Wet weather camping

This last week has been very tiring.  We had 21 teenagers for the week camping in tents and the heaviest, longest rain event that we have endured for years.  I have now decided that even with the fire danger I prefer drought.   Normally on camps we program for the mornings and evenings and the school has lesson plans for the afternoons.  For a multitude of reasons, no afternoon planning was done, the food planning also went off kilter.

Wet, hungry teenagers are no fun, so I ended up cooking sausages and vegetables in the house on Thursday. (I was told the smell of meat cooking was not acceptable for the vegetarians and vegans). Anyway, everyone got a good feed. Those who got wet the night before slept in the donga, and spirits were raised.  Luckily, the woman teachers swapped on Wednesday and the new arrival (who always has something well planned) not only brought a good craft activity but also collected the cooking plans and other camp information that had accidently been left in a super-market on Monday during the trip here.

The other problem was that the phones brought here were not Telstra phones and could not get reception. That meant that we had we had people in and out of the house at all hours using our phone.  As I said it was a very tiring week, but the students are lovely, and we actually got some good things done.

One group dug up garlic in the old orchard, whilst another group helped Edd get down fallen trees for firewood. The third group prepared the oldest water tank for repainting and cut back the mulberry trees that blocked the road, and the final group cleared out the drains round the ruins.  This last activity was very timely, and the flooding would have been much worse if it had not been done.

Today, when everyone has gone the sun has reappeared.  I have prepared the last of the pears for freezing and harvested most of the remaining nashi pears. Both trees have given masses of huge juicy fruit this year.  We are still getting beans too. I will appreciate them when we are stuck with winter vegetables.  We are getting tomatoes but like other people around here we are having a bad year with them.  I usually have huge buckets to store but they are only just ripening now.  

The best news of the week is that Al got the new roof on his house before the rain event. He is now putting back useful things like the kitchen and the fireplace.  Everything went well and hopefully his baby will hold on another two weeks and then it will be all back to a manageable state before the birth.

The saddest event of the week has been hearing that one of our dearest friends from the NT has passed away. She was someone very special and had lived an amazing life.  One Xmas when she stayed with us, she told us tales of her early life that beat any novel.  We met her when she was teaching with Edd in Yuendumu and have kept in contact for years. The world seems a lesser place without her.