Getting Back To Normal
The fires are still burning, but at present aren't looming over me like a blazing tidal wave, so life is slowly getting back to normal.
I actually went into town for a short time day before yesterday - I wasn't game to while the fires were close to me as they could have changed for the worse at any moment and I wasn't about to leave my son and furkids in the house with no car to evacuate should we need to, so it was good to be able to stock up on some things we'd run low on and just get out for a while. Nothing terribly exciting, I know, but I felt like a prisoner walking out of gaol - lol!
I didn't stay out for long, but it was a relief and a pleasant break. In true contrary DL fashion, I saw a lounge suite that I'd really like (I've been looking for a new one for a while) but I've decided to hold off getting it for obvious reasons. It's always the way these things go, isn't it?
Buying new furniture when you could be back at Emergency status and perhaps evacuate a burning house isn't the best time to be refurnishing! If it's still there in a week and the fires are more contained I'll consider it. Trouble is, it's on special and is JUST what I've been looking for...*sigh*
Got some new garden hose to extend the ones I have and to replace sections of some of the older bits - with the property next door being empty from being burnt out about six weeks ago (yep! I'm not kidding you - not due to bushfires though) I found my hose wasn't up to the job of properly reaching far enough in there to take care of any ember fires etc. Now I can feel a bit more secure should I need to go on ember alert again.
Yesterday, spent some time with my son, who has a week off til his next exam, putting together what was supposed to be an 'easy assembly' self tipping wheelbarrow. It actually has four wheels and looks more like a kid's little red wagon, has a basic rack and pinion steering mechanism and will be a great help in the yardwork and ongoing fire prep. I'd bought it just before the fires broke out, so another piece of good timing.
Anyway, we finally got it together after over two hours of cursing - as is usually the case with 'easy assembly' things, nothing lined up and there were a couple of nuts and bolts missing. Luckily, I have a good store of such things, so we finally succeeded.
Did a bit of a tidy up around the yard and found the lawnmower has decided to not fire up, so today I'll be seeing what the problem is there - can't be having long grass around at the moment! I normally have a shadecloth sail between my verandah and my garage and shadecloth blinds around the back verandah itself, but they were taken down when the fires threatened, and I'm now contemplating on whether and when to put them back up and looking into possible more fire proof alternatives - I'm also looking into fire shutters or screens for the windows. It's been something I've been planning on doing this spring/summer anyway, so this has just gee'ed me along. Most of the renovations I'd planned on for this season were indoors, though, but I think they'll wait now. The high winds lifted some of the roofing on my garage so we'll have to get up there and re-secure that and seriously considering doing the paving I'd planned for next year and decided to put off planting some screening plants along my back fence - less grass, less shrubery, less fuel.
Other than all that, which is mainly assessing and planning, and a bit of pottering around, I've just found myself sleeping, napping and sleeping some more - I think I've caught up on most of it now. Not being a person who's ever needed more than 5 - 7 hours a night max, it's been a surprise to find myself able to do this.
I caught glandular fever (mononucleosis) off my son when I was nursing him through it last year and had a problem with fatigue attacks for a while after, and these are very similar. I know they can return when you've been under stress etc, so I'm hoping this won't be an ongoing thing, as we both thought we'd beaten it.
I guess the crisis took more out of us than we realised, but we both seem to have picked up a bit now and we'll just have to pace ourselves, eat well and try not to overdo it.
Thanks so much for the support during all of this - it was much appreciated and helped tremendously. Gigantic hugs go out to you all!
Apologies for the lack of cuts in my previous fire updates - LJ really mucked up at times and I was unable to do cuts, embed vids, posts wouldn't show - all sorts of things. It could have been the net from my end in some cases and I'll admit that at times I was so frazzled, I just forgot to do it too. I'm amazed we managed to have internet and all utilities through everything. The worst we had was we lost mobile phone coverage at times which, I'm assuming, was due to towers around the ridges being affected by the fire. Many areas lost electricity, but I was one of the lucky ones that had the odd brown out but no loss. Astounding, considering...
I actually went into town for a short time day before yesterday - I wasn't game to while the fires were close to me as they could have changed for the worse at any moment and I wasn't about to leave my son and furkids in the house with no car to evacuate should we need to, so it was good to be able to stock up on some things we'd run low on and just get out for a while. Nothing terribly exciting, I know, but I felt like a prisoner walking out of gaol - lol!
I didn't stay out for long, but it was a relief and a pleasant break. In true contrary DL fashion, I saw a lounge suite that I'd really like (I've been looking for a new one for a while) but I've decided to hold off getting it for obvious reasons. It's always the way these things go, isn't it?
Buying new furniture when you could be back at Emergency status and perhaps evacuate a burning house isn't the best time to be refurnishing! If it's still there in a week and the fires are more contained I'll consider it. Trouble is, it's on special and is JUST what I've been looking for...*sigh*
Got some new garden hose to extend the ones I have and to replace sections of some of the older bits - with the property next door being empty from being burnt out about six weeks ago (yep! I'm not kidding you - not due to bushfires though) I found my hose wasn't up to the job of properly reaching far enough in there to take care of any ember fires etc. Now I can feel a bit more secure should I need to go on ember alert again.
Yesterday, spent some time with my son, who has a week off til his next exam, putting together what was supposed to be an 'easy assembly' self tipping wheelbarrow. It actually has four wheels and looks more like a kid's little red wagon, has a basic rack and pinion steering mechanism and will be a great help in the yardwork and ongoing fire prep. I'd bought it just before the fires broke out, so another piece of good timing.
Anyway, we finally got it together after over two hours of cursing - as is usually the case with 'easy assembly' things, nothing lined up and there were a couple of nuts and bolts missing. Luckily, I have a good store of such things, so we finally succeeded.
Did a bit of a tidy up around the yard and found the lawnmower has decided to not fire up, so today I'll be seeing what the problem is there - can't be having long grass around at the moment! I normally have a shadecloth sail between my verandah and my garage and shadecloth blinds around the back verandah itself, but they were taken down when the fires threatened, and I'm now contemplating on whether and when to put them back up and looking into possible more fire proof alternatives - I'm also looking into fire shutters or screens for the windows. It's been something I've been planning on doing this spring/summer anyway, so this has just gee'ed me along. Most of the renovations I'd planned on for this season were indoors, though, but I think they'll wait now. The high winds lifted some of the roofing on my garage so we'll have to get up there and re-secure that and seriously considering doing the paving I'd planned for next year and decided to put off planting some screening plants along my back fence - less grass, less shrubery, less fuel.
Other than all that, which is mainly assessing and planning, and a bit of pottering around, I've just found myself sleeping, napping and sleeping some more - I think I've caught up on most of it now. Not being a person who's ever needed more than 5 - 7 hours a night max, it's been a surprise to find myself able to do this.
I caught glandular fever (mononucleosis) off my son when I was nursing him through it last year and had a problem with fatigue attacks for a while after, and these are very similar. I know they can return when you've been under stress etc, so I'm hoping this won't be an ongoing thing, as we both thought we'd beaten it.
I guess the crisis took more out of us than we realised, but we both seem to have picked up a bit now and we'll just have to pace ourselves, eat well and try not to overdo it.
Thanks so much for the support during all of this - it was much appreciated and helped tremendously. Gigantic hugs go out to you all!
Apologies for the lack of cuts in my previous fire updates - LJ really mucked up at times and I was unable to do cuts, embed vids, posts wouldn't show - all sorts of things. It could have been the net from my end in some cases and I'll admit that at times I was so frazzled, I just forgot to do it too. I'm amazed we managed to have internet and all utilities through everything. The worst we had was we lost mobile phone coverage at times which, I'm assuming, was due to towers around the ridges being affected by the fire. Many areas lost electricity, but I was one of the lucky ones that had the odd brown out but no loss. Astounding, considering...