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| Cataract River in Flood (Photo by Kim Wiseman) |
Monday 4th March, 2013 As I have already mentioned, Currawinya time is a lesson in patience. My next visit to the farm was to be last Friday 1st March, to spend the day mudding on Saturday 2nd. I had taken the trailer to the tip on Friday in the rain, to get rid of the results of the yard cleanup I had done back in November at our place near Lismore. Ridiculously, not only do I have the Forever House project to complete, but Jeff and I started extensions at our place in about August last year. We have a wonderful extended deck that was complete enough for fifteen family to be here for Christmas. And we have the roofed bones of an extension which will eventually be an open plan kitchen dining room. In amongst pacing my self with the Forever House completion, I will be chipping away here too doing my bit to get this house built and painted.
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| Our fantastic verandah ready for Christmas 2102 |
The trailer had to be emptied so that I could put the mud mixer in it to take out to the farm. And then I thought, with all this rain maybe I should check how things are out at the farm. A couple of weeks earlier I had rung Dave, the most recent Currawinyan to move out to his share with his wife Gabbi, to talk to him about my brainwave that he could work with me on my place and be paid for it of course. He said he was happy to take on whatever work he could to assist me to meet my October 2014 deadline. We made an arrangement to meet on Saturday 2nd March to discuss my ideas and check in with him the how what and when of it. So on Friday I rang Stan first to see how they were all fairing out there. He sounded pretty stressed really - he had been flooded in for a week and a half and when I was speaking to him he was busy trying to sheet the shed wall to keep the rain out. He is on the Western side of the Cataract River, and I am on the Eastern side. Dave and Gabbi and Brian Beetson are also on the western side - and when the Cataract comes up, and the Clarence beyond that they are all on an island - unable to get out other than by helicopter should the need arise. There have been stories of helicopters taking people out, and doing food drops over the years.
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| Cataract River near Daphne and Stan's (K.Wiseman photo) |
Poor Stan was on his own because Daff was in Qld having an op and couldn't get back because of the flooding. Dave Gab Brian and Stan had been looking out for each other and tramping between each others places for the odd lunch and to assist each other. Daff has an amazing vegetable garden, and Gab and Dave have done wonders in their garden in a short space of time, so with the stores of dry and tinned food they all keep on hand, they weren't going to starve.
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| Half of one of the Kitchen Windows I am making for home |
Suffice to say, there was no point in me venturing out there to the farm to do my mudding - I probably wouldn't get past Emu Creek on the way out along Pretty Gully Road anyway, and then Yellow Creek on our driveway in would have been impassable as well. So I decided to do something proactive towards the home extension - and did some stained glass for one of the kitchen windows. I am doing a pretty simply designed series of windows around the new extension. Leaving clear glass to enjoy the outside, but making sure there is colour for the sun to shine through and brighten up my days. I do love coloured glass - I quite like simple designes - it is the colour that I am most interested in, and the satisfaction of creating what I think are items of beauty.
I also put together some pre-cut and copper-foiled pieces of glass that were intended for making earrings at some point - they are now a mobile which I will post to a brand new little bundle called Eva - she makes me a stepnana and my kids Uncle and Aunty,
The next date I can get to the farm is the 23rd March. We have a Currawinya General meeting that day so I hope the weather is on my side to get out there for the weekend and make some mud. In between times I will revisit the tip where I saw a couple of gorgeous old solid timber doors - one may become the front door of the Forever House, the other I may put glass in and sell.
The trailer had to be emptied so that I could put the mud mixer in it to take out to the farm. And then I thought, with all this rain maybe I should check how things are out at the farm. A couple of weeks earlier I had rung Dave, the most recent Currawinyan to move out to his share with his wife Gabbi, to talk to him about my brainwave that he could work with me on my place and be paid for it of course. He said he was happy to take on whatever work he could to assist me to meet my October 2014 deadline. We made an arrangement to meet on Saturday 2nd March to discuss my ideas and check in with him the how what and when of it. So on Friday I rang Stan first to see how they were all fairing out there. He sounded pretty stressed really - he had been flooded in for a week and a half and when I was speaking to him he was busy trying to sheet the shed wall to keep the rain out. He is on the Western side of the Cataract River, and I am on the Eastern side. Dave and Gabbi and Brian Beetson are also on the western side - and when the Cataract comes up, and the Clarence beyond that they are all on an island - unable to get out other than by helicopter should the need arise. There have been stories of helicopters taking people out, and doing food drops over the years.
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