Month: June 2019

John’s wheels, Benji and the WaWa

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Took the dogs to the Wetlands this afternoon. The rain we have had over the last week has had  a reasonable effect but it still needs more to bring the ponds back to capacity. The boys were very good and walked well – like old pals, in fact. Pity they could not behave like that at home.  Still to be fair, it’s not the fault of Max – Benji is the culprit here and as I said, for some reason he does not like Max. On Sunday, Max went home.

I have just returned from a trip to Adelaide. My son’s car has “given up the ghost”so he needs a new car. He asked me to take him to Adelaide since there was nothing here that he liked.  There is only one car dealer here and private buys are a bit “dodgy”  I took him to a decent dealer, “Adelaide Auto Sales”at Mawson Lakes. We spent some time there looking at various SUV models and he finally settled on a Ford Territory. Personally I preferred the

John’s new Wheels

Sliver-Blue one, but he settled on the Black.  The reason for the SUV is the high clearance which on the back roads could get him out of any trouble a lot easier.  I had booked two hotel rooms but having got his vehicle, he decided he wanted to go home, so I led him back to the Port Wakefield Road and after a stop at Bolivar when I asked him to call me from Wakefield,  any other stop and to call me when he gets home. I went back into town and did some shopping before heading off to the hotel for the night. John called me from Wakefield, Tin Man and when he got home. I had intended to head out to Bunnings this morning but decided I would follow John and head for home. I started out at 6am expecting to be in Wakefield by  sunrise and continue the rest of the way in the daylight.  I did, of course, but it was not without its interesting moments. There is a lot of reconstruction and road works  at the bridge where the Northern Express branches off. It was dark, I was unaware of  the situation so I followed what I thought was the right traffic cone-lined lane and ended up on the Northern Expressway. My GPS, which I had programmed for home led me off the Express to the Penfield Road, exit then to Virginia and back to Highway A1 – The Port Wakefield Road,  and all of this was done in the dark and I don’t like driving at night. Still the Port Wakefield Road if a fairly large, well divided  four lane highway from Gepps Cross in Adelaide all the way to Port Wakefield and I generally  drive this in the dark to be in Wakefield for the sunrise  so that I can  continue by daylight. Wildlife on the Port Wakefield Road is unusual.

After my unscheduled  detour I drove directly to Port Wakefield and stayed there for  breakfast before heading off to the Tin Man.  I decided, since I had sufficient fuel,  not to stop and drove

Benji and Bowtie

directly to Port Augusta, did some shopping there and headed for home.  Crazy Benji went gaga and I eventually had to sit on the floor with him for a bit until he settled down. You would think I had been away for weeks instead of just a day and a half,.  After I emptied the car and sorted out my case, I took Benji out for a walk. That made him happy, just him and me together.  I actually do miss him when I am away. However, all being well, I wont be away again until August and then only for a day and a half.

I have been looking through some old photographs and I came across photographs of Kongsoon ( the WaWa) and oddly enough, I do miss her and wonder how she is. We never hear from them

The WaWa

so we’ll probably never know. Sad, but there you are.

Birthday, drug test and Max going home

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Sunday June 2nd, Today is our grandson’s 2nd Birthday. Last year we had a big Birthday Party and took over part of the local area park and the Barbecue Units. This year was very much low key with only family invited to the house for cake and presents. So much has happened in the last two years that the time has  just flown. Indeed, it’s almost time for the ladies to start work on organizing the Ladies Brunch, their main charity fundraiser for the year. This is always well advertised and generally well attended. This afternoon I completed  the posters for the function and gave them to Annabell.  Next she will give me a list of the addresses they have to be sent to and I’ll make  the address labels, then take down to the Post Office.  This is a long weekend for us ( Queen’s Birthday Weekend). On Monday we will still do the grocery shopping since the supermarkets are open even if everything else is closed. Son is still having problems with his car so he telephoned and asked if I could take him to work. As I said before, he works about 20 klms. out of town. Anyway, I picked him up at 6am this morning and was stopped at the Security gate for a random drug and alcohol test – and – since I was not an employee,  had to do an induction test  to be allowed to drive through the Steelworks site. They own all the land. All that done and we set off to his company and we were driving along at the 40kpm speed when he decided to tell me that this was the part of the dirt road where he had damaged his car –  “Oh but it’s been graded since then”  Well thanks John, I  really needed to know that. Made me feel so much better!  I really enjoyed  driving 40 kms at 30kph. Well, at least when they finished the drug and alcohol testing it was light, which was a bit better, wasn’t any warmer but at least there was light.  I picked him up again in the late afternoon and then took the car to the carwash and gave it a bath to get rid of any salt from the saltworks. The steelworks own all the land in that area and that borders the beginning of the land owned by the army for its play-pen, but there is only one road through and that’s through the steelworks site and aloingside the saltworks – hence the bath.  John’s place is right on the very edge of  the  army Play-Pen.  After  several years, farmers who farmed and kept sheep on that land are still fighting the Defence Force ( Fed. Govt) for  fair compensation for the Compulsory Purchase Order the Feds imposed on them. They left us a sliver of land for the Wild Dog Hill Conservation Park.

Wednesday: Was awake at 1:36 this morning. A thunderstorm exploded overhead, woke the dogs, which woke me. They started barking and  I had almost all the lights on and unsure of what was happening: the noise of the rain pounding down was incredible. Got the dogs settled down but it took me ages to get back to sleep – lying in bed and listening to the  heavy rain.  I slept until the alarm went off at 5:45 but it was still raining so no walk this morning. Of course, I was willing but those two went all woosie on me  :o)  Yes, it’s still “dogs” but Max will be going home either tomorrow,  (Thursday) or Friday. At

Giant Cuttlefish

the moment (7:20am) it is still raining although not quite so heavy.   Telephone call today and Max will not be going home until Sunday so we have him for three more days. Well, he’s been here for three weeks so we can manage three more days.

The Cuttlefish season is upon us again and I have to organize the volunteers for the catering for four dates – two at the end of this month and a further two at the start of the following month. I believe this is the last I shall be organizing  and we should ( better have!!) a new Secretary  after the AGM on1st July.  Will be quite a change but I feel it’s needed although I will still be doing some things until the new Secretary finds her feet and takes over everything. She’s a clever lady so that shouldn’t take her too long and I might see about me talking to the traders and getting her telephone number with them instead of mine, but we’ll see.  I have organized the Cuttlefish people so that’s ok – the next two dates will not be organized by me – at least, I hope not.