We got a slab…

Finally, after months of waiting, wet ground, bog holes and lots of weekends building a gravel road, the slab for the shed got poured 🙂

So, this weekend we took a quick trip up the Hume to check it out. Left late on Friday night after the girls returned from a Movie night at the school and arrived under the cover of darkness at Little Duna. Our wood supply had diminished somewhat during our week up here last holidays, but it was a warmish night and we still had enough for a small fire before calling it a night.

Now for some crazy reason, Fi had decided to get Kushi groomed during the week and first thing in the morning he undid all the good work by rolling in the dirt and leaves… wasn’t long before his coat was covered in grass, sticks and leaves…

Lucky he is cute!!

This was our first hot weekend up here in a while, with the mercury soaring to 34 degrees on Saturday. Sit in the sun for a few minutes and that winter white skin was turning pink (as I discovered…) and even in the shade it was very warm. We spent the day chasing the shadows in an attempt to keep cool… all except Ruby that is who was more than happy to take many swims in the dam. She has even taken to dipping her head under water to stay cool, although still cautious of not getting in too deep.

Now I know you were keen to see the block green Dad, but unfortunately I think you have missed your chance this year as the grass is already starting to turn brown. While there is still a green tinge in places, it is nowhere near what it was a few weeks ago when Little Duna was a meadow of lush green grass. The good news is this means it won’t grow any higher this year… I still haven’t worked out how I am going to mow it yet and it is already a good 20-30cm high in spots. Will have to sort that out before long or it will become a bushfire hazard!

 I had a number of small jobs I wanted to achieve on this trip, and my first job of the day Saturday morning was to fix the loose chain on the quad bike. Armed with the knowledge I had gained from watching YouTube videos during the week, I sat down first thing in the heat of the morning and tightened the chain.

Excited to be back on the quad bike again, I jumped on and went for a spin…

Unfortunately I didn’t get far as when I stopped at the first dam to give Ruby a swim, I noticed the suspension seemed a little spongy. As I took off I heard the rear mudguard touching the tyre and on inspection discovered that I had once again snapped the suspension 🙁 Same place it broke last time! At least I was able to lift it and rest it on the frame. As long as I didn’t go too fast or over too many bumps I was able to slowly drive up and back from the front dam to give Ruby plenty of swims to cool off.

My next job of the day was to take a look at the generator, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get it going… got me stumped, it won’t even turn over or try to start. It is like the battery is completely dead, even though I charged it off the car to 13.5 volts. Guess I will have to make a trip up with the trailer to bring it back for repair. Was a real pain as we could have had the air conditioner running in the van all weekend 🙁

Instead, the kids complained all day long. “It’s too hot…” became a mantra for them and we couldn’t persuade them to take a walk and give their parents a rest!!

Instead, we took a drive into town and had lunch at the cafe. Was as we returned to the block in the afternoon that I decided to give Zac a little surprise…

He jumped out to open and close the gate, and I pulled up near a tree to grab a log of wood I had left behind when I had been cutting a branch with the chainsaw months before. I threw it up on the roof rack and as Zac ran up to the car I grabbed him and pushed him into the drivers seat…

“Time to lear how to drive…” I said to a bewildered Zac. “Mum will  teach you…” as I shut the door and began walking back to camp. hehe

Fi talked him through the basics of driving and we let him drive the car slowly up the driveway back to camp while the girls freaked out in the back that Zac was driving!

Zac was pretty chuffed with himself, but what was an attempt to  teach him the wonders of the world beyond the computer (how many other kids his age get the chance to drive 500m up a driveway), it kind of backfired as he spent the next 30 minutes asking if he could have another go!!!

Never one to waste an opportunity, I offered Zac a deal… “If you can double the wood pile, I will let you drive up and down the driveway twice!!”

Never seen Zac so keen to help gather wood, and it wasn’t long before we were well stocked for the nights fire, and probably the next two as well 🙂

Zac now thinks that every time we head in or out of the property he is going to drive, but I got news for him!!

For dinner that evening we headed into the pub and were greeted like locals (they remembered us from last time) and we sat in the new beer garden to eat our tea.

The beer garden had only opened on Thursday after being renovated and was a pleasant change from sitting in the hot pub on such a nice night. Note for next time though… Bushman up before coming in as right on dusk the mozzies came to pay us a visit. Shame as it would have been nice to sit out there and have a few drinks now that Zac can drive us back….

Just kidding…. no really it was a joke!!

No way I’m going to let Zac drive after a few beers!!!

(that was a joke too in case you couldn’t detect the sarcasm!)

Anyway, suppose I had better show you why we came up… we got a slab!

Yea alright, it is just a slab of concrete, but I was pretty excited!!

This means that within a few weeks, the builders will be onsite and it won’t be long until we have a shed 😀

So with a bit of luck, the next time we head up there we will have somewhere else to hang out, and I can finally move the quad bike in under cover.

In the mean time, I’ll leave you with a picture of the greenest area I could find that hasn’t yet died out under the hot sun… Our oasis, the second dam.

Just checked out a few of the photos taken from the same spot over the last few months… amazing the way the land changes every time we come up.

Cheers