Day 65 Nubeena Thursday 31st March 2011

At Maingon Lookout - Simon and "the kids"


Richmond Bridge


Richmond Bridge


The Dog Line at Eaglehawk Neck

Hi Folks,

Our day off today. That didn't stop us from doing a few little bits and pieces before we hit the road to Richmond with Tatiana, Jimmy and Melody in the back seat.

We arrived at Richmond around lunchtime and agreed to meet back at the car at 3pm. Susan and I went and had lunch at cafe followed by coffee. We then started a tour of the shops. Richmond is an old established town with structures dating back to the 1820's. it claims to have the oldest bridge in Australia at 1823. Aside from a dozen or so old dwellings including a gaol the rest of the town is tourist shops.

Susan purchased a smart wool jacket and me some socks. Before we had explored too much the kids were on the phone indicating they were ready to go. They of course didn't spend an hour having lunch. By the time we sauntered back it was twenty to three.

We took a spin into Hobart over the bridge and drove around the city block before heading back out over the bridge and to Cambridge where the parking is much friendlier. We had a half hour shopping stop where everybody bought something before heading down the well worn trail to Sorell and back to Nubeena. Since the kids were asleep we took the liberty of heading to Remarkable Cave and waking them up when we arrived. We spent some time admiring the views before heading back to the resort.

Ilan has acquired a new goat to replace Zeus. This one is a sister to Ella our remaining goat.

It was then on to another delicious shared tea and hence back to our room to refresh ourselves for tomorrows labours. We have 40 school kids coming next week for 2 nights and three meals each day so preparation has to be done.

Cheers Simon

Day 64 Nubeena Wednesday March 30th 2011 & Postscript

Rebecca and Ella

Hi Folks,

Not a great start to the day today with Zeus our gelding goat laying dead in the corral. Ilan and I lifted him onto the garden cart and wheeled him out the back. We then dug a largish hole utilising an existing large rabbit burrow and that was that. I did go out and see him last night at around 930 and gave him a pat on the head so that was a goodbye of sorts.

After a quick run around the pool and last minute discussion of what to buy on the way I hit the road for the airport to pick up two new helpers. We returned to Nubeena where I called time for the day workwise at 3:30.

Whilst we are out in the sticks we do have access to government services. I did a Medicare claim through a little booth and hotline they have in the medical centre. Went very smoothly and I will have the money in my account tomorrow.

The weather has turned dirty again with rain and strong winds. We are off tomorrow and are heading to Richmond along with 3 helpers which should be a fun day.

Night folks

Cheers Simon

POSTSCRIPT.......


During the cattle herding

I spent part of the morning on the farm helping Helen, doing various cleaning tasks around the house. I also had the opportunity to help Bob with the cattle once again. All having gone well last time when we moved them from the lower paddock to the higher paddock, the return exercise was approached with some confidence. Thats where it all went wrong.... Bob is quite cautious about moving the cattle to and from the higher paddock as it is only 20 metres from the main Nubeena road. Today Bob wanted to divide the herd for market and introduce the newer creatures to those who were staying to pasture for a bit longer. First the cattle were moved from the higher paddock into the yard adjoining the house and sale pen, once divided the cattle were moved through the gate and introduced to the newbees, then the combined herd of 15 or so were herded to the lower paddock adjoining the beach road.

All went well until 4 of the herd trampled through the bush and got onto the beach (something they have done before) with me in hot pursuit. After a energetic workout trying to keep the creatures together and save my boots from the sea water, Bob came to the rescue on the motor bike. After some fancy stick waving and gentle talking we were able to get the cattle into the paddock. I was swearing under my breath and hoped to hell that cattle can't sense fear, after all they ARE BIG, it wasnt too long ago I wouldnt walk through a paddock of cows so I have come a long way....

I lunched with Helen on delicious fresh picked corn and left over vegetable goulash from last nights chanting, had a chat about various topics then hot footed it out the door to the Zumba class up the road 5 minutes at ther Koonya Community Hall.

An hour later I was on the road heading back to the resort to start work for 2pm.

Life is interesting "on the road".

Susan

Day 63 Nubeena Tuesday 29th March 2011

Good evening,

It was back in the harness today for the oldies after a day off. All the usual suspects were there for me work wise.

Items of note, The chickens flight feathers have grown back and they have been escaping so they were locked in their cage tonight and will have a "haircut" in the morning. The vacuum cleaners here seem to have a high attrition rate. I found another one that is out of service due to broken pins on the plug. I must find an old plug and see how much effort is required to break the pins!

Our gelding goat Zeus is a bit of a concern at the moment. He has been sitting on the ground all day today not eating. I hope he is not going to snuff it as it will require a big hole to be dug to bury him! Besides that I would miss the daily wrestle as he takes off across the paddock with me holding the rope. Actually I have got him sussed out. The best strategy is to run along behind him because he can only sprint for 10 metres or so and then stops. He may be strong be he isn't fit! To paraphrase the old King Gee ad "Don't back chat me I know goats"

One of Susan's tasks today was to get the helpers to do an inventory of the rooms. To facilitate this she had kitchen implements lined up and was teaching the English names to the helpers with much hilarity. For being good students they were rewarded with chupa chups.

This evening Susan went to chanting while I stayed home doing some catch up. Looks like I might have some joy with my walkie talky batteries. I have to send them back to the shop in Adelaide and make sure they go by land parcel post since lithium batteries are banned from airfreight which rules out express post. Obviously in your hand baggage in the form of phones and laptops etc they are ok. Seems to be a bit of a gap in the logic there. Maybe it's because baggage gets rougher treatment than personal hand luggage!

I hear tonight I am driving to Hobart tomorrow (again) to pick up more helpers so there is another opportunity to catch up on some jobs lost. I might get to do some shopping instead!

The great weather continues here. let's hope it lasts until Thursday our day off!

Night all

Simon

Day 62 Nubeena Monday 28th March 2011

EagleHawk Neck



Lagoon Beach



Lagoon Beach



Mount Wellington in the background



Driftwood



Barnacles on a Raid Aerosol



Tessellated pavement



Tessellated pavement



Tessellated pavement



Tessellated pavement


Hi Folks,

Day off for us today. We started off with a spa and sauna and after a little bit of house keeping headed to Lucky Ducks for coffee. When we went to pay they said "this one is on the house seeing as it is your day off" Bonus!

We then drove to Lime Bay and walked to Lagoon Beach. A nice spot in glorious sunny conditions. I tried to shoot a panorama from the dunes with my video camera but the battery died after about 5 seconds. We walked the length of the beach. At he northern end on the rocks were some reasonable size mussels and a few oysters and lots of cunjevoi. After traversing the length of the beach we returned via different track which was a bit indistinct. However the GPS came into it's own and we bush bashed about 100 metres back onto the track. A total distance of around 10km.

From Lime Bay we drove to Eaglehawk Neck the narrow isthmus that joins the peninsula to the island proper. We feasted on squid and chips followed by fresh berries and ice cream. Next stop was the Tessellated Pavement another interesting weathering feature with the same strata weather in two different ways.

We skipped back to Nubeena in time for our communal tea prepared by Ilan and Lynne which was excellent. We also had a formal introduction to Agnes our new helper from France.

Back to the reality of work tomorrow but at least the weather is looking good! It's a great life!

cheers Simon

Day 61 Nubeena Sunday 27th March 2011

The last night night of our trip away. Dora Point free camp Bay of Fires. 140mm of rain after we left



The view from our unit window in the morning



The view from our door



The indoor, pool, spa and sauna area



Seems all so familiar!


Good Evening,

The weather gods were smiling today with glorious sunshine which bodes well for our day off tomorrow.

Nothing much out of the ordinary happened today. The usual stuff. I have the pools under control although we are not doing all the chemical testing we should do. Because we are a public facility we also need to be doing microbiological testing of the pool and spa. Funny though I can't find any specific reference for a legionella test on the spa. The testing will cost in excess of a hundred dollars a month not to mention the fact the samples have to be refrigerated and delivered to Hobart within 6 hours. That will make the boss happy!

The boss disappeared for the whole day leaving the lunatics in charge of the asylum. We are a gang of 5 at the moment which means I have no assistant to help me with the "man" stuff. We have another female helper arriving tonight apparently plus a couple later in the week. We have spent tonight reviewing our time sheets and realised we didn't have a day off this week (the week finishes on Sunday) so we will have 2 this week.

I emptied the water out of the roof bag again today and dried it out. I will not be recommissioning it until we leave Tassie. In fact the way I feel about it a burning ceremony might be in order!

cheers Simon

Day 60 Nubeena Saturday 26th of March 2011

Hi Folks,

Another routine day in the resort. Gutter cleaning, lawn mowing and being the pool man.

We decided to press our UHF handheld radios into service since I can be hard (or to check up on to make sure I am not goofing off) to find at times as the resort is a fairly large area. Therein lies the latest headache. it looks like both batteries that came with my 5 Watt Uniden unit are stuffed. They don't seem to hold charge. I can buy new ones from Uniden for the princely sum of $130 each! So I am not happy Jan. Mind you I shouldn't be the surprised as the cells and batteries are made in China that bastion of quality manufacturing.

Anyway onto more pleasant things. We went out to a concert entitled "WimminSing" at the Koonya Hall tonight with Ilan and Lynne. The $20 entry fee included a glass of wine. Four local women each sang three pieces and a couple of combined pieces. For some unfathomable reason I did not take my HD video camera so I have posted some very vague video shot on phone cam. Susan and I also drank a bottle of red purchased at the bar plus a cheese platter. We sat at a table of people we don't know so we got to meet some more locals and talk about raising chickens which is a bit of a worry! I might be going yokel. Anyway all jokes aside it was a good evening.

cheers Simon

Day 59 Nubeena Friday 25th March 2011

Hi All,

Just a short one tonight.

After ingenious Heath Robinson cobbling together of a 25mm irrigation line from the high pressure water supply from the creek to an old fire hose and then to a garden hose and shoving the whole thing into the blocked stormwater pipe from both directions I unblocked it. A small win. Followed by the joy of cleaning 50 metres of gutter. The bloody goats got into the chookhouse last night after I left the door open and vandalised it. I am researching goat recipes to suggest to the boss hehe.

Susan had a busy morning including a trip to see Helen and Bob to do some work in the farmhouse. We are a bit light on for helpers at the moment, although having said that there is only one room to clean tomorrow since the rest of the guests are staying extra nights so there will be a few special projects on the go.

We actually seem to be making headway in settling in and setting up some systems. I am trying to get a handle on what we need to be doing in the pool treatment/testing area to conform to the requirements of the local council.

We had some nice rump steak for tea tonight cooked by myself. I managed to get some flames in the microwave when I was warming the butter. I am not used to butter wrapped in aluminised paper. Fortunately I was standing next to it when the flames erupted so was able to pull it out and extinguish it before any damage occurred. I did fell like a bit of a tool though especially with the hierarchy in the kitchen!

Hope you all have a great weekend. Weekends here are much the same as weekdays really except we don't have the luxury of the support staff so longer hours for Susan on reception.

Next Tuesday we get our first pay! A landmark of sorts

Cheers Simon