Heat Wave, Flooding Rains & Re-building Harry Transit

4 - 27 January:  Time to get down to business and start stripping and re-building Harry Transit our 1980 Mk2.  Our old neighbour Mick from Redcliffe, sent us down some materials bought from his suppliers and Danny got stuck into paint scaping, with a bit of help from me, cutting out rust, re-building using an old bbq lid and bogging.  Meanwhile, I kept myself busy with onion weeding the vege garden and then spreading sugar cane mulch.  I also tidied up the front garden (weeds & grass were creeping back in) and scattered some mulch there too.
We took our Foxiehuahua, Fuggles to the vet for desexing ( I told her she was going to a Day Spa!) and our neighbour here, Ray, helped fashion an Elizabethan collar made from a large yoghurt container, so she wouldn't lick her stitches.  Ray has been a real legend, loaning us his ute many times to go into town for food and van restoration supplies.

When I was at the vet, one of the ladies who worked there recognised my name on the diary and it was my old actor mate, Mark's wife Kate.
It turns out:  they live at Half Way Creek, about 50mins from here on 100acres.  So Mark came out one Saturday to say Gidday and promised he would be back soon with his family.
But before that happened, we had a heat wave for a few days:  42 degrees was the top and so we had to work early in the morning and late in the arvo/early evening to get anything done in the garden or on the van.  But finally it rained.  Just a little bit.  So we got some more done on Harry:  I used an old telephone book to mask up his windows, while Danny got serious with the orbital sander.  I had a run in, literally with one of the chilli bushes in my eye.  Luckily it didn't burn, just scratched it which was a annoying and throbbed for a few hours.  Fuggles recovered well from her surgery with help from the garden:  aloe vera.  Ray suggested it - he could write a book on Bush Remedies (and many other subjects!).  He's great for a yarn and cup of black tea.
So Australia Day was looming and so was heavy rain and talk of floods.  Mark, Kate and their daughter Maya came for a BBQ yesterday and we had a paddle in the river, home-made rissoles and some salad from the garden.  It's very cool to have long, lost friends living in the area.  Especially since we have decided to stay here for 2013.  Yes, Keith has had his nose tarped and has put down roots next to the Guest House here.  Danny applied for and got into a course at the Grafton Tafe:  Diploma of Screen & Media and I even applied for one:  Information, Digital Media and Web Technologies.  Don't know if I got in yet.  I also put my resume into a couple of businesses for some admin work.  So, we pulling up stumps for a while as they say. 

One of the neighbours, Polly just popped in, dressed in shorty dungaree overalls and gumboots and told us " the bridge is out".  So, we might get some flooding here from the river over the next couple of days.  We already pulled up the pump pipe and Danny took the pump on the tractor to the shed.  Hopefully water doesn't come into the house.  It has before, but only once. 
Even with the heat and the flooding rains, we are lovin' bush living.  Yee-haa!