Letter: The Walking Wounded

Letter 24 / 1 / 84

Just a quick note to let you know that we are still okay.

The little one seems to be doing okay at about 12 weeks.

Alison has a slight cold, she is teething, I think.

James started kindy today - rather tearfully and apprehensively. He is recovering from a nasty boil on his shoulder.

Peter did his back in last week - he just happened to be closing the fridge door at the time. So in between giving him painkillers and rubbing liniment on his back, I suddenly find myself doing some of the heavier jobs around the place.

We are surviving.

Flying ducks

Yesterday one of our ducks suddenly flew. She did look surprised!

They always have a good flap when we let them out of their house into their run in the mornings, and this one just took off, honking and squawking with alarm ... and then found herself on the wrong side of the fence and tried to sieve herself back through.

So, yesterday, Peter trimmed their wings.

A lot of people here have been buying ducks and chicks through us - we now have six chicklings too, to James' delight.

Some of the ducks have got sick. One family put Aspro Clear in their water and they got well. Another family used a Vitamin C tablet with the same results.

We have now sold all of our drakes, only four ducks left - but still no eggs yet.

The all-important bung

On Saturday Peter took James fishing, and came back when the tide was really low.

Because of his bad back, he decided to anchor the boat and wait for the tide to bring it in a bit.

He woke up at 4am, suddenly remembering that not only would the tide have been in and out again by then, but he'd left the bung out of the boat.

Someone at church the next day told us they had found our boat with only the head of the motor above the water, and they had pulled it up for us.

The manual said if your motor gets submerged it must be serviced within three hours or else its had it. But we weren't sure how much it had been under water, and being Sunday we couldn't even try starting it. So we had to wait until Monday before we could find out that it still starts ok.

Hills Hoist

We have a new rotary clothes hoist!

Very commonplace to some people, but quite exciting to us!

The lines we had tied between the house and shed and shower/toilet were such a nuisance. They pulled the wall off the shed once, and several times broke resulting in all my carefully (hand-) scrubbed clothes landing in the dirt. And you always had to duck through rows of wet nappies and other washing to get to the toilet, shower, or duck pen.

We still can't help ducking when we go outside! But its great to have a rotary hoist now.

Police presence

Last week we had a visit from a couple of white policemen. There had been some 'trouble', breaking and entering to steal metho, and so the police had come to sort things out.

The detective from Cairns is a Presbyterian chap who goes to the same church as our friends the Hs in Cairns. He also went to Queensland Bible Institute, so it was fun to sit around and exchange Bible College Stories. With a 9 month old boy at home, he was rather taken with Alison. Peter was glad of a bit of white company on his fishing trips too. James was thrilled to have some 'uncles' around the place.

Late delivery

Last August (5 months ago) when we decided we might be up here for more than six months at a go we asked our friends in Cairns to buy a whole lot of things, including some cartons of skim milk powder. Since then boats have come and gone - some with mail and some without - and finally last week our last three parcels from that lot arrived.

Washing Day

With me having been sick, and Peter struggling with a bad back, we have quite a build-up of dirty washing ... and we have promised ourselves that today is THE DAY.

So, better get on with it.