Assorted Visitors

A little honeyeater was hanging upside down from the verandah rafters, eyeing the pool - how to get in? I need to build a bird bath. I have wagtails, honeyeaters and peewees all gasping in the heat, looking for water. There's temporary bird water in a styrofoam esky lid; they also hang off the end of the outdoor taps trying to get droplets. A beautiful little juvenile kingfisher was practising flying and got itself tangled up in the shadecloth! We tried to get a photo but it was too quick. It made it out to its tree OK. What are kingfishers doing in the desert? At Overlander last year in the hottest part of the year, entire flocks of budgies were dropping dead in the heat - there are photos of them somewhere, hundreds of poor little dead birds. The heat now is just ferocious.

Jerry appeared out of nowhere and stayed for a swim & a cold drink; while we were sitting in the pool, a tiny frog swam out from under the lip of the pool and sat on his shoulder! Locals tell me I shouldn't have any problems with snakes with animals living at the house, but god. The water attracts everything. One morning I'll wake up with a mob of hot thirsty camels, dingoes, mallee fowl, eagles and grey nomads all fighting over the pool.

Boy has moved in! Cameron gave him a beauty bath before bringing him round, so of course the first thing he did (Boy, not Cameron) was roll in the grey water runoff which is really stinky, then tried to get into the house. We hosed him off and he looked really tragic. He's a lovely dog, year and a half old, a real outback critter and a big sook. He seems very happy here so far. Honey is insanely jealous of course. Will see how he gets on with Smokey.

Cameron is wildly overexcited about the blind date and has even organised for Gary to come and pick me up (it's only three blocks to the pub but it's 45 degrees and just ROASTING). Kev and Ray were here starting on the fence and they too have been absolute gems, I adore them. They too had lots of gruesome tales of blokes dying in the desert. "Found im the next day and the eagles & bungarras 'ad 'ad a good feed on 'im."

Noel came by with the big freight truck with my fencing panels and also went out of his way to help me get them loaded into the yard. So I feel very looked after! Gave Cameron a bottle of Bundy rum to say thank you for all the TLC and he was chuffed. "Thanks mate!" "No worries mate!"

I start fire brigade callouts after New Year. It's hard to organise formal training for everyone, so they just throw you in on the action & train you on the job. Attending car & truck crashes is a big part of the job. "Thump em, pump em, whack a neck brace on em, you'll be right."