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Safe and Sound

Posted by on May 18, 2014

Today was a little less dramatic then yesterday, I awoke around eight after having sat up with Fi until 1am watching the smoldering heap that was a pile of rubbish 24 hours earlier. The pile had reduced down nicely, although there was a lot of metal rubbish in it that obviously didn’t burn.

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Was still very hot and I could see a few places where the pile was glowing red like a furnace on the inside as the morning breeze fanned the flames.

Tara, hearing me wake also decided to come out, so for the next few hours the two of us rode around the block on the quad bike, exploring and having fun, Ruby never far behind.20140518-202305-73385283.jpg

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About 9:30 I decided that I had better start tending to the smoldering pile, so with my shovel and rake I reduced its footprint by slowly shoveling the sides in on top until I had a nice sized pile. Then the fun began as I started to pour water all over it. The water bubbled and spat in the heat, in some cases evaporating before it even hit the pile!!!20140518-202838-73718531.jpg

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Jess soon joined Tara and I as we made trip after trip to the dam with a 10L water container. Tara started on my quad bike, and Jess raced along on theirs. After a while, Tara wanted a go as well, so Jess would drive to the dam, and Tara would drive back, whoever wasn’t driving was on the bike with Dad.

This went on for about half an hour before the sound of the quads finally roused Fi and I thought it was time to stop for breakfast.

After a quick bite, it was time to start pouring water again. Once again, the girls raced back and forth from the dam, swapping on each leg. As their bike wasn’t as fast as mine, as soon as we would arrive at our destination the girls would swap and take off as I was either gathering or pouring water. This went on for ages, and the girls got more and more confident at riding their quad bike.

Jess quickly realized that while waiting at the first dam, she had time to have a bit of fun, so started riding to the second dam. Once she saw us arrive, she would come at full speed across the field, bouncing and laughing the whole way with a massive grin on her face 😀

Of course it was only a matter of time, and as Tara and I arrived back at the dam we saw Jess crying in the field with the quad bike on its side. I raced over and luckily she was ok. Helmets really are a good thing!! I raced her back to the van where Fi put some ice on her bruises and after a while she was all good again. Got a few war wounds to show for it.

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20140518-202946-73786924.jpgAt least she didn’t do any real damage and even got back on the bike later in the day as we were packing up. Brave little girl that one 🙂 and now she understands why you need to keep an eye out for the ditches in the field and not just go flat stick all the time.

Anyway, the day itself was absolutely gorgeous, so we made the most of it and took our time packing up. Once the fire was deemed safe enough, I went for a good ride around the block. I really do love having my Quad Bike back and working again 🙂 I probably did around 4 laps of the place before stopping, heading along the fence line and into more groves of trees that I hadn’t yet explored.

Once I returned to camp, I even managed to get Zac out taking Tara for joy rides. He was a little apprehensive at first as he was worried he would break Dad’s quad bike again. Wasn’t long before he was grinning and having fun. How many 12 year olds get to drive a big quad bike around a farm?

So it was about 4:30pm  by the time we finally made our way out the front gate and headed home. Another great weekend of fun and Fi commented on the way home that it felt like we’d had a holiday.

PS – Now Zac takes great delight in pointing out that the last time we left, we said it would probably be months before we came back up due to the weather… so this time I told him the truth… “We will be back as soon as we possibly can!!”

Sorry mate, your friends and computer games will just have to wait!

Until the next adventure… have fun 🙂

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