A difficult start to the twenties

The vegetable garden


The hole for the car por

t

Indis abandoned home



Clearing up waste for fire safety.

14.1.2020

The fires are along way off but once again our valley is hazy with smoke.  It is very unsettling and is affecting everyone.  The tourist business, usually at its peak at this time has slowed down and my grandsons have had their holiday work hours cut back.  I feel sorry for them because like everyone else the money they earn in the summer holidays is the most for the year.  The good side of this is that Morg has been free to help us on the farm.  Today he has used the tractor to slash the old hay paddock.  

We are all slashing and clearing to try and reduce the fuel load around the buildings.  The feeling is that we will be very lucky to get out of the fire danger period unscathed.  The fires have worked their way down from Queensland burning all the forests on the Great Dividing Range and they have now arrived in East Victoria.  There is chaos.  Thousands of kilometres of roads are blocked with fallen and dangerous trees and our broad band communication system has been tested and found wanting.  Mobile fire towers burn and here where we have underground copper lines, they come through a junction that needs power and runs out of battery pretty quickly.  The army reserve has been called out and are now helping clear the roads and get supplies into isolated communities.

People are divided into two camps.  One lot say this is the predicted result of climate change and the other group say that there have not been enough controlled cool burns done and that fire is normal.  For us we have watched the climate change. In the eighties and early nineties, we could leave the farm after Xmas and holiday with friends.  Usually we all set off on horseback and camped in the forests.   Sometime after 2000 we found that it was not sensible to leave the farm at this time.  Conditions had changed and plants and animals needed more care to survive the extra heat and dryness.

We felt happier taking a holiday in midwinter. This is quite easy because the north of Australia and the northern hemisphere are warm and welcoming in our winter.  Last year we flew up to Brisbane to see Josh and Bobby which was great.  An added bonus is that the farm work is at its lowest then too. The garden does not need watering and the goats can be milked by hand once a day.  Changing our habits was a no-brainer.  It has now been suggested that more people should adopt this new pattern.

The fire brigades say they have done cool burns but the safe period for doing them has reduced and in some instances their efforts have had no effect on slowing the fires. As far as I can see half the community think we are in a climate crisis and need immediate action and the other half do not believe it is necessary to make any quick changes to their lifestyle. The good thing is that a change has been made so that communities are being kept informed about their local fire threat and are being asked to evacuate. This reduced the number of people dying in the fires dramatically.

Edd and Steve worked all yesterday doing the layout for our new car port. They put in hurdles and worked out where the footings have to go.  Now we are waiting for our friend John to come and dig the footings and do the concrete work.  Joining it all up to our existing courtyard is a bit difficult. Al has drawn us plans but exactly how they work in practice is complicated. Perhaps it will become clearer at the next stage.