Don’t Drive us This Way!

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DAY 404


My plan for the day is to Help Jason and Robert concrete the paths around Merryville, so I was up nice and early and ready to go by 6.15am.

Time is of the essence this morning so we really did need to get a wiggle on before the sun became so hot that it dried the concrete out and it becomes impossible to work with.

Robert had taken the mixer attachment and fitted it on to the tractor and drove it down the lane and I followed in the Patrol, we all met at Merryville where work was to commence. We had copious amounts of ballast and bags of cement and already the day is turning out to be warm, it was 06.30 and about 26 degree’s already.

With the mixer going we started to fill the pre-prepared shuttering and the first section of pathway was taking shape, I was floating the finished top and the back section took us about an hour and a half to complete.

By about 09.30 it was baking, I hadn’t put my hat on and I started to feel a bit strange, I asked Jason where his Esky was as I knew he had load of drink already made up and feeling slightly stranger, staggered to his Esky and dived in to his cordial stash and drank 2 litres straight off without missing a beat, I realised that I had been sweating profusely and was horribly dehydrated, no wonder my hands were shaking, soon my hat adorned my head.

Midday came and we were just finishing off, Jason was really chuffed as he lives in Merryville, though Helen and Robert own it.

The last thing to do, with the last mix of concrete was to go down to the adjoining paddock and use the concrete to fill some new post hole that had been dug and a new sheep drinking trough had been installed, Jason tipped the concrete into the holes and I made sure it all hit its target and the job was strong and tidy, or else Robert would have our guts for garters.

I got back to the Homestead about 12.45, had a shower to remove all the spattered concrete and lay on the bed and had an afternoon siesta.

Just after 2.00pm I woke and made myself some lunch, Helen makes the most wonderful Savoury Slice and there was one piece left, warmed up with a helping of Brown HP sauce it is truly divine.

I sat in the cool of the living room and read my book. I am reading about Len Beadell a guy who carved out many roads through sections of Australia that had never been done, or even seem by a white man before, it all started off when the British wanted to test atomic bombs and Len Beadell got the job surveying the landscape for suitable locations.

One bit of the book fascinated me, their grader broke down and they were 800k’s from anywhere, so they had to tow the grader with the giant Caterpillar Dozer, the only down side was that the dozer could only travel at 3km’s per hour therefore it would take 267 hours to tow the grader 800k’s, based on a 60 hour week.

Caroline and Helen are still out and about, it was the CWA (Country Women’s Association) Christmas lunch today, but Helen also needed a mole removed from her foot this morning, so they headed off to Junee and Caroline was playing chauffeur.

While Helen went in for her minor surgery I dropped a load of gear into Vinnie’s across the road, because Helen and Andy have been sorting out cupboards etc there was another bag full, however they don’t take electrical stuff so the old water chiller remained in the boot of the car.

I’m in charge of the car keys and Helen reappears in the waiting room, so we head off to pick up Margaret, one of Helen’s friends, she has her leg in a surgical boot. Margaret is awaiting an operation as her tendons have collapsed.

We head off with my two invalids in tow and somewhere in Junee we pull up at the church hall, there are a few people here already, I park outside and both Helen and Margaret hobble up to the front door, I see now that I could have got the car up to the front door so I will drive up to the front door to pick them up afterwards.

Inside there are two tables laid out for dinner one of them has a few ladies around already, Helen had told me earlier that I will actually be the youngest here today, she is not wrong, some of these ladies are in their eighties!

Gradually everyone appears and all of the places are taken, I am made to feel very welcome by everyone, I am also being handed a package and a quiz sheet, so I am feeling very included. The answers to the quiz are all place names in New South Wales so I am not expecting to do very well in this, there is one clue that is easy, but the ladies around the table are not convinced, “A luxurious British Car” well that’s easy, its Bentley. Everyone chirps “there isn’t anywhere in New South Wales called Bentley” but apart from Rolls Royce I cannot think of another luxurious British car.

Dinner was lovely, the traditional turkey with all the trimmings, I did not have any wine as I am driving, the answers to the quiz were read out, I actually got two places right, but of course there were some surprised faces when the answer to that inevitable question was in fact Bentley.

Another quiz was to be had over coffee, this one was much easier, unscramble the words, I actually came second so I won a nice bar of soap.

As we were leaving I said to Margaret and Helen that I would bring the car up for them, that idea did not fare so well with Margaret as she exclaimed “No way are you driving me up here, this is where they drive the hearse up!” I guessed that was a no then as both Helen and Margaret hobbled back to the car.

Our day was far from over when we dropped Margaret off, we had to drive into Wagga to collect the pieces from Rorrisons Engineering that Andy and I had popped in about yesterday, they were read for our collection when we turned up, Helen also had to pick up a pump from just down the road, but it was not ready, so we had to make ourselves scarce for another hour and a half.

So we headed off into town and indulged in a coffee to while some time away before heading to Woolworths for a few groceries, except the ice cream, we could not get the ice cream as we had no idea if we had to wait any longer than we were told and with that and a 40 minute drive back to Nangus the ice cream would melt.

We sat and waited for the pump at the counter sitting on chairs we were reading magazines, a guy walked in and said that we must have come to the wrong place, the shops where the other way, “I wondered where the coffee had got to!”

Eventually the pump was loaded into the car and we started to head out of town, then Helen had a great idea to phone Robert and ask if we needed to get any cable and a plug for it. The answer was yes, so I turned around and we went back in.

Once again we headed out of town and this time we successfully escaped arriving back at around 6.00 we find that Robert and Jason had been welding all afternoon a new yard for some of the dogs is being made so the frame work is now ready, they will be concreting in a couple of days.

We find Andy sitting in the cool reading, he comes to help us in with the shopping. He is feeling a little stiff after his concreting this morning, Andy tells us about his day, it sounded like a tough one!

Jason appeared at the door and asked if we wanted to go into Wagga tonight for a meal, Andy and I jumped at the chance to go “out on the town”. So an hour later we picked up Jason and for the second time that day I go back into Wagga.

We ate at a terrific Thai restaurant in the town, we had a great evening with Jason and the food was excellent although I did not eat much as I had already had one dinner today!

As we left the restaurant I could see an abundance of flies swarming in the street lamps, that does not bode well, which became evident when we drove past Woodstock to drop Jason off at Merryville, I could see the bright light out on the lawn, that could only mean that Helen is enticing them away from the house.

When we arrived at the house, we could see them swarming around the windows and doors looking for light indoors, we hurriedly came through the doors and closed out what we could, but looking at the lights on in the kitchen they were already swarming in here.

We switched the lights off and headed for bed, both exhausted, it was a busy day today.

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Photos

Finished Concrete
Down at Merryville

Merryville
Work in progress

Comments

[amanda]

when are you heading off on your travels?