Elly May At Home

Elly May at home at Ochre Ridge

Well, the reason for the gap in the traffic is because we are at home. Normally, we would be making the money we need to take off again, but there are other issues at present.

Friends who have disastrous accidents affect all around them, and at present we have a mate in trouble. This means his partner needs to be the breadwinner until normal service is restored, and that means Zan is working one or two days a month. I am cutting back to look at retirement so money is tight; a pension we applied for fell through because they took figures from last year when we were both earning far more, so we have to do it all again.  Meantime, a hiatus. A halt. A bump in the road.

Home maintenance is on the list, including my best skills and my proven ability to stuff up things along the way. Normal? Yes, yes, yes, but crikey, a person can only tolerate so much bungle before beginning to think (and to seriously wish) that a caravan is less likely to be so demanding.

Air-Con surgery. Very pricey.

Cracked at the base, right through
the collar as well.

I have fixed the down-pipe, left, essential for collecting our precious rainwater, that I cracked while fixing the trellis and the gate. And the hot water service, which mysteriously began to flash ominous signals of impending financial depletion. That got fixed because Rheem, bless their souls, has put all their operation manuals on-line, so I could look up model, serial number here, and get the necessary information there. No plumber was needed, a saving of half a thousand dollars minimum; then the down-pipe saga, potentially another similar figure. We are still waiting for the final judgement on how much Arcom can possibly charge us for yet another soft-start switch on the Air-Con.  The plumber mercifully split the bill into Labour and Parts.
Today we had 5mm of precious rainwater, something to celebrate when our cousins in Qld have been coping with 300mm to several metres of floodwater.
What of Elly May?  Well, we had an infestation of Argentinian ants. Tiny, so small they escape the notice of many, these pest love electrical low-voltage things. Solar lights, outside panels, gadgets; they appeared in the van and promptly colonised a light fitting. So I baited them with a  2l Port box of plonk. Well, only about 100ml was left, but they took the offer, and Fix-Ant and Port lured them and killed 'em stone(d) dead!
Otherwise, we are keeping the garden alive and reaping the fruit crops, and planning (that's WORK) the next few days at...  maybe at Moonta Bay. Maybe raiding friends there a bit. Might even get a day's boat fishin' in.  Maybe.