A difficult week

May 28 2016

At last we have sunshine again.  All week it has poured with rain and been really cold.  Last night I lit the main fire as well as the wood stove, so at least the house keeps warm.  This week has been pretty full on.  I started the farm work as early as possible and then left home between 9 and 9.30 am to drive into Melbourne.  The traffic varied every day, but I quickly learnt to leave Edd after lunch so that I could escape before rush hour and get home in the light.  This way I could get back to do the animals every evening and Josh helped by bringing the dogs in at night and giving a last feed to the calf.

The calf, Josie, has grown fast and this week we have fed her the spare milk to avoid any wastage.  We dehorned her with help from Josh but it is too soon to see if this was effective.  I hope so, because one day she could make someone a lovely house cow.  The goats stayed inside the shed for most of the week because of the weather.  I have used up two bales of straw for their bedding but at least they are converting it into good fertilizer so it is not wasted.

I have eaten the first of the broccoli from the garden.  Everything is shooting up there and I have been out so much this week that I have barley eaten at home. Bo has looked after Josh and I, so we have actually been a bit spoilt.  Indi has been sick all week, but even she dragged herself out of bed and made sure the horses got their hay.   Once again I am so lucky having such a supportive family.  All the kids have visited Edd, with Bo, Josh and I visiting every day.  Wayne saw him last night and today just Bo went in because I needed time to do all the neglected tasks here.

The hospital says that he will be allowed home tomorrow or Monday.  He still has a lot of swelling above his knee but they say it will clear up as fast at home as in hospital.   It will be easier when he is home because the 3 to 4 hours driving I do to get to town have made for long tiring days. 3-4 hours on the road, 3 hours farm work and 3 hours with Edd pretty much uses up most of the day!

Edd tells me that he has now been using his crutches and can get himself to the shower. He has to achieve certain targets to be allowed out and he is getting fed up with being shut in one room, despite all the attention. It will be weeks before he can drive or do much even at home so I expect he will get cabin fever here too.

I got paint for the shower but the instructions say leave the render to dry for 28 days and this means it is a week before I can start.  At least I could work on the areas around the drain holes today.   They were a bit rough when I moved the masking tape and I need a smooth surface for the waterproofing.  A small amount of progress is all I can do in the short term.