Advertisement
BROGO DREAMING
Is there anyone left out there??……..Blog resurrected. In brief, for those of you who came in late, I got back to Australia, I mothballed the passport (for a while), bought some land and plan on building a house.
The Kingdom of Billy is 25 acres (almost 12 hectares) on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere, it is really steep so I get fabulous views, I can even sea the Ocean, at Tathra, 20 kms away.
If you’ve got Google Earth go to E 36 35 00 S 149 48 15
And the new phone is 0408 48 48 75
So there you go, I’ll try and get some photos up but it’s difficult to give a true picture of how it is. And my first video, does it work?
But this is how it is here and now.…..
Driving home from Bega yesterday evening, well it was only 4 o’clock but it looked and felt like 6. I hate this time of year for the limited hours of daylight more than the cold.
But the air was crystal clear. Rolling green pastures, placated, cud-chewing cows, majestic old
gums scattered about, post and rail fences, ramshackle farm houses, it’s all light and shadows, brilliant colours and an overall sense of peace. Lazy crows cawing, the cockies are quiet, the flittering little finches are the only things moving with any urgency.
The grey cloud, stretched across most of the sky. Like a shrunken woollen jumper it couldn’t quite reach the mountains on the horizon. The sunlight shining through this gap held the closer ranges in a ghostly silhouette. Layers of grey blue peaks separated by light mist.
The annual visit of the council grader has smoothed the dirt road and recent rain has settled the usual gritty dust. I’m gliding around the curves, it’s so smooth, like flying, no rush. The ribbon of road follows the contours around the hills. So smooth it’s slippery, soothing, sweet!
As smooth as all those clichés about ribbons of road and rolling hills. Ha.
Occasionally another vehicle passes and we exchange the slightly lifted finger from the wheel. Far Out, I’m being taken for a local! (despite my weird van, but more on that later)
I’m staying in a tiny former farmhouse, built long before the invention of
insulation. So the fire is kept blazing and it’s near-useless fan cranks away pushing back the cold that’s creeping through every crack and gap. But it’s cosy, in a rural sort of way, and I can see my block from the kitchen window.
I went up to the block, The Kingdom of Billy. It seems steeper every time I go up there but the view is always inspiring. This time I’m wandering around like a lonely cloud, trying to find the optimum position for the house.
Unfortunately and inescapably, the power pole that brings my electricity sticks up in the middle-left of my otherwise pristine vista. What a shame.
I make an early start so I can plot the direction of sunrise, (about 61 degrees on the shortest day, 121 on the summer solstice) A family of Eastern Grey kangaroos is grazing at the edge of the kangaroo grass. Hardly surprising! I often disturb them when I’m blundering my way down to the gully. You can smell them long before you see them, but if you can get over that they are very tasty!
Up here I feel so away from it all, isolated on my
KoB
Ocean Glimpses - Tathra - 20kmsmountainous island, surrounded by the mists swirling slowly around in the valleys, way below me.
Some days the plans all seem straightforward and small achievements, like setting out the house site with stakes and tape, makes me feel confident again. I can do this. It is going to be fantastic.
Other nights I wake at 2am. Tick, tick, tick. Plans, and changes of plans, disasters, bushfires, confusion, all race through my brain. The loneliness is getting to me, or rather, how can I ever pull this off? Why am I bothering? Should I just escape it all?
Cold this morning. The thermometer reads minus 2!! I stoke the fire, a few coals still glowing. The “all-nighter” chunk of redgum has done its job. A handful of pine needles and bark chips, a bit of blowing, ash swirls over me, I keep puffing, embers glow, flames start, how very indigenous. Soon it’s ablaze, the dodgey fan pushing out warm air halfheartedly. I turn on all the cook tops to full, I turn on the little tangy heater in the front room. Cold is seeping through the gaps, the cracks, the window radiates coolth, the draft under the doors
KoB
Actual House Site - one day! bites my ankles. The obvious solution is to go over and chop wood.
A few logs split and I warm up. Back’s fucked but I’m warmer. And soon the sun is over the hill and the warmth almost takes me by surprise. I sit on the front step and just soak it up. I really don’t mind the frosty mornings if we get clear sunny days like this.
No wind, it is so still. Crystal clear air, I can see forever.
Another day and a slight win. I have bought a towbar and fitted it to the Deli. The instructions insisted it was a 2 man job, it weighs a bloody ton, but I did it. But I reckon I’ll get the local auto-elec to do the wiring!
Laundromat day yesterday as Dale’s machine has stopped. Another excuse for a trip to town. An old German guy gives me the last of his detergent and explains the strange ways of the dryers.
My jeans are looking rurally authentic so I have to use the Hot Water option. Subsequently my new Chinese pajamas shrink as do the Chinese stupormarket lumberjack shirts. Hmmmm
Back to the
Guard Dog
Out on the Long Paddock ranch and wrestle the fire back to life. It is cold as soon as you’re out of the sun. The romantic ideal of cutting wood, splitting logs, stoking hearths etc is very quickly exploded. It’s noisy, dirty, dangerous, heavy lifting, splinters, sprains, splitter’s back, ash dust and woodchips over everything inside…..and the bloody chainsaw…….don’t get me started, boom boom!
I have splinters in my splinters. Hard to believe but it happened.
At first light, a few days ago, my farmer/landlord took me on his morning feed route. He’s 71 but still gets amongst it like all these guys. Talk to them about retiring at 67 instead of 65 and they laugh! He’s a big man with an incredible voice. Last week, I was chopping wood out front when I heard him ask me something. I looked around in surprise, I hadn’t heard him approach. I couldn’t see him. Then I did spot him, outside the big house, 100 metres away, talking to me like I’m right there. And I could hear him perfectly. I cupped my hands and yelled back as loudly as I could. He could just hear me!!
Out on the feeding round we take 2 of the dogs. These are your specialist working dogs. I had forgotten just how smart they are, and how much they love their work. Richard has a whistle to match his voice and directs the dogs.
One dog has disappeared over the hill, then a distant brown flash and he’s over the next hill, he’s about a kilometre away! A few minutes later he’s coming back, nipping at the heels of 3 reluctant calves. Even without being told he knew his job was to find all the cattle in this paddock and bring them in. Fantastic.
Of course Richard can show no affection. He loves his dogs but you can’t ever be soft with them, like women. (Take that how you read it). But the dogs seem to know I’m a soft touch, city slicker and all that. They call me from the back of the ute and run to me when they are off work duty, grinning and growling, jostling closer for a pat, a kind word, they are so affectionate, like eager lovers they lean in closer for that body contact, pushing so hard into my legs to almost knock me down, licking my hand and slipping their heads under my hands for a chuck behind the ears. Richard doesn’t say anything but I can sense my unprofessional behaviour doesn’t win me any points.
From time to time there will be a mob of cattle out in the ‘long paddock’, feeding on the lusher green grass along the road. There’s been enough rain to green everything up but not enough for the dams or any real growth. Hand feeding is still going on, at least to fatten up the cattle going to market. Out along the road, to stop the cattle going too far, a steel star picket is driven into the road on each side. From each picket a dog is tethered on a chain just long enough to get halfway. Such a brilliant, cheap and effective way to gate off the herd. I usually pull up and have a guilty chat to the dogs.
The cattle slowly stroll the 5kms of road that’s closed off. Some of them stop and really seem to be chatting with the cattle on the inside of the fence. Actually, they could be mothers and calves which would be a bit sad, but others are stopping to talk to the horses as well. Richard has several big, strong horses. He is big in show horses, jumps, he has an old wagon and a team of horses that he drags out for the show and weddings and other events, he is a horseman. I often see him in the mornings just heading off into the bush, comfortably astride one of these monsters.
Sporadically both by day and night they thrash up and down their paddocks, neighing and snorting, chasing the dogs, throwing up great clumps of soil, what is going on here! I maintain my lifelong agreement with horses to leave them alone if they leave me alone.
Sunrise at the Kingdom of Billy on the shortest day, or is that the longest night? A sort of cup-half-full-half-empty argument. I bang 2 nails in line with the point of sunrise into the top of the massive gate post, and saw a groove, a Stonehengian sunrise sightline for future pagan festivities to celebrate the mid-winter solstice, it’s all going to get better from now.
I already know the summer solstice angle and the house is oriented (or should that be, orientated?) so I will be able to watch the sunrise, weather permitting, all year round from my bed. And now I know the Moon follows the same path I will get that too. This doesn’t mean I’ll be spending my entire time in bed. Perish the thought. It is not the only place for watching from. The downside is that I miss sunsets but if I had the choice, Sun and Moon rises rule!
Back down on the farm. The bathroom is part of the house but opens off the back veranda, hence v cold! Signs of winter - the toothpaste is really hard, almost frozen and difficult to squeeze. Rinsing out with tap water is perilous for cold-sensitive teeth, of which I have a few. I’m seriously thinking of heading for Vietnam or Thailand next year and getting implants. Get rid of this mouthful of trouble, pain and expense once and for all. Any tips?
The Coonara firebox takes some mastering. They are all fundamentally the same but all have their idiosyncrasies and it takes a while before one can casually throw in a handful of (exactly the right size) wood chips, couple of logs, tickle the vent and Boomshanka!
In the morning it looks bad. Barely a red glow. The “all-nighter” block of redgum has gone. I throw in a handful of wood chips, smattering of bark, and a couple of smaller splits. Open the vent to 11 and casually walk away. Put the kettle on and get the teapot ready. Sneak a quick glance at the fire, will it go or no. The embers start to glow redder and then flame. Sharp, darting jets like oxy torches curl around the wood. Sparks fly as the dry wood ignites. Soon it’s an inferno and time to back off the vent before all the wood is gone. After 10 minutes I can chuck on a big log, close the vent and turn on the cranky fan that rattles out warmish air over my towel rack. Although it’s warm out in the sun I’ll keep the fire going all day with a couple of big logs and the vent closed down and then crank it up around 5.
Warming clothes in front of the fire, crikey, what an evocative memory, and one that I haven’t thought of for a long time. Especially at night, Pjs over a chair in front of the fire, at this rate, I’ll soon be toasting crumpets over the coals!
And the modest little electric blanket (what is the next size down from Small?) warms just enough of a patch of bed to bliss me totally out as I slip under the double doona, desperately seeking the thin thermal footprint.
Winter is not all that bad………Did I really say that??
Well, the sun is up, the sky is blue, it is perfectly clear and still, it must be time to head off up to the block and cut some more firewood…..how terribly fucking rural!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.167s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 23; qc: 106; dbt: 0.1125s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
