Drama in the community

February 2 2017

The Landcare BBQ in the ruin went really well. Edd did a wonderful job cleaning up all the edges and paths and we set the tables with clothes and spaced them around the inside and outside areas.  This worked well because much to everyone’s surprise 38 people turned up so we needed space.

We did house tours and a hands on goat milking session before the BBQ began and everyone had a lot of fun before feasting on local food and wine. Angie and her husband did the meat cooking and sorted out the food and I only had to provide the chairs, tables, crockery and cutlery.   We were helped by the weather that was in the pretty much perfect range for outdoor partying.  The next week was quite good too because the house and garden were all so well cleaned and worked on that I had a relaxing week.

Bo had a much worse time.  A local man received a suspicious parcel in the mail with a mobile phone attached.  He put it in his car and drove to the police station, which sent the police into overdrive mode.  (It would take a bomb to do that in Yarra Glen).  The police put the town into lockdown; stopping all, traffic from entering and calling in the bomb squad.   I have no idea what they found but local rumour blames it on a feud between two guys who live here.   Recently a car was torched in a driveway near Bo and the shops are continually being broken into.  There was also a domestic incident involving the drug Ice.  This one had overhead helicopters and a police break in.  The locals are sure they know who the culprits are but the police have not put a stop to it yet.

Everyone is a bit sensitive after the incident in Melbourne recently when a guy drove a car down the pavement killing 6 and injuring 30.  So many people we know were very close.  Bo was doing an exam a block away and nearly went down that street to get lunch before the exam started!  Some other friends were outside Flinders station when the guy was spinning the car round.  The drug thing has got really bad everywhere.   Yarra Glen seems a very unlikely place for bomb scares.

On the farm life goes on as we begin what is usually the driest month of the year.  We have emptied the new water tank by the shed and are in the process of cleaning it, repairing it and getting a roof put on so that the water we collect next will be clean enough to use domestically.  We are also still moving the dead trees that keep on falling and destroying fences so that we can get those fences repaired and new ones put up.

The goats have ignored all the fences, electric and otherwise because it is blackberry season and they traditionally graze on the hill at this time.  They seem to think that they have rights to keep their own traditions going in cases like this. Last night, Ninki was missing and Edd and I walked miles inspecting gullies and the bush looking for her.  I walked all over the hill calling and Edd went to the top of the gravel pit paddock.  We gave up when it got dark and fed the small kids where much to our surprise we found Ninki in with the female kids!  I was too relieved to be cross, but we are feeling very sore today after all the walking and clambering over fallen trees in gullies last night!