Gone Fishin'

---

DAY 428


So we woke up to a lovely warm morning at Woodstock, and as usual there are lots of things to do which is nice, Robert has a long wax coat which he wears obviously when he is out with the sheep in the wet and it needs re waxing, so Helen has heated the wax in a saucepan of hot water and we are ready to reproof the coat, so I lay it out over the little table on the veranda and start to rub in the wax.

Soon the coat is complete and it looks pretty good, I’m sure it will keep Robert nice and dry when the bad weather comes.

Helen has wandered off and is starting to tidy her sons old room who now lives in Canberra, James’s stuff is still dominating his room even though he left home a good few years ago and now Helen really does need a work room for her to be able to carry on her passion for patchwork and other needlework. We are soon all involved with the big sort out re shuffling stuff and vacuuming it all down so its all nice and clean and tidy.

We set aside a lot of boxes that were to be re assigned to the storage container and assured Helen that they would all be taken up to the container later today when it gets cooler.

Another job I am eager to get going on is the plough for Helen, yes, I said the plough, Helen has had it for many years and it sits on a concrete pad near the fish pond it is probably 100 years old or more and is a little rusty, everytime it rains it probably gets a little more rusty so Helen has decided to give it a lick of paint, before Christmas we brought some gloss black and were just waiting to get around to the job.

The afternoon is very hot, well seriously though it’s baking, I have a look at the thermometer in the kitchen it reads 40.2 degree’s at 4.25pm in the afternoon,(sorry Britain, we know you are freezing, we are not trying to rub it in.)

Caroline and I carried the plough into the garage and I set about working on the metal with a wire brush, then when it was suitably prepared I gave it a good coat of undercoat and left it to dry.

We needed a change of scenery and had dropped over to Merriville I needed some very technical advice from Jason, he had graciously given us a fishing rod and as we had picked up some sinkers and hooks from BCF I needed to know how to “Rig Up” the line, as the only other time I have ever fished, as I have said before, was actually with the Truman Family on 80 Mile Beach up towards Broome.

So over at Merriville Jason and Kristy both give us their in depth advice on setting the line up and not only do they give us their advice but they also rig the line, which is just fantastic, the rod is now ready to go.

We go back to Woodstock and I carry on with another coat on the plough and at about 7.00pm we check with Helen as to what time dinner is as we think we can fit a little test fishing in.

The rod is put on the roof rack and bungeed on, and we are off down to the Murrumbidgee river with a piece of bread and the rod.

We have not got a fishing licence, as we honestly did not know that we needed one so that is something that we must get done. However putting that aside for a practice fish we park the truck and came up with our plan if any one asked us if we had a fishing licence we would just say that we are stupid poms who do not know any better and we will get one.

Well we stood on the low level bridge for an hour or so with our rod and some bread, “Feeding the Fish” we didn’t catch anything but we both had a great time for our first time out and as time was rolling on we thought we had better get back to the farm as we did not want to inconvenience Helen by being late for dinner. Even though Caroline cannot eat fish, we both commented that it was quite relaxing dropping a line in the water.

When we got back Helen was standing in the pond bailing it out, you could see her peering over the top throwing water on the garden, Helen signalled with the question “What size fish did you catch?”

We park the truck and walk over to her still standing in the pond, or the executive dog bath as we call it, I flick my flip flops off and get in to lend my assistance and we soon get all the water bailed out.

Caroline is watching Kimba and Tiny play in the garden, tiny is concentrating hard on something that is in the bushes, it is not long before Caroline shouts out “Tiny’s caught something!” Sure enough we can see a Tiny little lizard poking out of her mouth, she drops it to play with it, but Caroline has a look and it is too late the lizard is already dead, but the trouble is that is the nature of this breed of dog. Despite Tiny’s persistence none of us want to talk to her as she killed the lizard.

Robert is still out drenching the sheep and its 8.30 on Saturday evening, so Helen asks us if we would like our dinner, so we sit down and tuck in to our dinner.

Darkness has fallen and I go and set a light up just out side the garage and carry on with the plough, it’s a beautiful evening, there are stars out by the millions and so are the bugs, I have achieved what I wanted to get done and feel quite contented.

Well the weather men or people should I say to be politically correct, were not wrong today, we Skyped our friends Gary and Karen in Tamworth (England), they are both wrapped up warm in big towelling dressing gowns and Karen shows us her sheepskin slipper boots to keep her feet warm, they show us (via the web cam) there snow ridden garden and tell us that it just started to snow again, it looks beautiful and a stark contrast to the weather here, by the time we closed the call it was 9.00pm and it was still 33.3 degree’s.
The night remained warm we slept under a sheet.

So until tomorrow bloggers, and we get back to doing something a little bit different.

---

Photos

Caroline on the Murrumbidgee
Giving the rod and try out

Some like it hot
And some don't

Fishing
In the late afternoon sun

Helping out
Helen never stops, so I stepped in to help

Comments

[Jan]

Have been engrossed in your blog last few days - catching up since we met at Wangi Falls, Litchfield. Top performance - thanks for such quality writing and photos. Bursting to see you again - hopefully soon in Canberra. Keith and Jan