We're The New Downtown

Bush camp has turned into Grand Central Station! It's so funny. Several friends have brought old caravans and lord knows what else to store out here (everyone in town is a bowerbird and their backyards are full), and people just drop by to sit in the tree house or to ask Gaz for a hand with something. In Meeka it's easier to just drive around to find who you're looking for - we hardly bother with the phone! When anyone needs me to do some Dingo Design work or wants to pay us, they just come out here. Tony gave us a huge antique bottle collection in return for letting him store some of his building materials here, and also gave us a couple of old solar panels & batteries - the Meeka barter system is wonderful.

The summer is starting to kick in - we've just ordered a seriously big diesel water-cooled industrial generator, having killed the others in the heat. This new one is designed for outback mine camps and is very fuel efficient, we need it to run the air conditioning (and the washing machine, I've had my fill of washing clothes by hand in the sink!). It should be arriving from Perth later this week. The solar runs everything but not the heavy duty stuff. We are still waiting on a serious offer on the house, once it goes through we can insulate this place and build the bedroom extension.

My flower planting is paying off, bees have been turning up and they've pollinated the tomato plants! This is what passes for excitement out here in the bush. The No. 28 parrots are here all the time now, eating the callistemon tree flowers, and Red Dog keeps bringing back half-dead lizards that he catches out on the flats. I try to rescue them, but most of the time he has them for breakfast.

Other than that, it's the same old same old - the Outback Races & Rodeo is on again next weekend, so the racecourse area is filling up with hosses and caravans, just like a little village. We're on brigade duty at the fireworks, the annual event where the visiting pyrotechnicians set fire to the bush surrounding the town oval and we run around putting it out, then eat the ghastly fat hot dogs from the dodgy food van & go home feeling sick. Good ol' fashioned town fun!