Tuesday. Time to pick up the fibre cement sheets for the outside walls.

Mick called Bunnings to check if they had any trailers and they did.

We drove in to Bunnings. Their trailers were pretty small.

We asked for 14 sheets and they said they had them.

Then came time to load. How to load sheets on the little trailer? They gave us two 3 meter 3×2 inch planks and laid them strait on top of the trailer and then the sheets on top. If we returned the trailer by closing at 17 it would be complementary.

They only had 10 sheets and we should go to Bunnings in South Kempsey for the rest. We had a map and the guy wrote on it where it was. We were off.

According to his directions we ended up on a private property and that guy gave us new directions for the other side of the main road.

Off again to Kempsey Industrial Area for a new search. Ask again and finally we found it. Very small sign said Bunnings. They guys from the other Bunnings had called so they were waiting for us and loaded the 4 last sheets.

We decided to skip lunch and eat at home depending on time. At turn off to Nulla Nulla one of the bands had been cut by the sheets and was loose. One more was on the way to be cut. Rearrange and tighten again. After a while the band was cut again and the load had shifted. After a while it had shifted backwards and was  part down into the trailer. One 2×3 had broken also. On to Postmans and we drove very carefully.

Almost home the load had shifted forwards and was very near to cut into the tail gate od the car. We had to unload all of it and arrange again. This time one side down in the trailer.  And we were so close to home.

Young Daniel came by on his motorbike and gave us a message from his dad that he would come either Sunday or Monday. We were just tightening the bands so we didn´t need help.

At the house we unloaded and drove back across the creek. We had a very late lunch in the ute on the way back to Kempsey. Jen feeding Mick. Returned the trailer and all was well. Made it on time.

Wanted an ice cream. McDs machine was broken so we went to KFC. Ate-drank it on a field outside Kempsey. It was to soft.

Now home again. Of course on the way home, tired and wary, a tree had fallen over the road and pulled another tree and some branches with it. Out and deal with that shit. Lucky it had not happened when we had the trailer and load! Finally that day was over. We were too tired to cook and just had sandwiches for din.

Not long after we moved to the bush our son came over for a visit. He took his driving licence this year and has both driven on right and left hand side so we did not worry too much about that part. Sydney on the other hand can be a handful to drive in but he fixed it and came up to us in one day. We met up in Kempsey and the last part Mick went with him in the rental so he could point out the parts of the track where you have to be more careful. So on sons first trip he saw lots of cows, wallabies, dragons and goannas on the road.

Since he staid for ca three weeks he got to join in many of our activities.

Skinny dipping in the creek for instance. A real treat not many people can do today. In the 70 and 80:ies bathing naked anywhere was normal in Sweden but has fallen out of practice due to all the immigrants with odd religions.

Walking in the rainforest.

Filling the water tank, a chore that takes about an hour. 

Just hanging on the veranda (doing his work) in the warm weather, fighting the biting March flies, watching the wallabies jump by and meeting the cows. The cows at night can give you a scare. They look like aliens with their red eyes widely apart making you wonder what the hell that is!

The kookaburras insane laugh and out here they have a wide veriety of laughing. But then it is spring too.

Actually at one time the March Flies got to us so we hung up a mozzie net in the trees to be able to eat in peace.

Having a beer at the nearby pub (45 min away).

Filling the gas bottles at the General store.

Helping out picking the immediate garden clean from glass.

Chopping down trees and moving earth and composts.

Doing the laundry. Rubbing, rinsing, wringing and hanging. All by hand.

Looking at the possum and other odds and ends.

Finally the end came and it was time for him to drive down to The Big Smoke and fly home.

He said he like it out here. That warms our hearts.

We miss him and we call the guest room “sons room” at the moment.

How do we get daughter & family over now? Hmmm.

Christmas Day went by with the following happening. We had to fill the water cistern. We saw our first red belly slither in under the house. Another chore coming up: cleaning up under the house so you can safely work there. Skyping with daughter and her little modern family. We got a good long rain too, all evening and night.

We picked a road into the forest and this is what we saw.

It must be the fountain of the Stag horn ferns and epiphytes!

It was jaw dropping, overwhelming and breathtaking and we will never tell where we saw them.

Everything around the house and property needs a lot of tender loving care, even rough loving care. The trees for instance need a lot of pruning. Does that count for tender or rough when you saw off a branch? Well other things you can work on while waiting for the tea water to boil. The floor.

A slab house/cabin is a cabin built without nails or screws. Modern slab cabins have corrugated metal as roofs. These of course have screws. Our cabin is a bit more modern and is nailed or screwed in some places. A slab cabin is also built with green wood. When it dries it leaves small spaces.

So you can see out without windows if needed, or into the next room or through to the ground under the house if you want to know where you put that piece of furniture that did not fit in the the cabin.

Anyway, when I wait for the water to boil or something else I take an old kitchen knife and poke the spaces clean from earth. I manage maybe two or three meeters at a time. Over the years crap has collected there, gotten moist or even wet and composted into soil. Sometimes there is a shard of glass or a nail, screw or other small things also. So I poke it up and sweep, sort and throw where it belongs. Bit by bit.

I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. Insects for instance now have even better access to living with us.

We will put carpets on the floors come winter. Some wood is rotten and some is termite eaten.

The sellers have also hidden some planks under slabs of other wood.

We are still treasure hunting.

We take our water directly from Five Day Creek.

It is clean enough to drink but we filter the drinking water anyway. It is about 200 meters from the cabin to the creek.

About every two weeks we must fill up the 3500 liter tank. The petrol powered pump is not connected permanently so it has to be taken down to the creek and be connected to  the hoses stored there. The reason for not having a permanent connection is that flooding in the summer would wash it away.

Checking the oil and filling up the fuel tank of the pump.

Down at the creek it is time to connect all the hoses

All clear at the tank!

Filling up the tank takes about 45 minutes of pumping at full throttle. The sound of pumps going can be heard on a regular basis from all properties.

We use an old T-shirt to filter away any debris from the pump. After 3 days or so the sludge is at the bottom of the tank and the water is clear.

When the tank is full everything is disconnected and taken away.