking. After much ado I found a three wire non contact sensor which was not really what I was expecting. I reassembled the heater adding a lead to what I believe is the sensor wire so i can measure it's output with a view to modifying it.

It was after sunset when we headed back up to the kitchen to have tea. We have the luxury of 240 volts from the solar via a lead poked out of the locked building.

Tomorrow we are heading up the road to claim an offered shower from Mandy and then to Kenilworth for a look around.

It is jolly chilly tonight especially since we don't have the wood fire lit.

night folks

Simon

Day 49 Imbil Thursday 26th July 2012

Hi all,

Today we said goodbye to our Taiwanese friends. I am sure they haven't experienced anything like here before in their lives. I was actually in town to see them board the bus since  I had to go buy some oil for the brush cutter.

We all had Taiwanese tea this morning

They had to wheel their bags to Imbil

20 minutes solid walk ahead

Cya later guys we will miss you

I brush cut one of the terrace garden beds. It was pretty woody in parts necessitating a change from line to the blade on the head.

Susan meantime pottered in the kitchen providing breakfast, morning tea and lunch. Dan was away buying steel in Gympie to make a rack to transport his motor bike and later in the afternoon welding same together.

Michael and Kurt put the roof bearers on Woodhenge today

The unwanted excitement of the day was when we were in the paddock having our showers. I spotted something on Susan's neck, a closer inspection showed it to be a tick! I high tailed it up the hill for advice and returned with plastic tick removal tools. This worked but in hindsight I should have followed the advice I googled about using pointy tweezers close up against the skin and pulling gently. Since there might be some bits still in the skin. Anyway no allergic reaction just a jollya sore spot which now has magnoplasm and a band aid on it. Just have to wait and see how it goes. Of course we are now paranoid about every small bug we see.
After this excitement I started soaking 2 buckets of washing to try and get the clay stains out

Tea was sausages and veg. Max the French helper was supposed to return today but has a bike problem so we may not see him to say goodbye.

The weather forecast looks excellent for the next few days.

night folks

Simon

Day 48 Imbil Wednesday 25th July 2012

Hi folks,

Sitting here adjacent the merrily blazing chimenea with the laptop fired from the battery bank panel which is up and running nicely.

Today was one of those funny days where not a huge amount of physical energy was expended by myself but 3 projects were finished. The wiring for the solar was completed, Dan's laptop was restored to operation, and some bars were added to the old stove to replace the metal top lost in transport.

Susan slaved away over the utensils today to make a delicious pumpkin soup (pumpkins from the property) for lunch and tonight to make a stir fry with rice. The Taiwanese guys didn't leave today so there was a large quantity to be prepared and wokked for tea. Tea was cooked on the restored old stove. Our camping stove has been cleaned and returned to the kitchen.

Woodhenge

Candelabra on fire in the outdoor kitchen

Chimenea ablaze

The rest of the troops were down working on woodhenge. I was taking pictures after they had finished. I was thinking that the actual cost of construction using cut trees from the property and old recycled water tanks would be small compared to erecting a steel shed of similar dimension. More labour involved with woodhenge, albeit cheap helpx, plus the infill is to be hay baled so some rendering cost too.

After tea the 5 young guys decamped to the pub for a drink. It is about a 30 minute return trip so the fact they have been gone over an hour indicates the pub is still open!

Our last full HelpX day tomorrow theoretically. Dan leaves Friday midday. As previously noted we will stay on for a couple more days as long as the weather looks ok. We will probably do another local HelpX for a couple we have met here who have an interesting property and are practising permaculturalists, try saying that after a few Drambuies. Susan hopes to learn how to milk a cow.

Night all

Simon

Day 47 Imbil Tuesday 24th July 2012

Hi folks,

Sitting here in the outdoor cinema in front of the chimenea waiting for the movie to start. Not exactly the big screen a laptop screen that is if Dan's laptop deigns to start. It doesn't so we use Susan's instead. The movie Bad Boy Bubby is not to Susan's taste so she has retired to read. I don't know how much the Taiwanese will understand either!

I finished wiring the DC side of the solar today and we switched it on. It works although we need to put some load on to check the charge rate. Susan as usual toiled in the kitchen producing miraculous meals from leftovers and minimal ingredients. She has calculated the meals are costing $10 per person per day.

Our camp ground is resembling a building site with poles being concreted in the ground. Dan says it looks like Woodhenge. Other than that there is not a lot to report for the day. The Taiwanese depart tomorrow although the method is unclear. That's about all the news for now. The weather is still sunny although it seems quite cold tonight.

cheer Simon

Day 46 Imbil Monday 23rd July 2012

Evening,
The days are rolling past. Each one brings progress in our HelpX tasks.

I was was allocated fixing the chainsaw this morning. A $120 Oregon one. It had fallen into a few bits but is running again now although there is something not quite right with the chain drive which I will have a look at tomorrow. It was then onto completing the roof top part of the solar with Dan. It is now done and the wiring complete to the breaker before the charge controller on the wall panel. Once the storage shed for the batteries is complete there is about an hours work before the moment of truth.

The new shed location adjacent our camping area. The shape of the tanks together resembles Mickey Mouse hence the face "dymarked" on the ground

Checking the pictures. 2 weeks ago this was jungle.

The arborist at work

There is now quite a clearing and a lot of logs

The complete crew of Snow White's ( Susan's) dwarfs

The remote bathroom yet to be finished

The outdoor kitchen. We dine at the white table. Smoke arises from the "pig" used to heat the water.

Susan has been slaving in the kitchen all day trying to keep the food up to the masses and doing it pretty well. All you can hear at meal times is the scrap of utensils on plates. Noodle pancakes for lunch and spaghetti bolognese for tea followed by bread and butter pudding. All eagerly consumed.

We drove to town this afternoon for a coffee. I think we chose the wrong shop since the boys said their coffees at the other place were pretty good. Susan wrote and posted her weekly letter with stickers to Abella.
We saw Max chatting to some girls outside the pub. Apparently his being French has made quite an impression and he is out on a date tomorrow night. This was the subject of some ribbing after tea. Kurt has also copped his share of stirring since he doesn't eat pumpkin. Susan has been including it in dishes well disguised and telling him afterwards. At least she says it is in there and nobody really knows!!
We have been having quite a few laughs and at the same times lot's has been achieved.

cheers Simon

Day 45 Imbil Sunday 22nd July 2012

Hi Folks,
Standing here in the outdoor kitchen typing since the generator is on.
I went to bed at around 11 last night with the party crowd bashing away in the near distance on their make shift drum kits.
This morning was an easy day almost a day off. Susan as usual was slaving in the kitchen. She didn't have to actually cook breakfast which was BBQ bacon, eggs etc. She prepared a delicious Thai pumpkin soup for lunch.
Prior to lunch we ventured to town to view the market which was very small and the steam train whch was not running. After returning Susan to camp I went back to the hardware to purchase aluminium strip but it had closed!
At lunch the Taiwanese boys made us bubble tea. Pity it was a bit cold The bubbles were made from sweet potato starch! Interesting flavour.
After lunch I had a riveting afternoon completing my tax return a necessary evil since i want the money. I also completed a few chores around the camp. The highlight though was standing and observing the birds in the clearing. I abandoned trying to take pictures of them with my Nikon super zoom since it was focussig poorly and hauled out my Canon. i had forgotten how well it works except for the annoyance of opening and closing the battery door every time I turn it on.

Eastern yellow robin x 4

Grey Fantail

Our new helpX person Michael from Belgium arrived last night after we went to bed. Today was punctuated by the regular crash of falling trees, tall spindly regrowth wattyls.
A relaxed evening meal. Susan had a roast silverside with vegetables and potatoes cooked in the chimenea. An excellent trifle for dessert was prepared by Chris.
The weather is still looking good. Dan has offered us the use of our camp area after he leaves on Friday. We may take this up if the weather is good as there is a bit to see and do.
Goodnight

cheers Simon

Day 44 Imbil Saturday 21st July 2012

Evenin' all,

Tonight's blog comes from beside the bbq area here at Dan's. A fire blazes and the helpers are having a drumming session on improvised drums led by Max.

The sun has been shining again apart from some early afternoon cloud.

The 36X optical zoom at work

Taiwanese helpers at work

Yes I hung this washing

Snow White's six dwarfs, Grumpy closest the camera

  

Native chilli bush

I have been drinking beer!

Susan spent the first full day being camp cook, which went off pretty well. I had no idea what I was doing today. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up lighting a fire to burn lantana and guide the Taiwanese helpers in cleaning up lantana and then levelling the area where the half water tank is to be inverted. For young geeky guys they did a pretty good job considering they are all first year electrical engineering students.
Susan and I both showered in the paddock once we had it to ourselves and I finished a batch of washing.

Tonight has been spent above the "dam" sitting around a campfire with a bbq tea. I have had a few beers so no doubt Dr Cramp will be visiting me in the small hours. Can't wait for that.
As I type our host Dan and his partner Chris have gone to pick up a new helper Mikhal the arborist who has a lot of trees to cut down not that he maybe knows this yet.
Tomorrow I am going to try and see the steam train from the Mary Valley Railway which terminates at Imbil before returning to Gympie.

Night folks

Simon

Chefs de BBQ

Dance like there is no one watching!

Day 43 Imbil Friday 20th July 2012

Evening all,

Glorious sunny day here.
Susan has volunteered to forsake all other duties bar being "camp cook" As well as camp dishwasher, her choice! At least we will have no concerns about being poisoned unintentionally.
We had a belated conversation over morning tea about food allergies and how we hadn't asked anybody . Susan said she might have to turn from camp cook to medic if someone had a reaction. When she said the "m" word I thought she was going to say murderer and voiced same. Much laughter!

While the cook cooked, I took up the brushcutter. I will put this Honda one on my must buy (when I need one) list. It starts brilliantly and now the line feed is working as it should.
Dan and Max finished mounting the solar panels so I started hooking them up after lunch. It was mostly done by dusk.

Man on the roof

Man in the distance on the roof

There were only 5 of us for tea as Kurt and Max disappeared with Dan when he went for his hair cut. Apparently his haircut takes several hours and requires copious alcohol consumption. They weren't back by 840 when we headed off back to our camp. Our camp is much bigger since the boys were down here ripping out the under growth to mount some old water tanks which will be used as formers for hay bale sheds.

Cookie made a nice beef curry for tea with rice. I took the opportunity to light the final burning in fire in the new chimenea. I can't really see the point of these, much of the heat goes up the chimney. However I found sitting right in front of the opening when there were coals to be quite warming.

Anyway that's it.

night all

Simon

Day 42 Imbil Thursday 19th July 2012

Hi folks,
The weather is improving, the drying has begun, which is just as well since we would like to pull the camper trailer out of the scrub at some stage. The ground is definitely not hard enough for the precision reversing required. At the moment it is a matter of thrash along the mud ruts to get close.

The drain rut i got the car stuck in last night

Susan continued on with her kitchen tidying today after helping Dan finish tidying the bus for the three new helpers from Taiwan. They are all electrical engineering students and arrived around morning tea. I couldn't but help looking at their nice clean pale coloured shoes and then at the sloppy red mud on the ground here. One of them speaks exceedingly good English.

I carted 60 litres of water down to the paddock to refill the camper trailer. This afternoon we both had lovely warm showers and only used about 14 litres of water. Susan wanted to buy a pop up shower tent when we were in Gympie until she found out the price. We just stand out in the fairly secluded open! Try not to think of that sight!

This afternoon I was back on my old favourite the brush cutter. Funnily enough the same one as at Gulmarrad except a lot newer in fact almost brand new. Lovely Honda 4 stroke. If only the line feed was better although it might have been the way it was wound on.
Many of the solar panels are up on the roof so I think there is a good chance I will be wiring them together tomorrow.

We had a community tea tonight 9 people in all. Premade lasagne, salad and the highlight, Susan's sticky date pudding which everyone enjoyed.

I left the swag fly unzipped a bit yesterday morning. Susan was having a caniption when I arrived at the swag at bedtime last night since she had been playing around with the torch in bed and found a large centipede up in the corner. I sprayed it and at the same time knocked it down into our "night bottle" No other beasties were sighted.


The weather forecast is still good. It's definitely a better life when the sun is shining and you are not sloshing through mud.


cheers Simon

Day 41 Imbil Wednesday 18th July 2012

Hi folks,
We were awake when the alarm tinkled at 7. There was the pleasant sound of the Whipbird call and the unwelcome sound of rain on the tarpaulin above the swag. the rain continued most of the day making life unpleasant. No solar panels could be installed.

The old put the swag under the tarpaulin trick

The old gecko in the kero fridge trick

Susan continued her kitchen clean up. There is an old kerosene fridge that has been cleaned out and now serves as a pantry. I helped to put up some hanging baskets for vegetables and a candelabra for candles. The kitchen is looking much improved

I started the day repairing the portable solar lights. When I had finished all were working and an extra one installed in the kitchen. Next job was try to get the old 2 stroke generator going. There was no spark and my brain was unable to produce any. I also examined an old lpg kitchen stove to work out what fittings were required to make it functional.
All our jobs were made more difficult by the fairly constant rain.

I had an embarrassing incident just before dusk. I was backing the Pajero in low range back up the drive way and dropped the near side wheels into the drainage trench. Had to use a car ramp and wood to get out. No damage done thanks to the ground being so soft just injured pride.

Susan made a soup for tea which was pretty tasty. There were only three of us as the young boys, Max from France and Kurt from Collinsville had gone to the pub in town. After tea we drove back to camp and had trouble driving in due to the sloppy ground. I tried a couple of times. We are currently back up at the main driveway doing our computer stuff. I will have another try after typing the blog. Going in backwards as per normal.

The weather forecast is for a marked improvement tomorrow and sunny thereafter. I will believe this when I see it.

Cheers from mud central

Simon